GROWTH GROWTH GROWTH THE ECONOMY

You should try working in the private sector - there you get a payrise if the company can afford it, not because it's 'fair'.

A lot of people worked hard though the pandemic - there was nothing particularly special about doctors and nurses. The fact is that productivity in the public sector (unlike the private sector) has fallen, so reform and chnages in working practices are desperately needed to ensure that the taxpayer gets value for money.

In fact the public sector workforce had a pretty easy pandemic - they didnt lose any money or were at risk of losing their jobs. Unlike hundreds of thousands in the private sector.

I believe its straight forward, you either give NHS workers a fair and reasonable pay rise or face more problems with staff shortages and recruitment problems.

I am of the opinion that most people want our NHS to be back to how it was before David Cameron became Prime Minister, working and functioning properly, with relatively low waiting lists, and where you did not worry about calling an ambulance or suffer because you cannot get a GP appointment for 2 weeks.

Most people want to see the NHS repaired, and that starts with implementing policies designed to help staff recruitment and retention. THey fully deserve the recent pay deal, and we are all going to be better off for it.

There's a thing called the Public Pay Review Body (PRB) that independently reviews what pay rise (if any) people in the public sector should get. There's no guarantee that their pay will be maintained on any level. What they do is attempt to make sure that public sector pay isn't distorting the market and making it impossible for the private sector to employ people at a viable wage. Unfortunately the various unions in the public sector have taken to just striking if they don't get what they want.

The fact is that the public sector are generally reasonably well paid when you take into account all the factors - such as pension provision and job security which are very good in the public sector. In fact the cost of building up their pension "pot" to provide the type of defined benefit income they usually have is roughly equivalent to their paying no income tax whatsoever. 

This is something that the unions never take into account, but over the years the cost of providing a decent pension has rocketed. To provide an average income at 65 you need over a million pounds now. And not many people save that kind of money.  

Really


UK business confidence remained at an almost nine-year high in August, a closely-watched survey has suggested, in a positive sign for the country’s economic prospects.

Lloyds Bank’s Business Barometer put overall business confidence at 50 per cent this month, unchanged from July and the highest level since November 2015.

The reading was well above the long-term average of 29 per cent, which it has remained above for the last 15 months.

The survey suggested that positive sentiment among firms about their output expectations was broadly steady. Trading prospects ticked down two points from July to 54 per cent, although this figure is still the second-highest recorded so far this year.

Output expectations for each sector remained at or close to three-year highs. Construction experienced the biggest increase with a 14-point jump to 58 per cent.

Meanwhile, manufacturing dropped two points to 58 per cent. Retail and services fell seven and three points respectively, to 53 per cent.

Businesses’ optimism about the economy as a whole rose two points to 47 per cent, continuing the upward trend recorded throughout 2024.

“As in July, we’ve seen a particularly strong outcome for business confidence,” said Hann-Ju Ho, a senior economist at Lloyds.

“Official GDP data for the first half of this year was encouraging and the survey results indicate that solid economic performance will likely continue as we move into the second half of the year.”

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK economy grew 0.6 per cent in the second quarter of the 2024, continuing its strong rebound from last year’s shallow recession.

Falling inflation also gave the Bank of England confidence to cut interest rates for the first time since March 2020 at the start of this month.

Lloyds’ survey suggested good news on inflation. Firms’ price expectations decreased for the second time in three months, with 58 per cent planning to raise prices in the next year – down from 60 per cent in July.

lol.

Ah - an opinion poll. Lets just wait and see what actually happens in the real economy rather than putting out the bunting over an opinion poll..