Is it an interpreting graphs thing? IT seems to go on a lot round here. Unless you think Osborne's policies influenced the French, Germans and Italians.

It is interesting to note that all these moderator types who spend so much time on here all have left wing views and seem to know a lot about under-employment. I wonder why? How many are public servants? How many are employed? and if so do their employers know they are moonlighting?



All the signs are for the recovery to continue. We have just had the biggest upward revision of growth in an official forecast for 14 years as I previously reported (OBR's jump from 0.6% to 1.4% and forecast 2.4% for 2014) Business optimism has been even stronger with the three main sectors of the economy - services, manufacturing and construction - are showing the strongest pick-up since the mid 1990s when the economy was recovering strongly.

So clearly Osborne has stuck to his plan despite all his many critics demanding he change direction. His austerity policy is now proven to be clearly working and bearing fruit and he has won the intellectual economic policy argument over Labour with their borrow and spend and others with the Keynesian dogma.



See my piece above (and previous comments) about what Buster Brown & Ed Balls-up left behind. The economy had dived 7.2% in 2008/9 and any improvement prior to the 2010 election should not be taken as a "growing economy" You are deluding yourself if you think otherwise.




Because there are those that agree with my points does not make them followers or indeed fakes. You seem obsessed and I could perhaps take you more seriously if you stopped being so personal.



Ok then lets have some details on your "different more logical economic policy"



The eurozone crisis started before the UK election.

January 2010: The worlds biggest bond trader warned "the UK's debt was resting on a bed of nitroglycerine". Official figures confirmed that Britain had emerged from recession by the narrowest of margins.

April 2010: the govenor of the BoE warned that the victor in the imminent election will be forced into austerity measures that will keep the party out of power for a generation.

April 2010: First bail out for Greece

June 2010: Euro sinks to 4 year low

August 2010: British exports to Portugal, Itlay, ireland, Greece & Spain plunge by 16%

etc etc etc


[urlhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/interactive/2012/oct/17/eurozone-crisis-interactive-timeline-three-years[/url

What nonsense. See my points above.

So its a blog and it writer has an opinion, but those opinions are linked to facts (within the article) provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility which is basically Osbornes mentors, have a read at the stats they came out with this week which seem, unusually, to have been hidden quite well by the ho-hah over the employment figures, possibly because these figures are not as optimistic.

[urlhttp://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/the-rise-of-the-hardworking-poor/[/url

Doesn't really matter what your political opinions are, if you can read a graph you can ignore the rhetoric and decide for yourself whether or not wages are keeping pace with economic growth or past projections - they aren't by the way.

Personally I'm of a mind to agree with the last paragraph ...




No amount of selfish "Well I'm ok" or "Well work harder" or "Well get another job" can alter the facts.

Osborne and Cameron and the Libs did have plans and put them into action and to their great credit have steadfastly refused to change or compromise in the face of the huge opposition from Labour and the leftie chattering classes. Their policy has now been proven to be working despite several strong outside forces that have delayed the results from showing earlier. But with a new election on the horizon why should we forget the economic mess that was left by Labour? And why should we forget Labour's opposition to every single move the government has made to recify our economy and we should not forget either Labour's runinous alternative policy?

You cannot expect real income to improve quickly after such a serious crisis. The fact that so many new jobs have been created is a big step in the right direction. Once confidence and growth return then productivity then profits and then income will then have a chance to increase.

Does uncertainty multiply exponentially? There are a lot of known unknowns in there. As well as unmeasurables.


Really?

Why not? Gideon's plans are "proven to be clearly working". If he's that good, why are incomes not improving as fast for non-MPs?


So only if a company starts making a profit, they might be able to pay more in wages? And not more to shareholders? And the costs of producing the goods and services don't already include the cost of wages? And of course no bosses in a private company will ever just carry on with the same wages for staff while filling up the Bentley with the increased company income.

We already know these figures, the numbers are in the papers almost every day.

I'm not subsidising any employer, they employ people on a salary, if governments choose to bump up this salary with "free" money then that's their shout and will be reflected in my thoughts come election day.

Why would employers take on more staff when there are people willing to work the extra for time and a half/double time?
The name "zero hour contracts" may not have existed but I bet the practice did, did bar staff in the local Lib/Lab/Con club have cast iron contracts guaranteeing work? How many shop assistants? I know when I worked in a bar, a long time ago, I didn't. I had 2 pencilled in shifts, Sunday 1:30-3:00 (didn't get paid for the bottling up) and Thursday 7:30-11:00 (no bottling up). This could change on the day depending on the needs of the landlady. To be fair, it was usually asking me to come in early to cover, usually Friday afternoon.
I'm almost certain there are, the population is aging, the health of the population increases people stay active longer, (I've just left my dad on scaffolding painting the side of a house, he's pushing 70).
Why are people working longer? Need money? Like to do something? Escape the spouse?

Hog jobs?


Did they plan to almost close the plant? Funny you should mention agency work, VW in Germany recently announced an intake of agency staff in Germany.


Then the employees hold the whip hand.

Why are people fixated with retiring at an arbitray age - such as 65? If I live that long and am fit enough I'd like to work until at least 75. I'd be happy greeting people at B&Q or whatever. Why not?

Its what the opposition does, its what every opposition party does, there wouldn't be any point in an opposition party if all they did was agree with the government.

But heres the thing - they may object in parliament but it doesn't mean that they wouldn't have done exactly the same thing themselves in the same situation - thats the luxury of being in opposition, you can object and sneer at the governing party all you like and yet offer no alternative or solution or even offer some credible advice - its where the parliamentary party system fails.

Was accidentally reading Osbornes reaction to the bailing out of the banks in 2008, he criticised Darling and Brown for giving any assistance to any bank and blamed everything on Labours economic policies and their wasteful use of public money in those policies - as was his right - yet he offered no suggestion as to what he would have done, nor has he since, as is his right.

I'm expecting nothing, I'm just highlighting how the predictions have failed so miserably over several years and how revision follows revision just as Spring follows Winter...

There's a limit to the number of smilies permitted, so I'll stick with two

Yes you do seem to have a problem with it.
No I don't. I think their economies were affected by a Euro fiscal problem within the Eurozone that required billions of Euros to bail out some of their monetary partners. Fortunately we didn't have that problem as we stayed with the pound. There's a reason it was called a Eurozone crisis.

If you think it affected the UK that badly, how do you explain the fact that UK exports kept increasing during that period?
Not to mention why consumer confidence, business confidence etc would fall so quickly after the Coalition coming into power despite rising just before?

Firstly I am a Tory voter and I will always vote that way - damage limitation in my opinion. The idea that we are in recovery is just fantasy IMO. I do think there is the beginnings of a better feeling but it is the beginnings IMO and it will take several months.

I think your appraisal of a manufacturing supply chain is way off the mark for the majority of businesses. Supply chain planning is one of the most difficult jobs in any organisation and a challenge that even the best - Apple - have not mastered. Even simple supply chains are complex.

The idea that there is no case for labour flexibility - zero hour contracts are a no-no for me - because planning is so easy is so far from reality that it is obvious you know very little about supply chain and manufacturing.

Yes, I know, in my defence I didn't say they were accurate.

:1ume0l2zWere we shipping stuff overseas for more money?
Still, i'm sure it's just another crazy, crazy coincidence that the general trend was for export increase despite the economic fall/collapse in the Eurozone like in the UK. It's almost like they're linked.
France
:1ume0l2z
Germany
:1ume0l2z
Italy
:1ume0l2z
Euro Area

So yeah, in the "Real World" where only right wingers do any hard work?


And we've just had some very big downward revisions, not to mention the growth figures are still small, as welcome as they are. Business and consumer confidence were also strong just before the 2010 election. Government policies put paid to that.


That's it, just say it again and it might come true. Think happy thoughts and you might reach Neverland too.


Yes, we've seen what they left behind, an economy growing with virtually all economic indicators in a positive direction. The Chancellor that compared us to Greece and told us to follow Ireland's example and his government's policies turned that around.


Where have I been personal? He is quite clearly an additional account setup by someone already banned or who wants a different persona.
The only one getting personal on here is you with your rather silly attempts at pretending that only the right wingers have jobs.


One that doesn't destroy consumer and business confidence. One that used Britain's record low borrowing rates to invest and get people into work. Creating a virtuous cycle of employment and consumer spending. Pretty much the opposite to the Coalition policy.


Interesting which bits you omitted from there isn't it. Like the one in December 2009 where George Osborne thinks we're like Greece. Or the bit where it mentions the UK had emerged from recession, ie the economy was growing. The graphs prove any effects of the Eurozone were later than when the UK suffered its economic dip, unless somehow the UK was affected earlier than countries actually in the Eurozone.

You can continue to just keep saying "austerity is working" over and over again if you want. You started with that and seems like you're sticking to that tactic even after 19 pages. But it doesn't make it true, 3+ years of a flat economy (in real terms -3.3%) prove that it didn't work. As mentioned by others, if you wait long enough of course the economy will come back on its own, its what you do in the mean time that shows what kind of government you are. The fact is this government did little to nothing to help mitigate the effects of the crash and their policies on the people of this country and took the opportunity to defund public services whilst privatising others.
However the biggest criticism I reserve for this government (aside from the attacks on welfare & public services) is the shameful, disgraceful cut in investment. The last thing a weak economy needs is for government to cut back on investment and that's exactly what they did. Down to negative net figures.

Thanks for proving that exports increased, saved me a job.

Yes, they increased. They increased all over the Eurozone. Why was this despite the economic slow down?

Because they were coming from a low base and other markets were sought to export to.
All evidence to show UK exports weren't unduly affected by the Eurozone problems, as was claimed. Again, thanks for proving my point for me.

I wasn't asking about the UK, why were Eurozone exports up despite the Eurozone economic problems?

The only thing proved is the choppy economic conditions in the Eurozone, our largest trading partner, was mirrored over here. By the way, which of these coalition policies caused this choppiness?

The entire context of the discussion was around how the Eurozone problems had affected the UK economy. It was claimed exports had been hit by it. Obviously that isn't the case.
If you want to now change the entire discussion to be about the Eurozone then personally I'd say that deserves another thread.
Even so, the answer is still the same.

Who claimed exports had been hit by it?

1.6 million jobs created since the coalition came into office. Did someone mention job creation....