Unemployment is up....

18 April 2013

....Sadly, but if you look deeper there is some good news....

There are more women in work, an increase of 54,000 bringing the numbers up to a record high of nearly 14 million. While part-time employment fell by 62,000 there was an increase in full-time jobs by 60,000 and the total hours worked in the economy has risen from 945 million to over 948 million per week.

Up until the last couple of months unemployment has actually fallen since 2010 and we have discussed a number of reasons why the usual recessionary trend has been bucked. This rise though is not a surprise and was forecast by the ONS.

It all underlines the reasons why we need the supply side reforms that I have often spoken about. Tax cuts, specially the punitive higher rates and tax reform with low simple taxes are part of the solution to get the economy on a more sustainable footing and onto a growth trajectory. Making it easier, cheaper and less risky to employ people will also encourage firms to grow and invest. Faster and deeper cuts to public spending are also needed to reduce the burden holding back businesses.

The coalition has not done enough in this way to encourage growth and therefore they are prolonging our economic woes.

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One final comment on the passing of Baroness Thatcher.

Yesterday was an appropriate send off for this great lady and, thankfully, it went off without disruption. I was most impressed by Mrs T's granddaughter, Amanda, just age 19 and so composed addressing the great and good with her Texas drawl. Perhaps a Thatcher will one day be the first woman president of the USA.......

The British have their legends of great leaders returning to save our country. If threatened by the Spanish it is said that Drake's Drum will beat and Sir Francis Drake will return to save us, or that King Arthur will return from Avelon if we are threatened again by the Danes.... Maybe if we are ever again threatened by the rise of socialism or the Unions, Mrs Thatcher will return to save us.... Until then Mrs T - Rest In Peace....thank you for all you have done for us even though there are some who will never have the wisdom or wit to see it.

Guest 710 wrote:
The twenty-first century, the age of the smug?
Guest 725 wrote:
And who will save us from David Cameron? That husky hugging fool who has not one single idea which might take measures which might lead to growth. He's so off target on these matters He wouldn't be able to throw a shoe over a pub.
He's still clinging onto his hairbrained schemes to save the planet and treats this as His number one priority leaving plans for real growth to wither and die. Thatcher would have considered He a committed liberal and would never have sanctioned his membership of any cabinet She might have put together.
He's about as useful to the Conservative party as Milliband is to labour.
Oh! don't get Me wrong - He's pretty good on talking the talk, able to pontificate in a smooth and professional manner when confronted by television cameras much as Tony Blair was able to.
Utterly useless.
Brian Dixon wrote:
tine for an imf plan b job.
Guest 696 wrote:
Sadly, Barry, the Government is issuing orders to employ all Romanians and Bulgarians when they come, so that no-one can say they are "living off benefits".
Finding a job now for a Brit will be a hopeless endeavor.

Spare bedroom flats are being made vacant for them when they come.
Guest 655 wrote:
What a very strange thing to say Alexander.

To suggest that we are such a controlled economy that the government 'can order' businesses to employ certain people is simply untrue. Thankfully the government does not have that power and if it tried to do that then it would be tied up in all sorts of court action over discrimination and in this case rightly so.

Your imagination running wild again Alexander.
Guest 725 wrote:
Barry, either You are in denial that the Tories have been exposed as a busted flush or perhaps worse still You still have faith in the party. Either way, like the mindset of the extreme left, You continue to blindly follow the pronouncements and edicts from on high and repeat them like a mantra.
This, just when another credit ratings agency have lowered the credit status of the UK.
There are only a few MPs' in the Conservative party worth their salt, Peter Lilley to name but one. As for the rest of them I consider them to be worthless in terms of putting the country before their received ideology or trickle down politics. They are nothing but lobby fodder.
All this talk of Thatcher, Drake and King Arthur does nothing but highlight the fact that the Tories have no vision but can only hark back to the good old days of yore.
Still obsessed with saving the planet (see here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12954 ) at the expense of the economy.
Watch the video and think what might have been
Guest 655 wrote:
PhilipP - I repeat nothing 'from on high', I am critical of Osborne, I am also consistent.

I do know a thing or two about economics and whatever Labour may think 1 plus 1 will always equal 2. The only mantra I repeat is that of sound economics over political expediency. Ultimately it is sound economics that will benefit the country, not political expediency.