General Election 2019

this observer 'guide' is absolutely worthless. e.g. it is recommending the SNP in east lothian (a LAB-held seat with a 3k majority) and it was recommending the SNP in kirkcaldy... but there's no SNP candidate in that seat as they were withdrawn due to antisemitism

velocio guide looks broadly sensible from a few constituencies I plugged in (e.g. kensington, east lothian, glasgow seats) tho would prefer if it recommended LAB in the SNP/LAB marginals. easier to get a LAB govt (and kick the tories out) if they don't have to make concessions to the SNP. (think westminster and finchley should be LAB recommendations too). I'd probably recommend SNP (over LAB) in glasgow south because the candidate is 🤮

Doesn't the UK have some of the lowest productivity in Europe?

Yes. But one of the highest employment rates.

Swings and roundabouts. See France.

I read an interesting article a while back explaining why the idea of full employment and high productivity is impossible. I'll have a hunt for it.

Also in light of climate change issues is increased productivity actually desirable?

those employment rates are artificially inflated though

and yes, increased productivity is desirable because it means we can return some of those gains in productivity to workers in the form of time (i.e. not in increased wages or, worse, shareholder dividends)

Productivity (if you measure it properly) is always good.

How much of the low productivity is due to people posting on lfgss / mumsnet / pistonheads all day instead of working?

Joke obvs

You can’t have full employment and maintain the incentive to ‘do a good job’ (AKA not getting fired)? To maintain productivity employers need to have good applicants. They’re somewhat reliant on a constant pool of jobseekers.

I don’t think the answer is increased unemployment ... more that we need to completely overhaul the quality, speed and access to adult education and training. ‘Connectivity’ (public transport, web access etc) impacts the spread of the net for applicants. Even housing matters. Those reliant on social assistance won’t move for a job if there is high risk of not being able to plug the gap between housing benefit and the real rent cost. There is no housing pool.

Sorting these also happen to be a good way to increase productivity :)

How much of the low productivity is due to people posting on lfgss / mumsnet / pistonheads all day instead of working?

in my case its 90%+

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I don't think anyone could claim that that money was anything but an investment in our shared cultural heritage though.

Ha - my ninja edit of the snarkiness wasn't quick enough. Sorry ;)

I feel targeted

Was reading the latest version of this ongoing review of the polls:
https://twitter.com/centrist_phone/status/1203719501881188354?

and found this LSE forecast in the comments, is interesting
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ge2019-pm-and-the-pendulum/

No chance, that’s got to be Spain.
I’ve just come back from somewhere near Stoke which was very Tory, it was weird.

No chance, that’s got to be Spain

You'd be surprised. Spain isn't the lowest by some way in terms of GDP per hours worked. It's also actually quite close to the UK in terms of Euros produced by hours worked. Something like 30 euros to our 38 euros.

random image off the internet

Nice. Just rechecked my source and my (roughly remembered) figures were from 2012. Wonder why Spanish productivity has increased? Anyway...the king of derails is going to step away from this thread.

In a modern economy the main determinant of labour productivity is the amount of investment there is backing up each job. In UK ten years of austerity and stagnant or declining real wage levels have provided no incentive for investment to become more productive. Consumer spending is dropping away and is propped up by unsustainable personal debt. Add in the brexit effect and it's a wonder we haven't sunk into the lowest category.

Checking again for my hidden Irish ancestry.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-candidates-antisemitism-boris-johnson-suspension-investigation-a9237291.html

Ireland “looks” productive because Ireland “looks like” (is) a corporate tax haven.

One of the reasons why gdp/hours worked isn’t a great measure of productivity by itself.

ian dunt has really shown his arse in this election

Did lol.

https://twitter.com/skynewsniall/status/1203702533589520387?s=19

.

Brick Lane Bikes getting airtime on this Momentum vid, 1.20 on.

https://www.facebook.com/763193973/posts/10158515559803974/?sfnsn=scwspmo&d=n&vh=e