Enough is Enough

[paulfromcamden]

You win higher wages for union members through industrial action and organise workers who aren’t unionised. You put pressure on government so that they put pressure on employers.

Fair enough. I can see that working in some cases. I'm just not sure it's going to apply to enough people to bring sufficient change.

My employer has just gone through a round of lay offs because they're £2m in the hole - largely because of covid. We've been warned more jobs will probably go in the autumn. I'd say the chances of anyone there getting a 10-15% pay rise were about zilch.

 

[andyoz]

Quite. We’ve simply had too loose monetary policy for too long. Here we are indeed. We’ve never had a period of high inflation when IR’s haven’t at least matched the inflation rate. Of course, it’s different this time.

Inflation has been capped for decades due to cheap goods from China, etc. and generally a happy Global love-in where energy resources were 'shared about'. It was always a powder keg ready to go off and it has. Central Bankers deluded themselves that 'they' were actually controlling inflation FFS.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I guess by extension the Etonians - NB not Old Etonians - that the Twitteree was cross about are in fact residents of Eton, or at least current pupils at the school.

I’d definitely consider voting for a party called EiE if they could find a way of adding an extra iO to their name.

Enough is Enough, it's Over - led of course by 'old' John McDonnell

 

[Seanm]

Quite. We’ve simply had too loose monetary policy for too long. Here we are indeed. We’ve never had a period of high inflation when IR’s haven’t at least matched the inflation rate. Of course, it’s different this time.

Can you think of any unusual recent events.

The good news for Ponty is that the BoE appear to share his belief that recession and unemployment are the only way to deal with the cost of living crisis. Which is of course bad news for those who aren’t asset-rich.

 

[droodzilla]

Fair enough. I can see that working in some cases. I'm just not sure it's going to apply to enough people to bring sufficient change.

My employer has just gone through a round of lay offs because they're £2m in the hole - largely because of covid. We've been warned more jobs will probably go in the autumn. I'd say the chances of anyone there getting a 10-15% pay rise were about zilch.

It's not going to happen overnight. But it will never happen if we don't even try.

The wealthy have been fighting a "class war" for decades and, by God, they're winning!

The left need a similarly long-term strategic vision to reverse the trend.

A few short or medium-term tactical gains would also be nice.

 

[Seanm]

Fair enough. I can see that working in some cases. I'm just not sure it's going to apply to enough people to bring sufficient change.

My employer has just gone through a round of lay offs because they're £2m in the hole - largely because of covid. We've been warned more jobs will probably go in the autumn. I'd say the chances of anyone there getting a 10-15% pay rise were about zilch.

Hopefully employers will in turn put pressure on government to develop policies that help businesses too, and not just asset-owners (e.g. proper energy price cap for business as well as consumers). But it has to start with worker demands.

 

[Nick_G]

Just thinking out loud looking at their demands...

if you cap energy prices way below wholesale prices doesn't that mean we'll see a whole load more (all?) energy providers going bust or brought into special administration? I guess that would be one way to nationalise them (but maybe not the tidiest?)

Of course public sector wages should be raised to keep up with inflation (at least) but where does that leave the 83% of workers who are employed in the private sector?

I quite like the name.

I have to admit that Donna Summer/BarbraStreisand song was the first thing that came into my head too with that title.

If this hastens the demise of the Tories though then it can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ponty]

Can you think of any unusual recent events.

The good news for Ponty is that the BoE appear to share his belief that recession and unemployment are the only way to deal with the cost of living crisis. Which is of course bad news for those who aren’t asset-rich.

There’s always an ‘unusual event’. Strangely enough, a recession isn’t good news for any of us (although tobacco and alcohol companies tend to do well).

 

[Snufkin]

Can you think of any unusual recent events.

The good news for Ponty is that the BoE appear to share his belief that recession and unemployment are the only way to deal with the cost of living crisis. Which is of course bad news for those who aren’t asset-rich.

Yes, the ludicrously low interest rates and lax monetary policies since 911. The less well-off have been paying the cost of inflated asset prices for years and ‘recent events’ have further exacerbated this.

 

[Seanm]

There’s always an ‘unusual event’. Strangely enough, a recession isn’t good news for any of us (although tobacco and alcohol companies tend to do well).

It tends to affect different people differently though, doesn’t it. I doubt very much that those demanding one will be seriously put out.

 

[Ponty]

It tends to affect different people differently though, doesn’t it. I doubt very much that those demanding one will be seriously put out.

Nobody is demanding one but without an adjustment, the problems will become progressively worse, as we’ve seen.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Nobody is demanding one but without an adjustment, the problems will become progressively worse, as we’ve seen.

Your post earlier that referenced 2008 (since edited) seemed to be critical of an approach aimed at a soft landing rather than a recession/depression. I realise that's not actually demanding one, but it does rather treat them as a regrettable necessity. Like forest fires or pandemics, perhaps.

 

[dweezil]

Yes, the ludicrously low interest rates and lax monetary policies since 911. The less well-off have been paying the cost of inflated asset prices for years and ‘recent events’ have further exacerbated this.

It was inevitable that asset prices would rise but until Covid and WW3 everyone thought interest rates would stay low for the indefinite future.

I was always given the argument that rates couldn't rise too much as it would be devastating for a large proportion of the country.

So here we are with two kids mortgaged to the hilt and just had to extend the overdraft to pay wages and energy costs.

Next worst case (almost) scenario is a big increase in negative equity and repossessions / foreclosures.

 

[ks.234]

Should have been, but ZIRP bailed everyone out who’d overdone it.

Austerity?

 

[eternumviti]

... Any advancement of workers rights has been achieved, step-by-painful-step, through 150 years of legislation and regulation...

You know that's nonsense. It's the EU wot gave us workers' rights.

Also a nice Graham Nash song about it...

Pah! You beat me to it.

 

[ks.234]

EiE won't exist in six months time -

So why have you wittering on about changing the name?

Liz Edam will have called a snap GE and lost to the mighty Sir Keir who then enacts a full-on social justice agenda as per his ten pledges and leaves us lot with nothing to grumble about on here....simples.

If you think Starmer will enact a social justice agenda you are living in a dream land of your own construction. Unless Starmer relaxes his own fiscal responsibility rules, and the indication is that rather than relaxing those rules, Labour will double down on them, any spending in one area will have to be met with savings in another. That would be if Labour kept spending at its present level, but Labour is promising to cut the deficit and the debt, so are promising cuts to public spending.

Your dream world will not be met by Labour

 

[Tony L]

It tends to affect different people differently though, doesn’t it. I doubt very much that those demanding one will be seriously put out.

The thing that amazes me given the rise of the alt-right kleptocracy and the collapse of the left is the extent to which those in my demographic (working/middle-class, saver, home-owner etc) have been attacked by this Conservative Party. Obviously I’m self-employed too so have absolutely zero support network (no sick pay, no holidays, if I can’t work I have to spend my savings etc), but other than that I’m fairly typical of the demographic. My savings have collapsed over the past few years, their cash value is back down to roughly what I invested, i.e. I am at present losing about 10% a year thanks to the Tories spiralling inflation and destruction of the nation’s internal and international economy. On paper I’m prime Tory demographic. I tick most of the boxes they attempt to attract (business owner, home owner, investor, saver, entrepreneur etc). Yet they are slowly killing me. Post-Brexit each year I am worth less than the previous year and I am now unquestionably in fuel poverty unless you factor savings into the picture (which you shouldn’t as being self employed with zero employment rights that is the closest to a pension I’ll ever get beyond the pittance the state hands out).

The point I’m trying to make is the current Conservative kleptocracy are absolutely destroying the people the likes of Thatcher tried so hard to get on side. Like Trump’s Republican Party they are now nothing more than a confidence trick. A money laundering front for a largely offshored ultra-wealthy oligarchy. They absolutely detest small businesses, just as they hate working people be they unionised or like so many of us entirely without protection. I do not understand why they still hold any support. Basically if a voter is not a multi-millionaire shlepping money around offshore tax havens the Conservative Party does not represent them. It is actively at war with them. Why the hell can’t people see this? This is unquestionably a class war.

 

[ks.234]

You know that's nonsense. It's the EU wot gave us workers' rights.

Yes, though the UK has deregulated workers rights to a greater extent and with more obvious glee than the EU

 

[Somafunk]

If this hastens the demise of the Tories though then it can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Not a chance as the tories are like cockroaches, chop their heads off and they’ll continue to run around spreading shit and disease

 

[ks.234]

I agree Sean. But how do you campaign for higher wages for everyone?

Genuine question. I just don't understand how that could work.

By joining a union