Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:55 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

Now let me guess, you read the Daily Mail article about Manchester a few weeks back that said "Cheetham Hill Road is one of Britain's most diverse streets."

He has done this in the past.
He once had a pop at Hull about crime levels and was made to look rather foolish when it was pointed out that parts of London were worse.

Oh BTW Dally before you start on the action figures again don't bother as it makes you sound even more pathetic than usual.

[DaveO]

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:11 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Or we could create new jobs and not simply 'outsource' some other poor bästard's job.

Exactly but the direction Dally had taken this was , what's London's, London's and the North will have to dream up some other way to contribute to the economy. I was merely pointing out there is no set rule that means much of the service sector work done in London could not easily be done elsewhere in the country. It is IMO largely historic that banking and the stock market are where they are.

Given Dally wants the North to contribute and given the economy is structured as it is (i.e. serviced based) the only way in the short term it will contribute more is having more of the serviced based economy shifted up here.

In fact it does surprise me with the ever increasing focus on cost reduction in businesses to try and prop up the margins, the costs of maintaining London staff and offices have not driven companies out before now.

[Kosh]

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:15 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

I don't quite grasp the requirement for that kind of relocation bonus.
Surely, if they sold their London property they'd liquidise the equity into cash that they could use, if they so chose, to invest in the London property market?
If they didn't sell, they'd still have the house along with its equity.

The only possible justification I could see would be for employees whose London houses are currently worth less than they paid or have mortgages for. Those in negative equity, in other words.

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:25 pm  

DaveO wrote:

... In fact it does surprise me with the ever increasing focus on cost reduction in businesses to try and prop up the margins, the costs of maintaining London staff and offices have not driven companies out before now.

Because it's the capital.

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:35 pm  

Mintball wrote:

It is worth noting that the area that is now being prepared for the Etihad Campus used to be home to many engineering companies. They died in the 1980s when that evil old bitch decided that we needed to have an economy based on shopping and finance.

So Thatcher closed private engineering companies?

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:41 pm  

DaveO wrote:

Given Dally wants the North to contribute and given the economy is structured as it is (i.e. serviced based) the only way in the short term it will contribute more is having more of the serviced based economy shifted up here.

The whole point is that companies and jobs should need to be "shifted". The North should be producing its own private sector employment. Look at all the great companies who started their in the past - M&S, ICI, etc, etc. Why are people so inert now and bemoaning Thatcher, etc rather than embracing the modern globalised economy?

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:16 pm  

Dally wrote:

... the modern globalised economy?

Globalisation is a very large part of the problem.

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:26 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Because it's the capital.

Indeed it is but does that mean it needs to be a huge vaccum for the rest of the country?

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:38 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Or we could create new jobs and not simply 'outsource' some other poor bästard's job.

But there has to be need - if there was in the private sector these jobs would have been created.

Re: The UK's economy becomes more unbalanced : Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:41 pm  

Anakin Skywalker wrote:

Indeed it is but does that mean it needs to be a huge vaccum for the rest of the country?

I'd dispute that it is.

That there have been attacks by politicians on the rest of the country is not indicative of London doing something – indeed, there are many Londons, if you will, and some of them have been and are being attacked in the same way.

It's going to be the case in any country where the capital city is the home of not only the legislature, but also finance, culture etc (France is another example) that people will leave their homes in the 'provinces' and go to the city to 'make their fortune' – I know that's simplistic, but you get my drift.

I don't think London sucks life (?) out of the rest of the country, more that increasingly over the last 30 years, because of political decisions (which are not 'London decisions' even if made in London's environs) and the intertwined recessions.

Who knows – 'The North' might have been delighted to see me pack my bags and come down here during the second recession of the 1980s, because that seemed the only coherent chance of getting long-term work progress. But I don't think that was because London sucks everything up, more because of a pattern of behaviour by politicians – who are mostly NOT from London – and particularly in the last 30-plus years enacting policies that had particularly negative effects on parts of the country outside London. Or in way, to be more precise, part of the country outside a few boroughs of London – and the Home Counties.