It’s Fatcat Tuesday – and that’s nothing to purr about
January 6th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
By the end of today, Britain’s top bosses will have made more money in 2015 than the average UK worker earns in an entire year, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre think-tank.
The calculations show that earnings for company executives returning to work this Monday will pass the UK average salary of £27,200 by late afternoon on ‘fatcat Tuesday.’
FTSE 100 Chief Executives are paid an average £4.72 million. The High Pay Centre found that ,even if CEOs are assumed to work long hours with very few holidays, this is equivalent to hourly pay of nearly £1,200.
You can learn more here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the film “The Love Punch”
January 6th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I did not see this film – released last year – at the cinema and I wouldn’t have wanted to pay the admission for such a lightweight work but, to pass a winter’s evening at home, it’s entertaining enough. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (4)
A satellite picture of North Korea by night – notice anything?
January 5th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Except for the capital Pyongyang, the nation is in darkness
– a total contrast to South Korea below
or China to the left or Japan to the right
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
There is more to the record of Tony Blair than Iraq
January 4th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“He was Labour’s most electorally successful leader and by a long way. He took a party that had lost four elections in a row and turned it into a winning machine that secured three consecutive terms. He is one of only two people to have achieved triple back-to-back election victories since the introduction of universal suffrage.
His fellow hat-tricker was Margaret Thatcher and his aggregate parliamentary majorities were larger than hers. He won his party 13 continuous years in office. That is not only the longest period of Labour government ever, it is the longest stretch of non-Tory government since 1762. I am aware that I’ve pointed this out before. I draw it to your attention again because it is such a jaw-dropper of a fact.
He presided over the most sustained economic growth in British history and at a time when other major economies tipped into recession. That was accompanied by stealthy but significant redistribution towards the less well-off while record sums were poured into public services.
It is too easily forgotten how tattered was the state of the public realm back in 1997 when schools had roofs that let in the rain and the hospital building stock was in the advanced stages of decay. The current squeeze on public services would have been felt that much harder had the Blair governments not invested heavily in improving the social fabric.”
Extract from column in today’s “Observer” newspaper by Andrew Rawnsley.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Want a New Year resolution? Try this one.
January 4th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“… resolve to cut everyone a massive amount of slack, including yourself. That’s the overarching conclusion of social psychology: we’re all staggeringly imperfect organisms, prone to making bad decisions when stress, busyness or poverty robs us of “cognitive bandwidth”. We habitually excuse our own bad behaviour as the result of special circumstances, while blaming others’ misdemeanours on deep-down nastiness. Or we torment ourselves with how much more accomplished everyone else is, when really it’s just that we lack access to their inner monologues of self-doubt. So: ease up.”
Recommended by Oliver Burkeman in his latest edition of “This column will change your life”.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
British general election (3): has the government really halved the deficit?
January 3rd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
The election campaign has begun and already a controversial claim has been made by the Conservative Party.
The first Conservative election poster, due to be on billboards around the country, has slogans superimposed over a long straight road running through countryside, which is blended into a union flag. It lists the party’s achievements as being “1.75 million more people in work”, “760,000 more businesses” and “the deficit halved”.
But has the deficit really been halved? The deficit – the difference between what the government raises in taxes and spends on public programmes in a given year – will only have fallen from its peak of around £153 billion to an estimated £91 billion by the end of 2014-15. So, measured in straightforward cash terms, the deficit will only have been cut by around 41%.
David Cameron, the prime minister, and George Osborne, the chancellor, argue that the most natural measure is the reduction of deficit as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product which is a measure of the size of the UK economy. By this metric, the deficit has fallen from around 10% of GDP to 5% of GDP. The reason for this is that, with this measure, two variables are in play and the deficit has fallen arithmetically while GDP or outcome has risen arithmetically.
So, while the Conservatives have a case, it is a bit of a cheeky claim because most individuals would measure their debts in cash terms and not as a proportion of their income.
One more thing: it is fair to compare a claim with an intention. When the Coalition Government took office, it said in its first budget statement that it planned to eliminate the deficit by 2016. There is no way that the Government is on course to achieve this. And that’s a fact.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
30 fascinating facts to mark 30 years of mobile phones in the UK
January 2nd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I am never without my mobil phone (I’ve had an iPhone since the first one came out), but it’s amazing how quickly and totally the mobile has penetrated our lives, as revealed in these 30 quick facts.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
100 things we didn’t know a year ago
January 1st, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Interesting and unexpected facts can emerge from daily news stories and the BBC web site picks out such snippets for its weekly feature ’10 things we didn’t know last week’.
You can find a compilation of 100 of the the best of 2014 here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
British general election (2): 2015 will be a tough year for election candidates, party workers, and the voters themselves
December 31st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
- Many election candidates have been working away for a couple of years already, but the General Election campaign proper will begin in the New Year and, since we know the exact date of the election rather than having to wait for the election to be ‘called’, it’s going to be an exceptionally long campaign of some four months hard slog.
- The three main parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat – have fewer members by far than in 2012 and will have less human resource for all that leafleting and canvassing, although UKIP, Greens and SNP will have more members than in the past to do this electioneering.
- The voters are going to be even more fed up than usual by all the leaflets through the door and knocks on the door and party election broadcasts on television, but their decisions are going to be more influential than usual and vital for the future of the country.
These were some of the thoughts that went through my head today as Vee and I delivered material on behalf of our Labour Member of Parliament Barry Gardiner. Each year, he produces a calendar which party workers deliver to every home in the constituency and the eve of the New Year seemed a good day – if a really cold one – to put them through letter boxes.
At least 7 May 2015 has to be warmer than 31 December 2014.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The funniest sketch by the brilliant Julie Walters
December 30th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I am a massive fan of Julie Walters. She is a fine actress and a brilliant comedienne. So I was delighted to see on television over Christmas a programme in which she was both interviewed and profiled. There were many clips of her performances and this is my favourite one:
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)