Nahendra Modi is the first world leader to have been a chai wallah. He is also a tea-total vegetarian, unmarried (although he was briefly married when he was younger), and by repute, celibate, possibly a virgin. Add to that some conservative social attitudes and you have the political equivalent of Morrissey. I had read a … Read more
I recently a met someone who to all intents and purposes is unemployable. That is to say they are unable to sell their Labour to any employer in the current Labour Market and I can’t see that changing any time soon. I met him because we recently recruited a new Production Manager. Our current Production … Read more
Before I start I would like to make it clear that my Great Aunt Margaret had nothing to do with the Bishop of Litchfield or any kind of strip-o-grams, although all of these people will appear in this blog. I wanted to write this after reading a series of newspaper articles about the increase in … Read more
We had our first ever meeting last week with a venture capitalist. He was an impressive chap, knowledgable in the way that a professional investor should be. I learnt a lot about investing just from one meeting, although not enough to decide whether Venture Capitalist should be capitalised or not. Most people don’t ever meet VCs, … Read more
My mate David requested I do something on Public Sector Borrowing. As it happens my daughter Lily is doing A level History at Durham Johnston Comprehensive. David and I did the same A level at the same school, but 30 years earlier. I thought it might fun to do a short history of public debt since … Read more
When I say the rest of us, I mean older people. I am 49, which is well beyond the cut off for being young. I had 2 experiences this week which were in such stark contrast that I found it hard to reconcile them. The first was the announcement by Theresa May that we would … Read more
Anyone who reads the research papers and speeches from the Bank of England will have come across loads of scary reports about the terrible state of productivity in the UK. All of the data shows that the UK lags behind most of our competitors in output per capita – British workers are less productive than … Read more
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Labour Force Survey and the Claimant Count, and why they might not a very reliable source of information on what is happening in the UK economy. The Labour Force Survey and the Claimant Count aren’t the only ways the Government gathers information about employment. HMRC and … Read more
Wath on Dearne used to be home to Cortonwood Colliery. In the 1970s it was a mining town, part of the mighty Yorkshire Coalfield. A similar place to where I grew up in the villages to the East of Durham City. In fact I am picking on Wath as a subject because it … Read more
This is the UK Labour Force Survey. When you read that Unemployment has gone up or down the original data largely comes from this survey document. Most people have never seen it or participated in it, because you have to be drawn at random to be part of the sample. To keep the sample … Read more