I’m my lifetime, under various governments, we’ve gone from being a manufacturing nation to a service economy. We don’t make anything any more, not compared to the past. There’s any number of reasons for that, but it will always be the case that results in a shrinking physical product base to share between more and more people.
Zahawi sacked.
Amazed it took so long tbh.
Who’s next?
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So Zahawi blames the press that uncovered the truth, that he lied to and threatened to sue if they didn’t drop it.
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Not making a point about any government, but we are still the 9th largest manufacturer in the world and 2.5m people are employed in the sector.
https://www.makeuk.org/insights/publications/uk-manufacturing-the-facts--2022#/
That’s true, and the reduction in manufacturing continued just as aggressively under Labour governments as Tory. But the reduction has been huge.
between 1960 and 2015, of all advanced economies, the UK saw a greater drop in manufacturing employment than any country apart from Switzerland. Manufacturing employment in the UK fell by more than 0.4 per cent per year over those 55 years, a rate twice as high as Italy and Spain, and higher than Germany, Norway, Sweden, France and the US, among others. This cannot be an accident. Instead, it was a matter of policy. A belief in the importance of services, especially financial services, convinced politicians that it was OK to allow manufacturing employment to decline. Coupled to this was the Thatcherite faith in free market economics, which led its practitioners to believe that new industries would emerge to fill the gaps. But in large swathes of our manufacturing heartlands, those new industries didn’t appear, leading to a dearth of quality jobs for working people. With those quality jobs went the dignity that meaningful work provides to the worker.
This is hardly a non-partisan quote, being from the TUC site. But I’ve lived through all that, and find it hard to argue with a word of it.
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More like a belief that services were not unionized to the extent manufacturing was and how fucking nice it would be to have an economy not at the mercy of militant unions
Labour did fuck all about because it served their purpose not to have super strong unions bouncing them about as well
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There’s that too. 
I haven’t forgotten the three day week and constant strikes either, like I say, that quote is from the TUC.
Labour’s longest tenure was under B***r, and he was more Thatcherite than Thatcher was.
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Roads are quiet today - I guess because the teachers strikes have most parents WFH
Which sort of knackers the point of the rail strike because most parents are WFH so they are not causing that much disruption
Truss must be so un-self aware if she thinks she should make a return to front line politics after tanking the economy
Shell made nearly $40bn in profits last year, largely untaxed. That’s over £32bn. $4bn will be given to shareholders, rather than reducing costs to users.That’s only one of many energy companies. The effect on inflation is unavoidable.
To pay the NHS pay claim in full woud cost £9bn. Which can’t be afforded and would fuel inflation.
Just an observation
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Demonic Raab is being investigated for bullying. 24 people have raised complaints.
It doesn’t look as Priti as Patel’s situation 
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“Our 1st Oligarch Prime Minister”
“He leads a government of plutocrats”
Brilliant critique
Jonathan Pie-lite
Or the A303. Either way, he’s responsible for both.
If he can get me a helicopter and a jet I might let him off.
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Mad Nad isn’t standing at the next election
A nation rejoices!
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Has she ruled out gibbering and crawling?
Officially?
She’s got her new TV prog, so no, probably not.
Let them eat Turnips
Best buy this then
FFS
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