Recession, what Recession?

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thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by thirdcrank »

ANTONISH wrote: 25 Nov 2022, 10:51am
Dingdong wrote: 23 Nov 2022, 9:16am
Nearholmer wrote: 22 Nov 2022, 10:30pm Do you remember the miner’s strike?
Yes I do. My family was involved in mining throughout this period. I've heard all the history, first hand. Hence my interest in it. The police (bussed in from Metropolitan London and other areas) were using extreme measures in an attempt to smash the NUM. Scargill's only mistake was to do away with his 'flying pickets ' strategy, which was very successful, for negotiations.

Imo the economic, political and multiple crisis mode that will unfold over this winter has the same potential for explosive civil unrest. Like I said upthread, there are several groups just waiting in the wings for things to kick off (Just Stop Oil for instance, a very competent, well organised group)
Like the riots of 2010, it only takes one spark to light the whole drum. I think the chances of getting to the spring without serious civil disobedience, is less than 50/50..
I believes the miner's strike was engineered by the Thatcher government and the city spivs in order to destroy the coal industry and make way for gas.
A stockpile of coal enabled the govenment to ride out the strike - unlike the hapless Ted Heath.
The dispute was about colliery closures - the government claimed (lied as it transpired) that four collieries were to be closed.
Scargill knew that over thirty collierys were in line for closure.

The tory government came into power with a campaign illustrated by a long queue of presumably unemployed persons with the slogan "Labour isn't working" - at the time there were a million unemployed - within the first term of the Thatcher government this had risen to three million as they weeded out the "sunset industries".
They changed the method of defining unemployment twenty seven times - eventually no one knew definitively how many unemployed there were.
I think it was Whtelaw who asked Thatcher early on in this campaign what would happen to the workers laid off.
She replied "they'll go on benefits"
IIRC, one significant difference was that "Ted Heath's" coal stockpiles were at the pitheads, whereas "Margaret Thatcher's" were largely at the power stations etc.
Stradageek
Posts: 1657
Joined: 17 Jan 2011, 1:07pm

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by Stradageek »

roubaixtuesday wrote: 24 Nov 2022, 10:09pm
Nearholmer wrote: 24 Nov 2022, 9:48pm I would love to see a flow diagram for that £203M, showing how various portions of it turned into profit, and what amounts actually went into labour, materials, fuel, transport etc to make and deliver PPE.

My instinct is that the vast bulk of it went as profits to various wicket-rollers and middle-persons, and that the genuine costs of production and delivery were comparatively trivial.
I would hazard a guess of £65M profit to the corrupt political contact in the UK, £65M to the corrupt political contact authorising export from China, £65M to the corrupt factory owner in China, £17.9M in assorted bribes to oil the wheels and £100k to manufacture the faulty goods.
What irks me is that trying to dig the dirt on the lady seems to be taking priority whilst I'm equally interested in a) how they can justify a 30% profit margin in a time of national crisis b) why the profit goes straight to the owners c) why no tax is paid on any of it.

My own avaricious previous employer would certainly cream the largest profit margin it could but only to re-invest in the future of the company. The CEO's etc would take a bonus, but this was was taxed (at least it was if they couldn't get an accountant to hide it).

I object to contributing to their yacht, honeymoon and kids houses https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... e-ppe-firm

The system is truly rotten to the core.
roubaixtuesday
Posts: 5815
Joined: 18 Aug 2015, 7:05pm

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by roubaixtuesday »

Stradageek wrote: 25 Nov 2022, 11:23am What irks me is that trying to dig the dirt on the lady seems to be taking priority whilst I'm equally interested in a) how they can justify a 30% profit margin in a time of national crisis b) why the profit goes straight to the owners c) why no tax is paid on any of it.
a) they can't justify it and have no intention of justifying it. They, along with the corrupt government that enables them and their ilk, believes they're entitled to whatever they can get.

b) the "company" was clearly nothing more that a corrupt conduit for connections in government to pay the owners. Profit margin was entirely irrelevant.

c) Tax is for little people.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by thirdcrank »

Stradageek wrote: 25 Nov 2022, 11:23am
roubaixtuesday wrote: 24 Nov 2022, 10:09pm
Nearholmer wrote: 24 Nov 2022, 9:48pm I would love to see a flow diagram for that £203M, showing how various portions of it turned into profit, and what amounts actually went into labour, materials, fuel, transport etc to make and deliver PPE.

My instinct is that the vast bulk of it went as profits to various wicket-rollers and middle-persons, and that the genuine costs of production and delivery were comparatively trivial.
I would hazard a guess of £65M profit to the corrupt political contact in the UK, £65M to the corrupt political contact authorising export from China, £65M to the corrupt factory owner in China, £17.9M in assorted bribes to oil the wheels and £100k to manufacture the faulty goods.
What irks me is that trying to dig the dirt on the lady seems to be taking priority whilst I'm equally interested in a) how they can justify a 30% profit margin in a time of national crisis b) why the profit goes straight to the owners c) why no tax is paid on any of it.

My own avaricious previous employer would certainly cream the largest profit margin it could but only to re-invest in the future of the company. The CEO's etc would take a bonus, but this was was taxed (at least it was if they couldn't get an accountant to hide it).

I object to contributing to their yacht, honeymoon and kids houses https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... e-ppe-firm

The system is truly rotten to the core.
Private Eye has been covering all this in some detail, including how our slap-dash company recording system and flexible accounting do nothing to stop it. I fancy that when something like this suddenly hits the headlines, it's based on stuff Private Eye first mentioned some time ago. Remember, if something is "perfectly" legal, you have to choose your words carefully when reporting on it. Parliamentary privilege gets round that, but the choice of subject seems to be chosen largely to make an impact on the other party - on the government in this case - rather than on the underlying issues
Dingdong
Posts: 966
Joined: 22 Apr 2022, 4:59pm

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by Dingdong »

Two thirds of adults worried they won't be able to afford a traditional Christmas dinner. 16% of people will have to use a food Bank to put something on the table... Has it come to this?

https://news.sky.com/story/two-thirds-o ... r-12757668
hemo
Posts: 1438
Joined: 16 Nov 2017, 5:40pm
Location: West Sussex

Re: Recession, what Recession?

Post by hemo »

Two drive in supermarkets near me were chocka with traffic weekend just gone inc Friday afternoon, with both cars were queuing on the main roads leading to them to get in.
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