Employee Shareholder Contracts: destroys employees' rights to save good companies 83p a week for each employee (but saves dodgy companies much more)

In October 2012 Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, introduced a new bill. The “Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013” sounded like a good thing. Who wouldn’t want some growth and some infrastructure? However, hidden in the bill is “Employee Shareholders” legislation that destroys employees' rights. We wrote about it back then when the bill was first introduced, and are disappointed none of the 'great and good'  of our nation managed to strangle it.Why these fundamental changes to the “Employment Rights Act...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 29th August)

Furniture and carpet retailers investigated over bogus “bargain” claimsCarpetright and ScS are among six chains accused of inflating prices for short periods in order to mislead shoppers into believing they are getting a bargain during sale periods. Typically, just 5% of products were sold at the artificially inflated reference price, while a significant number of products were found to have never been sold at that price level. GUARDIANEmployers who pay below minimum wage to be actively named and shamed, at lastMinister says the current system...

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Badger cull: government promises it will be safe, humane and effective

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Badger cull: only small proportion of shootings to be monitored for humanenessThe government was accused of not properly assessing the animals' suffering after a freedom of information (FoI) request revealed that as few as 120 shootings will be independently observed, out of about 5,000 badgers set to be culled.OUR RELATED STORIES:Graphs at a glance: mortality rises by 19% in England's winter. One in five of these excess deaths are caused by cold homesGraphs at a glance: households in fuel poverty tripled in a decadeLiebrary:...

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Graphs at a glance: Are cuts to incomes and services really necessary? Are Britons really too expensive for Britain?

In August 2013 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised the second quarter growth figure from a spongy 0.6% to a strident 0.7%. This allowed George Osborne and the Tories to trumpet that the economy was "moving from rescue to recovery". Recovery will happen eventually, maybe sooner, maybe later. But just as it is hard to say whether the man running in front of a raging bull is leading it or being chased by it, it will be hard to say what role the Chancellor's policies have in our economic recovery.The banker induced economic crisis,...

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Graphs at a glance: Are cuts to incomes and services really necessary? Are Britons really too expensive for Britain?

In August 2013 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised the second quarter growth figure from a spongy 0.6% to a strident 0.7%. This allowed George Osborne and the Tories to trumpet that the economy was "moving from rescue to recovery". Recovery will happen eventually, maybe sooner, maybe later. But just as it is hard to say whether the man running in front of a raging bull is leading it or being chased by it, it will be hard to say what role the Chancellor's policies have in our economic recovery.The banker induced economic crisis,...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 22nd August)

David Cameron condemned over ‘ridiculous’ reforms to the £2bn lobbying industryThe head of the Commons committee scrutinising David Cameron’s flagship law to end Britain’s lobbying scandals called it a “useless dog’s breakfast” and said the Government should urgently postpone its current fast-tracked progress through Westminster. Research published last month by the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) showed ministers in the Department for Business held 988 meetings with lobbyists in 2012. But, under the new law, just two were...

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Graphs at a glance: how Britain withdrew from manufacturing industries, and financial services failed to take up the slack

This fascinating graph from a report by the Open University and Manchester University, Rebalancing the Economy (Or Buyer's Remorse), illustrates the decline of manufacturing in Britain:More interesting than the 24% coming from "low-cost" countries (India, Turkey, Eastern Europe) in 2010, is the 40% coming from "high-cost" Western Europe. It is this 40%, not captured by cheaper labour costs,  that shows Britain's decision to voluntarily withdraw from manufacturing. When banks are in trouble the government pours out limitless rescue money...

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Graphs at a glance: how Britain withdrew from manufacturing industries, and financial services failed to take up the slack

This fascinating graph from a report by the Open University and Manchester University, Rebalancing the Economy (Or Buyer's Remorse), illustrates the decline of manufacturing in Britain:More interesting than the 24% coming from "low-cost" countries (India, Turkey, Eastern Europe) in 2010, is the 40% coming from "high-cost" Western Europe. It is this 40%, not captured by cheaper labour costs,  that shows Britain's decision to voluntarily withdraw from manufacturing. When banks are in trouble the government pours out limitless rescue money...

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Debt-fuelled consumers and expensive houses drive British recovery

 SOURCE REUTERS: Debt-fuelled consumers and expensive houses drive British recoveryEconomists are now cautiously optimistic about Britain's growth prospects, but they warn that the recovery looks dangerously reliant on consumer demand and is a far cry from the export-led growth that the government, in the shape of finance minister George Osborne, had previously aimed for. The most recent gains in British economic activity appear to be linked to two factors that helped cause the last global financial crisis - debt-fuelled consumer spending...

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How companies use inter-country ruses to dodge tax

Companies dodge tax like rats dodge peckish weasels. Which at first glance is not unreasonable. But when it comes to tax the weasel has been hamstrung by tax legislation carefully designed by governments around the world to be feeble and loophole ridden. Governments simultaneously collude and compete with one another to provide gaps that expensively advised companies can drive their earnings through. Providing highways and byways for companies like Amazon, Google and Starbucks to shift UK profits to low tax countries thereby comprehensively...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 15th August)

UK wages decline among worst in EuropeUK average hourly wages have fallen 5.5% since mid-2010, adjusted for inflation. In 2009, the average public-sector worker earned about £16.60 per hour, which dropped to about £15.80 in 2011, the IFS said. Meanwhile, hourly pay for private-sector workers in 2009 was just over £15.10 and dropped to about £13.60 in 2011. Across the European Union as a whole, average wages fell 0.7%. Only Greek, Portuguese and Dutch workers have had a steeper decline in hourly wages, the figures showed. The GMB union said "Employers...

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"Go home or face arrest"... Ever wondered what's on the other side of that van?

SOURCE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: UK Tax Avoidance: Top 10 Giant Companies Dodging Corporation TaxGUARDIAN: 'Go home' campaign creating climate of fear, say rights groupsCritics say the Home Office campaign targeting illegal immigrants will generate hostility and intolerance.The "Go home" van scheme, which was trialled for one week, has been widely criticised by religious groups, trade unions and politicians across the political spectrum. The business secretary, Vince Cable, labelled it an offensive stunt and the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, described...

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Graphs at a glance: see which government departments spend more than half their total staffing budget on consultants: it's outsourcing in all but name

If you thought the only way to outsource public services was to hand them over wholesale to Capita and G4S you'd be wrong. For some years government departments' use of consultants and interim staff has de-facto outsourced central government functions to a staggering degree. This has actually been most stunning in the period before the current Conservative-Liberal coalition government, a time when Labour were in power. Maybe the current coalition government no longer needs to hire so many consultants for hospitals, schools and prisons. After...

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