Wire Yed wrote:
I'd love to see a few political neutrals, with all the facts telling me where we actually are in terms of growth and the direction we are heading. The trouble is everyone is pulling out the facts which suit their argument and ignoring the facts which harm their point.
'tis always the case for politics is a world of lies and manipulation - it has to be so in order to keep your job.
From the frontline that I see on a day-to-day basis, and ignoring all of the flim-flam of media reporting and political crowing I see businesses more confident this year than last and more so than the previous five however those businesses are very different organisations to the ones that they were five years ago mainly because the recession of these past five or six years - I make no apology for using the word recession outside of its defined political meaning for businesses have seen markets and turnover recede over that time - the recession years have given them the upper hand in wage control.
Very few employees have had regular wage rises, many are still in a worse place income-wise than they were in 2007, so although anyone will repeat the phrase "confident" back to you when asked about employment prospects, few will tell you that they are more wealthy now than they were, many will tell you that they are still worried about employment contracts, many will now be working alongside colleagues who have little job security or who are employed not by the business but by employment agencies - THIS has been the biggest change since 2007 and is simply the result of the boot being firmly on the foot of the employer, it will be interesting to see what happens in future years as employment increases and employees can start to negotiate better terms again.
As for next years election, throw away the policy manifestos, anyone who believes a manifesto booklet after the 2010 election farce is a fool who should be locked away in an asylum, the next election will be won on TV and in the newspapers and in that respect the Tory party hold every single card bar one, their only fear will be to keep them all onside and to gain enough seats for a working majority.
