[Politics] Show some restraint

[davywavy]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has asked that people show 'restraint' in their pay rises to help forestall inflation.
I dont' know about you, but this strikes me as the least-likely-to-be-followed piece of advice since "If you see a venemous snake, just stand still and it'll leave you alone" or "Never sleep with your ex".

But I may be wrong. It happens from time to time. What do you think?

[Poll #1211900]

Comments

[the-mendicant.livejournal.com]

I deserve every penny my company give me, and a lot of pennies they don't. I'm also better at managing my finances than the Government, and I have never accidentally mailed out my address book or left my laptop in a taxi. I think I take the money thankyou Darling!

[(Anonymous)]

What he means is he needs teh public sector to get their snouts out of the trough, as him and his predecessor have overpent. So could the private sector keep quiet about business as usual, in the fond hope that the leeches won't notice they are rapidly getting poorer.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago I had a debate on these very pages with someone purporting to be something of an economist in which they claimed that the govt. had managed the economy very well. Once I'd stopped laughing and realised that they actually meant what they said, I was astounded to think that someone whose job it is to understand money had a blind spot when it came to running a budget defecit in the middle of the biggest boom market the world has ever seen, apparently on the assumption that the market would continue to boom to pay this defecit off later.

Beggared belief, it really did.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I don't earn a lot. I work quite hard for the money I have. I really have very little guilt at taking what I can.

Maybe I'm just selfish.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Why is claiming ownership of the sweat of your own brow selfish?

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

I am being hilariously underpaid for both my experience and qualifications (an arts degree is still technically a degree after all), but my situation aside, who is going to stand in the face of a rising cost of living and say "actually, I don't need that extra money"?

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Fuck that. I'm currently going for all I can get as quickly as I can.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I may have that translated into Latin and made into my motto.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Well, they've often went for the impossible, so I guess now it's just natural to give a little time and effort for the wildly improbable.

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

I believe the phrase is "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Damn right. If I don't see a huge pay rise in the next 12 month, I'll go impotent.

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahaha.

For the past 2 years, my so-called 'pay increase' has been below inflation. And it's not even linked to performance, so it doesn't matter how wonderful I am - I'll still be underpaid.

So... yeah. I'll take the money, thanks!

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Since I'm currently self employed I don't really fit into the whole pay-rise thing. But if I did, I'd take whatever the company wanted to offer me... unless it was too small in which case I'd tell them I wanted more... more... MOOOOORRRRRRAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH*cough* yeah... just a little extra please.

[commlal.livejournal.com]

Give me the money.

I don't get paid enough for the work I do, I get shafted by stupid poorly thought out government regulations and have to pay for the privilage of my society membership, going up a whopping 50% because the government says the RPSGB needs to split but wont pay for it.

Fork You, Gordy Brown and CreepyCatapillerEyesMan

Oh my fucking god.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

I actually just read the article.

FAIRY LAND. HE LIVES IN FUCKING FAIRY LAND.

Re: Oh my fucking god.

[(Anonymous)]

I read your astute & balanced observation, and thought: 'Let's have a look. Clearly he couldn't be a Minister of State without some intelligence, could he?' and you know what? You're right. What a twat.

Has someone hacked this article?

[(Anonymous)]

"The chancellor said: "Pay awards in both the private and pubic sector have to be consistent with our inflation target, which is 2%."

I don't can't see that getting past a sub-editor, even at the Grauniad

H

Re: Has someone hacked this article?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

It is the "have to be" consistent that got me. Because actually, they don't, however much he may want them to be.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

If we believed that oil prices were in a temporary spike, then maintaining the 2% target would make a bit more sense. However, I think we are seeing an adjustment, which is something the UK economy has to adjust to.

I was thinking that but couldn't articulate why.

Coming out tonight?!

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

If one assumes that the oil price is a fair representation of the balance of supply and demand, and that prices will stay up at c. $140 a barrel, in a year the price hike in oil will drop out of the inflation calculation. According to Chris Dillow in Investors Chronicle, the increase in the oil price over the last year has accounted for inflation of 0.7% by itself. In a year, there will be a fall of 0.7% in inflation.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

This just exemplifies politicans' hubris.

Brown can't control oil prices (although he could obviously reduce the level of duty and tax paid on petrol - if he really wanted to), because the market sets the price of oil.

And Darling cannot command us to decrease or increase our own pay - because that, too, is set by the market.

[(Anonymous)]

Does the Market set the price of oil? I had vaguely thought that the usurpers of the Hashemite Throne did that. I am happy to be corrected.

D

[ddraiggwyrdd.livejournal.com]

Since large pay increases - generally somewhere on a level with finding rocking horse poo -are only a small part of the causes of inflation, what does he intend to do about share price speculation.
"Try not to buy up at inflated prices and sell at even more inflated prices after scaremongering about shortages.Lets get things back to a more acceptable index level even if it means selling at a loss"

[(Anonymous)]

Or Broon's recent genius pitch to the Saudis - could you see your way to selling us your oil a wee bit cheaper than the market?

One real disadvantage of being unelected, is no-one at all feels duty bound to stand up for him as 'their guy'