I LOVE RECESSIONS

I love recessions, or so you would believe if you agreed with Sunny Hundal.


Sunny recently wrote a post for Labour List entitled: The reality of Gordon Brown’s spending: Black Labour can’t re-write history I wrote a comment on the post stating that Sunny was wrong and why he was wrong. 


I was told by Sunny that it was a 'ridiculous attack' and that it was implied that I love recessions. For a start, it wasn't an attack. It was a comment pointing out that he was wrong and why he was wrong. Do I love recessions? Does anyone love recessions? The answer to that is no. However, I realise the value that come out of recessions, like an innovated economy and an eradication of the weak(er) sections of the economy. This creates a more balanced economy. Good things, no?


Instead, Sunny would probably seek to spend and spend and spend, ignoring the fact that recessions are actually healthy for an economy and perpetuating any future crisis.


Anyway, the argument is purely academic as one cannot change the course of history. One can, however, change the course of the future. 

My Day as a Union Activist

On the 30^th November 2011, I began the process to Unionise my workforce. The process was started in the morning of that day. I arrived into work to the sound of colleagues discussing the strikes by public sector workers. Like many in the private sector, the perception of the public sector was negative.

After listening to their concerns I suggested that perhaps the reason why the public sector had better working conditions was because it was unionised. Having listened to my arguments about the positive effects of trade unionism, and specifying the negative ones too, I had a willing recruitment pool. Over the course of the day, I had got three of my colleagues to join a trade union. The goal is to have a fully unionised workforce by the end of the year.

“Why unionise a workforce?” I hear you ask. Well, as someone with a fairly important remit in a SME unionising the workforce would appear on surface to be self-defeating. On the contrary, a unionisation of the workforce has lots of benefits. Many trade unions provide members with healthcare schemes, death in service benefits etc. We provide all those benefits too. Membership of a trade union also provides access to extra training, yet necessary training, such as first aid certificates. These services either cost SMEs or the individual lots of money. Money saved can then be ploughed back into remuneration for employees, either in increased wages or better employer contributions to pensions.

Industrial action is incredibly unlikely as the ownership is not divorced from the management and management is not divorced from the workforce. The (re-)unionisation of the private sector is often overlooked for reasons I am ignorant of, but it has benefits for everyone including employers. 

Why TfL Might not be so bad

As an adopted Londoner (I use the London greeting of "f*** off" more than necessary) I have grumbled a lot about TfL. Tubes and buses run late, by a few minutes, the drivers are paid more than me for an easier job and I pay a lot for travel - admittedly infrequent travel but travel nonetheless.

I have had problems with the night buses in that they don't arrive when they are scheduled to and somehow they can drive past full when you're quite near the start of the route. To a country boy this is baffling - full buses?!

Tubes... the drivers, in my opinion, are overpaid (and I am jealous). The Northern Line is always a constant 30 degrees celsius regardless of season. Trains go through stations declaring 'Not In Service' and yet alight at the station. Trains will also terminate a stop or two from the end of the line - this always confuses me even though I never need to go the end of the line.

Tourists! The bane of any journey. Stopping at the top of escalators to fiddle with their bags or standing on the left hand side of the escalator. Even though they are only indirectly linked to the problems of TfL, they are a problem nonetheless.

So, I've listed the things that annoy me about TfL. Now for some good things.

As mentioned earlier, I'm from a provincial city - we'll call it "Exeter" for arguments sake. Now, Exeter has a public transport system provided by Stagecoach and First Great Western. Be careful you don't splutter what ever it is you're drinking over your computer, but that is the sad nature of the system.

I was at home over the weekend and, as someone who doesn't drive, relied on public transport. Buses are expensive, more so than London, infrequent and smaller than the latest bus model that services the streets of London. Trains are even worse! Top it all off, there is no Oyster Card system which means that passengers are inconvenienced as someone fishes in their wallets, purses and pockets for change. My time is precious and it was squandered in a wasteful orgy of inefficiencies. I still resent this.

On Sunday evening/night my train from Exeter to Paddington broke down outside Westbury. The train, if you're unfamiliar with the line, was supplied by First Great Western - the great practitioner of railway failure. What should have been a 2.5 hour journey was magically transformed into a 6 hour journey getting into Paddington just in time to catch the last tube home. Credit to TfL - everything arrived on time and without glitch. I was very grateful at some time past midnight to not have any further problems with transport.

The announcement lady on the tubes and buses amuses me with her posh accent, until she gets to Canning Town that is.

By all means complain about TfL but always remember that even on its worst day, TFL is by far better than any other transport service in the country.

Comic Sans Must Die

Comic Sans must die. I say this, not in passing reference to Romeo Must Die, because it must. It has the power to convert a professional message into an inane message that I don’t want to pay any attention to. I honestly thought that Comic Sans was only used by school children to emulate their own writing. How wrong was I?! Very. It seems that reputable companies use Comic Sans. Naming no names – they’re a few clients and suppliers of ours that use the cursed font.

Ban it, kill it, anything, just get rid of it. 

Death by Buffet Food

For the past few weeks I have been attending a few networking events due to work. While I don’t mind the events, I feel that I could die a slow and rather boring death on buffet food.

At the first event, an IBM event that had a lot of free stuff I could potentially set up my own computer related store, I thought that the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels were a nice accompaniment to the beef and horseradish Yorkshire puddings and cheese and tomato sandwiches.

At the second event, a luncheon (so said the invitation) to meet NHS Professionals, a similar buffet was served – in that the bagels and Yorkshire puddings were replaced by sandwiches. I thought that, being Central London, the same caterers had been used.

At the third event, an event not even in London but in Woking, similar fillings were again served. I’m not a fan of Salmon as it is – anyone who knows me well knows that I hate river fish – but food is food. After all, there’s only so much horseradish I can consume before I start feeling queasy, and Tomato and Cheese is a standard and rather dull addition to my plate.

The only food stuffs that altered drastically at the events were the desserts. At the first event I avoided the funny looking jellied custard dessert and concentrated on grapes. At the second they didn’t even provide desserts! At the third, I had a delightful carrot cake – by far the best catered dessert.

Desserts aside, I would like some diversification in the savoury line-up of the next buffeted event I attend. My staple diet must consist of more than Salmon, Beef and Cheese if only for the sake of my poor palette. 

Office for National Statistics - frustrating beyond belief

As a fairly frequent user of the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) website I was excited when they announced a new website for the service. In reality, however, the website is worse than the original. It is no longer navigable and any search for data usually results in a head attempting to go through a desk.

I'm not a web designer and thus have no constructive suggestions concerning the navigation of the website. But the new website does come with its own user manual!

In regards to the datasets I have a huge problem. They are not uniform and thus don't make sense, not to me and probably not to anyone else other than the person who created them. I've been advised to use American sites for UK economic data. Good advice, except I require detailed statistics beyond GDP, CPI, RPI, etc. I need the Labour Force Survey and Consumer Trends Survey.

The variables, especially in the Consumer Trends Survey, are jumbled. Seasonally adjusted variables are mixed up with non-seasonally adjusted variables. Sectors are seemingly grouped together until you find financial services lumped with pet food right at the end. When dealing with variables numbering more than 1000 it's frustrating. Nay, it is infuriating!

In regards to time-series, records for some things (according to ONS) begin in 1948. For the majority the data begins in the 1990s. As a past user of historical data I know for a fact that most of the data which supposedly starts in the 1990s actually begins before 1948.

Access to historical data is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. The Universities who hold the data are becoming more and more tight fisted in who accesses it. As a proponent of open government and transparency, my task of monitoring long term trends is hindered. I cannot, therefore, hold governments to account based on comparative data due to dwindling access. When the coalition government announced that they were opening the data vaults I rejoiced. However, I foresee that they will fail in this because their statistical service is not all that open or easily accessed.

If the government is to pursue its policy of open government it must first overhaul the ONS. Make the website navigable and, for pity's sake, make the datasets uniform.

RWC11 Predictions

Looking at the statistics of past world cups, I have come up with a prediction for the Rugby World Cup.

QF1 France v England
QF2 Australia v Wales
QF3 New Zealand v Scotland
QF4 South Africa v Ireland

Winners of the Quarter Finals: France, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

SF1 France v Australia
SF2 New Zealand v South Africa

Winners of the Semi Finals: Australia and South Africa

Final: Australia v South Africa
Winner: Australia

Play-off France v New Zealand
Winner: New Zealand