On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 23:28:13 +0100, John Cartmell
wrote:

In article , Andy Hall
wrote:

This of course is nonsense because economic cycles in those days followed a
predictable time pattern and it's silly to suggest that things changed more
quickly and after an election.

You clearly did *not* have a mortgage in the 1980s. I did. :-(

Yes I did in fact. However, for a variety of reasons which can in
different ways be attributed to the more favourable business climate
in the 80s and early 90s, I no longer do.




Unemployment figures, in the same way as inflation figures have been
manipulated by successive governments of both parties to the point that
neither figure has any real credibility. There have been a whole raft of
changes over what counts and what doesn't, bogus training schemes to take
people out of the figures, new deals and so on.

Exactly. To put you in the picture I had to deal with the results of some of
them as a civil servant and had to calculate some of the unemployment
statistics.

Ah... That explains everything....


Pre-Thatcher they were (mostly) fair and their limitations well
known. Thatcher repeatedly massaged the figures - and all in the same
direction. The published figures need to be increased by at least 50% for
chunks of her time in order to allow comparison with previous years.

All successive governments have massaged unemployment figures - none
more than the present one.



You did. You benefited from government policy promoted by all the Trades
Unions.

I don't regard artificial pay restraint as a benefit at all. Furthermore I
don't want or need an organisation like a trade union to negotiate things
on my behalf. I am perfectly capable of doing so myself, thanks.

The vast majority of people aren't. I know very few reasonable people who are.

You must move in very limited circles. This is the typical rhetoric
that is used to justify state intervention in people's lives and the
bureucracy to make that happen. There's a big problem with it. It
doesn't actually produce anything to benefit the economy.

The fact that you consider yourself so capable says much about you.

There is no exclusivity on looking after oneself.




The pay freeze was imposed to get out of the mess caused by the previous
Tory government.

Yeah, right....

Yeah. Right. Would you dispute that? Want to check the figures for 1970 to
1974 again and see their knock-on into the late 70s. Want to compare that with
the trend before Thacher got in? Or are you suckered by all the Press lies
that the Tories bought?

I'm not suckered by very much at all, least of all the press, and
especially not by disgruntled civil servants.


--

..andy

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