I hesitated to write about it because everybody is contributing their twopence worth, some of it very worthy and constructive, some of it inarticulate rage. I’ve got some rage myself hopefully not all inarticulate.
I was interested in the news report this morning which stated that North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire look like the authorities who will be least well placed to recover from government cuts in Scotland according to a report by Experian. The Sunday Herald were interested too and contacted me today for my take on how I’ll be affected as someone who runs a micro business in West Dunbartonshire. So writing from that perspective I may have something to offer the debate
A micro business by the way, is one which employs fewer than ten people and turns over less than two million Euros. Something like one third of the work force in Scotland earn their living in such concerns. Usually these are businesses where the owner is involved in the day-to-day running of the operation. He/she will know their employees, their families, their birthdays, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
The oft quoted “SME” (small to medium sized enterprise) covers a large disparate range of companies. A small business is defined as one employing more than ten but fewer than fifty employees and having a t/o off less than £10m Euros. A medium sized business is one which employs between 50 and 250 people with a t/o of less than 50 million Euros.
Often when people refer to SMEs they actually mean a micro business. Government sources and commentators have been talking a lot about both over recent days. Many of them have been saying that the estimated 500,000 jobs expected to be lost in the public sector will be replaced by the private sector recruiting to the tune of an EXTRA two million jobs over the short to medium term.
Excuse me, but what fucking planet are these people on?
Did I miss the incentives to be offered to small employers in yesterday’s deliberations? Just what was the stimulus package setting out how the economy will be set on the road to recovery? Silly me, it was cuts, cuts and more cuts.
I did notice that Cloud Cuckoo Land Incorporated the European Parliament has decided to grant maternity leave on full pay for a whole year.
Just keep a look out for the survey that finds that surprisingly employers seem to be taking on fewer women of child bearing age. QED.
Anyway, lets get back to West Dunbartonshire and I’ll tell you why the apparent strategy (or vain hope if you like) of the private sector brimming with job vacancies ain’t going to happen.
Public sector job losses will mean fewer wage packets in the local economy. A tragedy for the folk losing their jobs and also for the businesses which rely on their custom to keep their costs covered and employees employed.
Those people who rely on benefits and are about to have those benefits cut will suffer financial hardship. Not only that they will have less money to spend. That’s right you know what I’m going to say next, money which is spent in local shops and businesses.
So fewer wage packets, lower benefits and less money in the local economy.
Business turnover down.
At which point do these fucking muppets, Cameron, Osborne, Alexander et al think that these businesses are going to suddenly employ all the folk who have been laid off, and not only them but a fair few of the ones on benefits as well?
In West Dunbartonshire trading has been difficult for a very high proportion of the last 25 years.
My business and those like us have, for two generations operated in an area of high unemployment, low wages, crazy decisions by the local authority, and now it would seem, a shattering blow of cuts which identifies the area immediately as the second least likely to recover.
"Bravo old chap! that's Dumbarton really fucked now!"
So Mr Osborne,
West Dunbartonshire is ranked poorly partly because it has more businesses struggling to pay their bills, even though it has average business start-up rates. (source: the Experian Report)
The area was struggling, even in the good times.
Your prescription of job losses and benefit cuts as well as being personal tragedies also further mitigate against a whole community literally dying for the oxygen of some stimulus or investment.
And then you’ve got the fucking cheek to say the job losses won’t be that bad because the private sector is somehow going to magic up thousands of jobs whilst they struggle to pay the rent.
“We’re all in this together”
Filed under: Money and Finance, Rant Tagged: | coalition spending cuts, george osborne, north ayrshire, west dunbartonshire
But surely as George said, the wealthiest, those with the broadest shoulders would be suffering the most. Therefore with such a high proportion of the rich living there it seems only right that West Dunbartonshire should be singled out in this way.
Very well said (apart from the bit about maternity leave… which is a longer conversation).
A full year’s paid leave and a job kept open for you is something way beyond the logistic and financial gift of many small (micro) businesses Simon, no matter how long the conversation.
What has happened this week is much less of an effort to address the UK’s financial situation as the ideological blitzkrieg that Thatcher never quite managed – the banking implosion has provided the perfect cover for this.
Whilst I don’t disagree with what you write Ben-Lo, I’m going to risk inciting anger when I state that whilst I disagree entirely with the philosophy and actions of the Coalition Government there’s a big bit of me which is saying ‘bring it on.’
For three decades now the UK has drifted relentlessly into becoming some sort of offshore American state, one in which it’s citizens have grown flabby both physically and intellectually. The de-politicising of daily life has been accompanied by a generally depressing addiction to pap.
As long as the underclass was kept out of the way and to a manageable size, everbody was happy to lug home their £8 per case of Bud from Asda. The only serious voting belonged to the X-Factor or Strictly.
Not any more.
Such has been the scorched earth flamethrower of cuts blasted out this week that a helluva lot of the previously-comfortable are going to get it right up the arse and no mistake. We may all be in it together but there ain’t enough lifeboats to go round.
Prepare for people who always been comfortable for others to take the shit rising up in despair and indignation. If that mythical creation ‘the hard-working family’ begins to feel pain then prepare for real action.
What a way you have with words sir.
Hard to disagree with any of it.
“We are all in this together” say the multi millionaires on the front bench.
Obviously, a majority of unemployed want work and I particularly feel pain for the young, who, disillusioned, will quickly feel worthless and may well join their fellow citizens in the useless, feckless, lumpen underclass who seem to populate most of our towns and cities these days.
These people claim to be poor but can still find the funds for their fags and their carry-outs while their kids go hungry (I see it in the schools all the time).
And then there are the tax avoiders……
I work in a language school near Edinburgh during the summer for a company which was started by two guys from this country, who previously taught English in Poland. It had a turnover of £7 million last year and was recently bought by German travel company, TUI.
These kind of schools have expanded rapidly over the years. There has been no recession at all in this sector as the demand from overseas keeps growing relentlessly.
These schools are concentrated mainly in the cities where there is a tradition of academia: Cambridge, Oxford, York, Bath, Brighton, London (obviously) and, of course, Edinburgh. However there are virtually none in Glasgow. Why?
If Glaswegians would stop for a minute from their pie-eating, chain-smoking, vodka drinking and sectarian song-singing they should consider going out and taking advantage of the considerable gap in the market which exists and is caused by the insatiable worldwide demand for learning English.
This is an example of the private sector filling the slack (albeit in a small way) which will come in the educational sector when budgets are squeezed and teachers are left without work.
[...] The Ben Lomond Free Press discussed the consequences of the cuts for his area and for micro businesses like his, while the Misssy M Misssives provided a fantastic family sized microcosm of the economic challenges facing us all. Freedom-2-Choose Scotland explored ASH Scotland’s plea to be insulated from the cuts. Suitably Despairing highlighted the potentially catastrophic impact of just one of the Spending Review’s many measures, but Craig Murray took a different view of “the Left’s irrational addiction to high public spending”. [...]