It was to be expected, but we have the worst fall in the G7.
Much as I dislike Boris and Co, I would not like to try and sort this out.
Said at the start of this crisis, being service industry based, this economy would always be more difficult to resuscitate than a manufacturing one, it may be time to go back to basics, if that is at all possible.
So who can we hold responsible for this?
The government?
The Chinese?
Covidiots?
Have I missed someone out?
A recession is merely two consecutive quarters of negative growth, it is quite possible that this will turn into a depression (two years of negative growth).
Australia hasn’t had a recession for 30 years but things are looking dire now.
As you say Swimmy, only to be expected, if people stay at home
then eventually the economy will suffer?
What was not expected was the the reluctance of quite large
numbers of workers and worker unions to resume work again?
I see no reason for this tardiness as the precentage of deaths
among the under seventies is negligible , and so even if they
contract corona they will not suffer any lasting effects from it?
The over seventies have only to carry on following the advice they
have been for the past few months untill things stabilize!!
Just my take on this issue? I might add that l am well into my
eighties and so cannot be accused of bias in any direction !!
Donkeyman!
Well, like anything else, it is just a combination of events, when industry is out sourced and replaced with services, the last thing you would want is a pandemic, its one of the risks.
Hi
An act of Nature, every country has been affected, some considerably more than others.
It is a national problem, I was hoping that that both parties would work together on this one in the best interests of all.
I was very disappointed this morning with the Shadow Chancellor.
More interested in slagging off the Government than saying anything constructive.
Well if the Government had been more proactive right at the start, closing borders and imposing lockdown earlier we wouldn’t be in such dire straits now. Instead we are in the grips of a “one step forward two steps back” policy. Yes I agree Swim that there is too much arguing and not enough working together but then headless chickens don’t tend to be sensible.
I can well understand this.
There must inevitably be a proportion who see being paid regularly for staying at home and doing nothing as really quite attractive!
On the other hand, I’d like to think that many others would like to get back to work as quickly as possible. That could only be done if the government and the businesses involved could work together to allow things to happen.
As you say, the vast majority of people of working ages are, going by the figures available, pretty safe from serious consequences of the contraction of Covid-19. Many, in fact, are said to be completely unaware of its presence in their systems.
If other countries can fare better than we are doing, why shouldn’t we do the same as they?
They shouldn’t have listened to the lies from the CCP and the WHO. If they had done what Cummings told the government in the first place we would have locked down sooner.
We’ve been there before - we’ll beat it!
Hi
Not in my lifetime ST.
This is a bad one and it will hurt for years.
We can’t go back to basics. Our manufacturing base has all but gone - destroyed by Maggie who thought we would be fine without it because we would manage as a finance hub and thrive on service industries.
I agree Swimfeeders and I feel so sorry for the younger generations. They won’t even be able to go into Europe easily.
Obviously covid has been a huge problem and it is staggering that we cannot manage for 3-4 months without working. We also have Brexit with IMO will be the final nail in the coffin.
I certainly don’t think we will beat this for a long time - and IMO we are progressively going down the tubes. Our time in the sun has long gone.
Hi
I am quite happy to see us drop out of the G& and move down the list.
This is provided that we spend our money on making life better here.
I agree with you SF, and we have to cut our cloth according to our means, but I think for a lot of people their lives will not get better. As with a lot of things it is always the weakest who suffer most. Trouble is many people who could be capable have grown used to being provided for without much effort and it is now a couple of generations who think like this. They will still expect to be provided for because they don’t know much different -it has become their way of life.
Service Industries and tourism !!
One guess :
Under the total time Labour was in office, manufacturing fell from a share of 18% of the economy in 1997 to 10% by 2010 (the closest available approximations). Up to the end of Tony Blair’s premiership it fell to 11% by 2007. No previous stint of government for any party since 1970 saw this level of decline from start to finish.
We also need to take into account the reason for manufacturing’s relative decline, which doesn’t necessarily mean manufacturing itself has declined at all. For instance, from 1997 to 2010 the service sector rose by nearly 8% points, from 69% of the economy to 77%.
Hi
Yes, I agree with you on this.
The problem we now have is that highly skilled jobs, like engineers are now going.
We are losing skills we cannot replace.
Estate Agents, like my last EX, do not need a new BMW every 3 Years.
We are now losing highly skilled engineers and Tradesmen who have been poorly paid and unrecognised for decades.
Apprenticeships are highly valued in other Countries, not here.
The likes of OGF, Barry and Judd are disappearing, but we rely on them to keep society running.
Underpaid and ignored.
We are having 40 odd redundancies here, aerospace engineers who export everything they make.
Losing 40 odd Estate Agents would not be an issue.