Liz Truss Said

[ajohn]

e.g. software support is around 70% margin, legal services 30-50%. Professional services in general 20-30%
Restaurants, hairdressers etc 10%

So this is a bad idea. There are loads of similar areas. Your taking the sell hamburgers to each other area.

The Volkswagen Group has completed fiscal year 2019 successfully. Sales revenue increased by EUR 16.8 billion to EUR 252.6 billion and operating profit before special items rose to EUR 19.3 (17.1) billion.

I think you are thinking too small scale. That is why I asked.

 

[motorbiking]

You asked a question. I explained with simple examples.

PS. If I was a shareholder - I’d want to look at those special items.

 

[IT Minion]

we need to encourage people to work harder, country seems to be full of people who can't be arrsed - low and falling productivity.

Often that's because of our national failure to invest.
If you're trying to hand craft Bedford trucks and Toyota have a highly automated production line then no matter how hard you try you'll never be as productive.

 

[ajohn]

Ideally, govt would fund the infrastructure required and maybe (although not necessarily) outsource the management to the private sector with tightly monitored KPI's with financial penalties?

Recent news suggests that the gov interferes with the privatised anyway. Water company - they often crop up but..........

It seems that solving the sewage problem would add £64 to everybody's water bill. Don't do it, We have a cost of living crisis. That probably before the current one. The cost - they would probably borrow it. The gov will guarantee their loan. This seems to be a common approach that may be used. In fact it has been mentioned in relationship to "gas aid". They can help the companies concerned borrow in the same way or borrow it themselves. Liability is ours either way but one way the debt doesn't appear on the gov's books.

Nuke stations appear to be different. Loads of money needed so find backers to pay for it. They will want a return. I assume electricity costs out are considered. If we will pay that they will pay for it. I posted a link to one that appears to be intended 1/3 2/3 owned by EDF and Chinese company. Institution type investment might be used. It appears from an AlJ program that hedge funds are developing an interest in utilities. Related to water and that in some countries there are signs of it becoming a commodity. The funds see it as a steady return which is bound to increase over time - a useful part of their portfolio. Spread you bets in other words. Other utilities - pass.

Nuke stations - Toshiba dropped out yonks ago now. Not enough money in it. Are we prepared to pay a suitable amount now? One new one a year? How many years to build?

The supply side of gas in particular doesn't look to good really. They invest to produce more, get to a point when the price falls maybe with a surplus on the ammount they can supply - whoops. It's not that simple. OPEC and OPEC+ have screwed us up before. N Sea makes a lot of sense in regards to that but Shell, BP etc will want a profit. If we have enough we wont be buying from elsewhere any more ....................... why should they just sell it here at a reduced price? Or even take on the work really? More passes but sounds a touch tricky to me.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

One of the first things she's likely to do is scrap the EU mandated 48hr working week. Kwarteng thought about it last year and now they'll push harder to get rid of that and fight the unions tooth and nail.

That just gives workers the right to not be forced to work more than 48 hours a week by their employer. They have every right to work longer hours should they so wish.
It amazes me that anyone would think taking away workers' rights is a good thing. Unless, of course you would like to exploit workers or enjoy being exploited yourself.
While we're at it, why don't we do away with the 40 hour working week, the two day weekend, sick pay, holiday pay, parental rights, health and safety law? Just a few of the benefits that unions have fought for over many years so that workers aren't exploited, can have a better work life balance, and generally better working conditions.

 

[ajohn]

PS. If I was a shareholder - I’d want to look at those special items.

Volkswagen Konzern - AR 2019 - Income Statement

of the Volkswagen Group for the period January 1 to December 31, 2019 | (XLS:) Download € million Note 2019 2018 Sales revenue 1 252,632 235,849 Cost of sales 2 −203,490 −189,500 Gross

annualreport2019.volkswagenag.com

Might be best to mention a fact about looking for information like that. Make sure it relates to the group not a subsidiary. Probably one of the ways of shifting the tax burden around. Probably a subtle reason for introducing VAT. They will get that.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Productivity is more to do with the type of job, not how hard people work. Some jobs are low margin (food, beverages, factory workers, farming) some are high margin IT, Legal services, design, finance. The more of these jobs that can be done overseas, the more we have a margin squeeze on UK jobs. That impacts productivity.

There is also the fact that many people (like me) choose to work on/off in semi retirement. Some have even chosen not to go back to work post-covid.

Productivity and margin are not the same thing though. Productivity is related to how much is produced per person, whereas margin is related to how much profit should be made per item produced.
Obviously if productivity reduces, so does the margin, but whether a particular sector is high or low margin isn't relevant.

Productivity is affected by so many factors aside from the one Liz Truss herself was heard to suggest - that workers in this country are lazy.

Some other reasons:
Poor working conditions
Lack of investment in tools, machinery, technology, software, training
Lack of options for progression
Bosses who aren't good motivators, or worse, actually demotivate workers
Lack of incentives
Poor health, perhaps due to poverty

I could go on...

 

[wellyfish]

Recent news suggests that the gov interferes with the privatised anyway. Water company - they often crop up but..........

It seems that solving the sewage problem would add £64 to everybody's water bill. Don't do it, We have a cost of living crisis. That probably before the current one. The cost - they would probably borrow it. The gov will guarantee their loan. This seems to be a common approach that may be used. In fact it has been mentioned in relationship to "gas aid". They can help the companies concerned borrow in the same way or borrow it themselves. Liability is ours either way but one way the debt doesn't appear on the gov's books.

Nuke stations appear to be different. Loads of money needed so find backers to pay for it. They will want a return. I assume electricity costs out are considered. If we will pay that they will pay for it. I posted a link to one that appears to be intended 1/3 2/3 owned by EDF and Chinese company. Institution type investment might be used. It appears from an AlJ program that hedge funds are developing an interest in utilities. Related to water and that in some countries there are signs of it becoming a commodity. The funds see it as a steady return which is bound to increase over time - a useful part of their portfolio. Spread you bets in other words. Other utilities - pass.

Nuke stations - Toshiba dropped out yonks ago now. Not enough money in it. Are we prepared to pay a suitable amount now? One new one a year? How many years to build?

The supply side of gas in particular doesn't look to good really. They invest to produce more, get to a point when the price falls maybe with a surplus on the ammount they can supply - whoops. It's not that simple. OPEC and OPEC+ have screwed us up before. N Sea makes a lot of sense in regards to that but Shell, BP etc will want a profit. If we have enough we wont be buying from elsewhere any more ....................... why should they just sell it here at a reduced price? Or even take on the work really? More passes but sounds a touch tricky to me.

To say the UK govt has to borrow it's own currency is to fundamentally misunderstand how govt fiscal ops work.

No backers are needed for any of these projects as UK govt can choose to fund them itself.

How many years to build? Rolls Royce reckon they can build their SMR in around 5 years.

There's plenty of wind power coming online in the 5 to 7 years too.

So, nothing in the very short term but plenty to be optimistic about in the next few years.

 

[Doug99]

I thought Liz Truss did pretty well at her first PMQs. There is a convention that new PMs are given the benefit of doubt during their first 100 days in office, after which the knives are out. Unfortunately for her she hasn't 100 days to fix the crisis we are facing.
She has only 24hrs in which to prepare her statement to the House of Commons on how she is going to fix the energy crisis and get the country moving again. Kier Starmer has probably already agreed his response to Liz's statement as no matter how she handles it, Kier will complain. As leader of the opposition it is always easy to moan when he doesn't need to deliver anything.

 

[ajohn]

To say the UK govt has to borrow it's own currency is to fundamentally misunderstand how govt fiscal ops work.

Oh dear. If you look and I am not going to do this for you there are details about funding methods.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Tell us more about your industrial/economic hypotheses.

Productivity is affected by so many factors aside from the one Liz Truss herself was heard to suggest - that workers in this country are lazy.

Some other reasons:
Poor working conditions
Lack of investment in tools, machinery, technology, software, training
Lack of options for progression
Bosses who aren't good motivators, or worse, actually demotivate workers
Lack of incentives
Poor health, perhaps due to poverty

I could go on...

 

[ajohn]

How many years to build? Rolls Royce reckon they can build their SMR in around 5 years.

Which they currently don't have and aren't what they intend to build. Poland I understand has ordered half a dozen off another company.

Behind as usual - one of a number of problems.

 

[wellyfish]

Oh dear. If you look and I am not going to do this for you there are details about funding methods.

Oh dear.
See my other post about researching how the money system works in the UK.

 

[wellyfish]

Which they currently don't have and aren't what they intend to build currently. Poland I understand has ordered half a dozen of another company.

Behind as usual - one of a number of problems.

I agree, currently integrated at brochure level. No reason to suppose they won't deliver though - they've been building small reactors for years. Meantime there's the offshore wind I mentioned.

 

[wellyfish]

That just gives workers the right to not be forced to work more than 48 hours a week by their employer. They have every right to work longer hours should they so wish.
It amazes me that anyone would think taking away workers' rights is a good thing. Unless, of course you would like to exploit workers or enjoy being exploited yourself.
While we're at it, why don't we do away with the 40 hour working week, the two day weekend, sick pay, holiday pay, parental rights, health and safety law? Just a few of the benefits that unions have fought for over many years so that workers aren't exploited, can have a better work life balance, and generally better working conditions.

All coming to a Charter City near you!