Roundup - April 2008

HHappy Easter to all our readers.

The picture this month comes from Susan Claremont-Smith and is called Sea Spirit. We think it conjures up the turbulent weather hitting our shores during March.

Hopefully you have ridden the storms with no lasting damage. It is encouraging that our weather services are able to predict such events with quite a degree of accuracy.

The March budget did its usual, 'giveth on the one hand and taketh more with the other'. We face having to pay yet more tax for a glass of red wine. Why does the government think that raising taxes on booze will reduce booze problems? After all, they have done just about everything to stop us from smoking, yet people still smoke. For the huge majority of us that don't have a booze problem, perhaps it is time to go back to home brewing again. Seriously though, shouldn't people be responsible for themselves and publicans be held responsible for whom they are selling to? The laws are already in place, but seldom exercised.

The price of wheat is fuelling significant price increases in basic food such as bread. We are being told that cheap food is a thing of the past. How many people, one wonders, thought that food was cheap?

Green is big, and rapidly getting bigger. The government, however, isn't quite as in tune with the movement as it says it is. Simply raising taxes isn't getting more trains and buses to our most rural areas. For many areas of the UK, a journey into town and back, which takes half an hour in a car, will take all day using public transport. For many areas of the UK there is an early bus into town and only one bus back later that day. There are areas with no bus services at all. The stark reality is that the government are taking the taxes, but they are not putting nearly enough money into greener initiatives. With more increases in fuel prices and fuel duty, rural dwellers are becoming more isolated.

Alarm bells should be ringing by now for any business that employs migrant workers. Poland, but one of many eastern European countries, is increasing wages to entice the Polish to stay put and help build and modernise their country. Wages have increased three-fold for some jobs in Poland, which is making many Polish workers here in the UK seriously think about returning home to their families. This would be damaging for many UK firms who find it difficult to attract hard working, honest to goodness workers. Contrary to popular belief, migrant work is not about cheap labour. If you can hack ten hours a day picking crops, you too could earn between £18K and £25K per year.

Employing migrant workers was only ever a short-term strategy for British businesses. Perhaps the government might get the wake up call it needs to ensure that we have enough home-grown trades people and labourers to take the place of our eastern European friends. We need a long-term, sustainable strategy. A strategy that starts at school.

Many schools have a Sixth Form, which no longer makes any sense because it comes after year 12 under the current naming convention, not the Fifth Year as it used to. The issue though, is schools with a Sixth Form entice children from year 7 onwards to stay on at school, rather than getting a job. We reported earlier this year that many universities disregard the newer, less academic qualifications taught at Sixth Form. So while our kids are being taught Travel & Tourism, Citizenship, Business Studies or similar, they could be out learning this stuff in a paid job. More importantly, they could be getting vital career experiences. Instead of Sixth Forms, the government could be putting our taxes into skill-building schemes, like apprenticeships. If we can't get Brickies, Chippies and Sparkies from Europe, where else do we look? Let's start looking here, in Britain.

On the film front, latest news is that Harry Potter 7, the final instalment, will be split into two episodes. The main reason is the lack of sub-plots in the final book, which can often be missed out in the film to keep it to within an acceptable timeframe. We'll have to wait until 2010 for the first episode. Harry will be back in the 6th film later this year. Watch out also for the return of the Muppets. Coming up in the next three months we have Iron Man, the Hulk and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, three great adventure films. On the lighter side, there is Sex and The City later in May.