In 2015, in a bid to help small & medium sized enterprises (SMEs) the Cabinet Office gave itself 5 years to expand #procurement from SMEs to a third of all Govt. purchasing of goods & services.
The deadline was then extended to 2022, but the proportion of procurement from SMEs has actually remained broadly static at around 25%.
Only the the Dept. of Cuture Media & Sport beat the target making nearly half of all purchases from SMEs
Govt. lacks a real plan & #corporates 'play the game' better!
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Yes, I would think that will be the case, and the cynic in me says that's the point of this latest period of wrecking - lots of distraction to ensure Labour cannot conduct any large scale strategic economic policies as they'll be too busy dealing with the immediate problems left by the #Tories scorched earth policies of the last year or so
100 Years ago we already knew that #coal fired #energy generation was going to be having an impact on our climate;
But, of course such predictions were lost in the smog of C20th industrial success & growth....
But, we really can't say we weren't warned we were heading towards a #climatecrisis...
its just the voices were too weak against the (understandable) clamour for #economic #development
Guess we know now!
(well most of us, that is)
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1912-article-global-warming/
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Again, only speaking from my experience, that really didn't seem an issue.... but I only worked at one studio & only for a relatively short time
Some news for those interested in #shipping:
The #cimatecrisis linked droughts across the world have now limited the capacity of the #panamacanal ... a route used because its cheap & efficient for the America's #supplychains.
You're going to see a lot more of this in the next few years... (and off course we've already seen the capacity impact on river shipping in #Germnay - see toot from a couple of weeks ago)
So perhaps unsurprisingly it transpires that if you slang off your workforce, blame them for your mistakes & generally treat them like the enemy, your #civilservice will have a staff retention problem....
of course the #Tories wont see this as a problem, as they're working to disable the state in any case, but for the rest of us, the steady loss of expertise in the #publicsector is a significant concern for all of us
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Having worked (in my youth) in a recording studio, I think such effects from Maida Vale would have been very different than the disruption from TV Centre.... music studios' soundproofing is pretty good for their own reasons (but that benefits neighbours of course)
#Nationalisation now seems to be something the majority of #voters would like to see in tree key sectors... I wonder what the #Labour Party thinks about all of this?
Or perhaps we should be asking what the Labour Party think the Right-wing #media will think?
But the conclusion is pretty stark, voters do not think privatisation of these state assets was a success!
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aha, apologies for drawing the inference from your post
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yes, this what was so odd about her; on one hand an ability (not always present) to see clearly what the problem was, but then a tendency to act on the basis of ideology not evidence (which is where she parted company from her scientist peers, I guess)
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Absolutely; we're on the same page there!
Born on this day:
Lorez Alexandria (1929-2001) - singer
Jeannie Cheatham (*1927 [?]) - singer, piano
Eddie Costa (1930-1962) - piano, vibes
Buddy Greco (1926-2017) - vocals, piano, vibes, organ
Zane Massey (*1957) - sax
Mikio Masuda (*1949) - piano
Justin Robinson (*1968) - alto sax
Ben Sidran (*1943) - piano, singer
Ada "Bricktop" Smith (1894-1984) - singer
Stuff Smith (1909-1967) - violin
Lloyd Swanton (*1960) - bass
Jimmy Wormworth (*1937) - drums
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#JazzBirthdays #OnThisDay
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And lets not forget Ben Sidran's writing - including the great Black Talk
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As much as I detested Thatcher, and didn't agree with it, she at least had a plan. The current Tories appear clueless, feckless and careless about anything other than their own personal gain.
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Yes, its extraordinary isn't it; indeed sometimes I thought she had diagnosed the problem(s) quite well, but then drawn conclusions that seemed nonsensical (or driven by prejudice or skewed advice)... which this lot have merely emphasised.
[just to be clear, I'd still have preferred a couple try where Thatcher got no where near the levers of power!]
On an entitle different matter....
Looking through #SebastioSalgado's mammoth #Workers book of #photography, I'm getting pretty frustrated at the number of landscape-oriented photos that are spread across two pages.
This might have looked great on the set-up screen, but in the real world of a printed book, short of racially breaking the spine, the middle of the photo disappears into the binding.
Given the otherwise high-quality reproductions from Phaidon in the book, this seems idiotic!
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I don';t have to go that far... there's a #Lexiter round the corner from me who has gone very quite on it & now sees it all as a larger historical structural issue....
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Yes, there's certainly some signs of that if the manoeuvres & sloganing are a sign
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Yes, its extraordinary isn't it; the analysis is fine, but you do get the feeling that the #lexiters are trying to subsume our problems into a much broader history (partly to absolve themselves)
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yes, a friend opened a light-meals/coffee place, which has a pretty good local monopoly in the #LuneValley last year, and while he can afford to run at break-even for some time (due to other interests) even he is having difficulty keeping the business viable... difficult times indeed for #hospitality
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Well, I think that's very much about the class structure of regions - around here we have a large middle-class & professional population who until recently were relatively unaffected by the #costoflivingcrisis - but now with raised #motgage costs & over family expenditures rising (for themselves & their children), a realignment of expenditure seems to be taking place....
Larry Elliot observes two key issues about the domination of #services in the UK economy:
1. services firms are concentrated in #London & SE increasing the problem of regional #inequality;
2. Despite their success, they cannot counter the massive deterioration in the #balanceoftrade in commodities & manufactured goods, that is driving our worsening trade deficit;
to which I would add:
3. due to their character services do little for the UK's #productivity problem!