sheldonm

We used to be a manufacturing nation. But over the years, due to commercial realities associated with UK production costs and the demand for greener energy, manufacturing in this country has seen a sad decline. Over the last two decades The service industry has become increasingly important to the UK, so you'd imagine wouldn't you that we'd be quite good at it. How does a country (and an economy)that relies so heavily on the service industry remain so bad at what is after all a crucial part... Read Full Story

David Cameron’s talking about bringing elitism into schools. Liberal minded folk that have all but banned healthy competition in schools won’t be happy. They don’t want kids to ‘win’ in school, as that will mean that someone else will inevitably ‘lose’. Instead they’d prefer it if everyone competes, but there be no winner or loser – a contradiction in terms that I haven’t yet managed to get my head around. Perhaps they think that kids can’t cope psychologically with second place. What is it... Read Full Story

I wrote a piece some time back called the University of Life and another called Precious Metals. They've never been more relevant than they are today. The recent riots have led to a beam of damming light clearly trained on the young in our society. By young I mean the youth, but that somehow seems straightaway to have a bad collective connotation. There's no getting away from the fact that the rioters and looters actions were totally despicable . They did untold damage to businesses in... Read Full Story

The penny’s dropped. Apprenticeships are the in thing. In fact, this is the week of the apprenticeship The Government has said that there should be at least 100,000 positions readily available and offered by firms by 2014. Apprenticeships have of course been around for many years. But it’s now in the midst of a dilemma to drag this country out of recession that the Government is realising that it needs to do something; something to get the younger generation actively involved, directly and... Read Full Story

No more cash incentives for Businesses wishing to help the unemployed Despite backing from MP's and positive endorsements from Private Enterprise, the Government scheme offering cash incentives for businesses wishing to employ and train individuals that had been out of work for over six months, has been stopped. Personally I'm disappointed by this; as an employer I utilised the scheme, and as an employer I most definitely benefited from it. Since the election and the subsequent switch to the... Read Full Story

Sometimes just when you're really busy working on being successful, life sticks a foot out and decides to get right in the way. Whether it’s health or family related, life does have a knack of jumping in the way of the best laid plans - and the tricky so and so usually has the final say! I, just like everyone else continue to have my share of both good and bad bits. John Lennon's line 'life is what happens when you're busy making other plans' - that's a real gem of a statement. It pretty much... Read Full Story

Anyone earning a large salary will already be contributing more in tax than someone earning considerably less. Simple mathematics, and that's without adding ten percent on top, which of course increases the high earners tax band to half of what is earned. Not forgetting the scrapping of the tax allowance (the tax free bit) and the National Insurance contribution. That leaves you with...well I'll leave you to do the sums. My own view has always been that you've got to earn it to pay it. That... Read Full Story

I was thinking back the other day whilst watching the news; when I say 'back' I refer to around the time I was a teenager [which after all, wasn't that long ago!] We're all painfully aware of the stream of horrific items being reported in the news on a daily basis - missing children, war torn regions of the world, knife and gun crime, elderly people being mugged and so on. These events do seem to occur more now than they did years ago. But in actual fact, I've come to recognise that I just... Read Full Story

Jobs for life…no such thing, haven’t you heard? We’re in the middle of a recession. Welcome to a new year, and to the legacy of 2008 or what we now know as the deepening recession of 2009. It’s a worrying time for us all. Many trusted household brands are going to the wall, some we’ve known all our lives; thousands of people having to face and deal with the worst insecurity. Truth be known, there’s been no such thing as job security for some time, regardless of the current economic slow down... Read Full Story

Some time back I wrote a blog entitled the University of Life. This next chapter is somewhat related. Both this and the earlier piece refer to a number of people with whom I've spoken, as well as many others whom I know have empathy with this view. It's possible that had our interest been more stimulated during lessons at school rather than by what was going on outside the window, our future (or present) may have become something a little different. Perhaps we'd have gone on to become doctors... Read Full Story