Is austerity working- and will it ever end?

[Cyclone]

21 hours ago, lil-minx92 said:

Is this just for council house tenants? If so it probably saves the council money as when the old person pops their clogs the council would be left with a big clear up job. 

£15 per hour is quite a lot if the gardener justs mows and strims I suppose but a 'proper' gardener would warrant that rate

If they just mow and strim then they'll be done in what, 15 - 30 mins.  £7.5 to cut and trim the garden.  They have to travel to the location, own the equipment to do it, own a van to travel, possibly dispose of waste and so on.  They probably lose 10 mins each job they have to move to at least.

They'll be lucky if they make £100/day.  It's not all that much over minimum wage, but with significantly higher costs to run a business.

[Robin-H]

2 hours ago, Cyclone said:

If they just mow and strim then they'll be done in what, 15 - 30 mins.  £7.5 to cut and trim the garden.  They have to travel to the location, own the equipment to do it, own a van to travel, possibly dispose of waste and so on.  They probably lose 10 mins each job they have to move to at least.

They'll be lucky if they make £100/day.  It's not all that much over minimum wage, but with significantly higher costs to run a business.

£100 a day is a lot more than minimum wage. That would be about £65 a day. 

 

I don't know how accurate the website is, but according to this the average wage for a gardener is £10.11 an hour

 

https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Gardener/Hourly_Rate

 

(I have just noticed that despite the figures being in pounds, it does say that the country is the USA, so there should probably be a better source for the UK figure). 

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Robin-H

[Cyclone]

I suppose it's quite a lot.  But by the time you've taken into account all the costs of running the business it's probably not more than minimum wage at all.

 

https://www.thegardenersguild.co.uk/how_much_should_you_expect_to_pay_a_gardener.html

 

This suggests it should be higher (15/hr +), but they've probably got a vested interest.

 

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/how-to-employ-a-gardener/

This one suggests from £10 hr up to £35 hr.

[Cyclone]

Austerity in the news today, seems like the UN isn't impressed with it.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/un-poverty-austerity-uk-universal-credit-report-philip-alston-a8924576.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3wdsKl2gAS4ytVq7c4vNNLzsfJ5W83mQbYgwT6nJYxMPH80IC9iu3b7fA#Echobox=1558512170

 

Quote

UN tears into Tory-led austerity as 'ideological project causing pain and misery' in devastating report on UK poverty crisis

 

[bendix]

46 minutes ago, Cyclone said:

Austerity in the news today, seems like the UN isn't impressed with it.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/un-poverty-austerity-uk-universal-credit-report-philip-alston-a8924576.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3wdsKl2gAS4ytVq7c4vNNLzsfJ5W83mQbYgwT6nJYxMPH80IC9iu3b7fA#Echobox=1558512170

 

 

Firstly, this report (or at least an interim version) was published last November.  Secondly Alston has made a career out of issuing 'devastating criticism' of numerous countries suffering from extreme poverty, from places as diverse as Haiti and the US.  It's his raison d'etre; it's what he gets paid for.

 

He was in the UK for just two weeks, and had daily meetings in a variety of cities and towns.   

 

Tell me; what sort of people do you think UN's Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, on a fact-finding trip to the UK, would be lined up to meet on such a fleeting visit?

 

I'm not saying there isn't poverty in the UK, but let's put this into perspective a bit and not succomb so easily to alarmist headlines.

[alchresearch]

Plus I think he based his report on the Rowntree Foundation's definition of poverty, which has been torn to shreds on here numerous times.

[max]

3 hours ago, alchresearch said:

Plus I think he based his report on the Rowntree Foundation's definition of poverty, which has been torn to shreds on here numerous times.

I think you should show where it's been torn to shreds rather than just putting it out there.
 

[Cyclone]

19 hours ago, bendix said:

Firstly, this report (or at least an interim version) was published last November.  Secondly Alston has made a career out of issuing 'devastating criticism' of numerous countries suffering from extreme poverty, from places as diverse as Haiti and the US.  It's his raison d'etre; it's what he gets paid for.

 

He was in the UK for just two weeks, and had daily meetings in a variety of cities and towns.   

 

Tell me; what sort of people do you think UN's Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, on a fact-finding trip to the UK, would be lined up to meet on such a fleeting visit?

 

I'm not saying there isn't poverty in the UK, but let's put this into perspective a bit and not succomb so easily to alarmist headlines.

Is this really the same report that's popped back up into the media again?  How strange, I assumed it was something new.

[bendix]

Yup. The stories late last year were based on his interim report.  They are now reporting on his completed report.  No doubt later this year they will report on his appendices.  

[alchresearch]

On 19/03/2019 at 09:41, max said:

Surely we cannot consider austerity to be over until such time as services are returned to the level they were at before 2010? By services I include all those public sector jobs which have been decimated. Those such as fire, police, librarians, nurses, etc., etc. 

Why 2010? Labour began cutting police budgets and numbers in 2001.