Professor Prem Sikka
Professor of Accountancy, Essex University
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/
Morning Star Conference Spring 2015: "How to Defeat Austerity?"
Slides from breakout session B4: Update on Brexit and the implications for charities, from the NCVO Annual Conference which took place on 16 April 2018.
2020 has brought fundamental changes to our lives, both personally and professionally. As our economy took second place to our health, so the welfare safety net came to the fore to support families who faced an income shock, seemingly overnight.
In this webinar Deven Ghelani, Zoe Charlesworth, Paul Howarth and Duncan Hatfield looked back at the policy response to the seismic shifts in our economy and society wrought by the pandemic. We revisited the research findings we uncovered from our analysis for clients across both local and central government. And, as the focus turns to the health of our economy, we look at what 2021 means for people facing redundancy, debt or lower incomes.
Listen back to the webinar to hear:
- How well the COVID-19 welfare changes worked, and what should happen next
- How living standards changed this year, and what the future holds
- The outlook for 2021 and how organisations can best support families
Our policy experts will discuss our analysis and what this means in 2021 for council tax support schemes, housing and homelessness demand, the outlook for living standards in the context of economic recovery, Universal Credit and Brexit.
For more information visit www.policyinpractice.co.uk, email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk or call 0330 088 9242.
Introduction to hyper local media, part one: audience data, definitions and U...Damian Radcliffe
12" pack broken into three, due to file size. This is part one which looks at audience data, definitions, and different UK examples.
Comments, feedback and suggestions are very welcome.
Slides from breakout session B4: Update on Brexit and the implications for charities, from the NCVO Annual Conference which took place on 16 April 2018.
2020 has brought fundamental changes to our lives, both personally and professionally. As our economy took second place to our health, so the welfare safety net came to the fore to support families who faced an income shock, seemingly overnight.
In this webinar Deven Ghelani, Zoe Charlesworth, Paul Howarth and Duncan Hatfield looked back at the policy response to the seismic shifts in our economy and society wrought by the pandemic. We revisited the research findings we uncovered from our analysis for clients across both local and central government. And, as the focus turns to the health of our economy, we look at what 2021 means for people facing redundancy, debt or lower incomes.
Listen back to the webinar to hear:
- How well the COVID-19 welfare changes worked, and what should happen next
- How living standards changed this year, and what the future holds
- The outlook for 2021 and how organisations can best support families
Our policy experts will discuss our analysis and what this means in 2021 for council tax support schemes, housing and homelessness demand, the outlook for living standards in the context of economic recovery, Universal Credit and Brexit.
For more information visit www.policyinpractice.co.uk, email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk or call 0330 088 9242.
Introduction to hyper local media, part one: audience data, definitions and U...Damian Radcliffe
12" pack broken into three, due to file size. This is part one which looks at audience data, definitions, and different UK examples.
Comments, feedback and suggestions are very welcome.
A engenharia de performance é utilizada por grandes corporações como Dell, HP, Microsoft, Google, Facebook e Amazon para prover sistemas que sejam escaláveis, estáveis e rápidos.
Esta apresentação cobre a motivação na execução de testes de desempenho, o que ele é e o que busca responder, qual o processo que se utiliza e os principais problemas de performance encontrados nos sistemas.
O principal objetivo do GUTS Universitário é aproximar o GUTS-RS com a comunidade acadêmica através de encontros e palestras dentro de universidades. Queremos levar temas relacionados a qualidade e testes de software para alunos de graduação com o intuito de reforçar a importância da nossa área e instigá-los a buscar respostas para os desafios enfrentados por nós como tema para trabalhos de conclusão de curso (TCC) e artigos acadêmicos. Com isso, podemos aproveitar o conhecimento acadêmico para melhorar o nosso dia-a-dia dentro das nossas empresas, equipes ou projetos.
Apresentação realizada em Abril de 2015 durante o GU Day 2015. É uma breve apresentação sobre TDD já que o objetivo principal foi realizar um Coding DOJO para aprender na prática sobre esse conceito.
[GUTS-RS] World Quality Report 2014-15 Key FindingsGUTS-RS
Apresentação realizada em Março de 2015 durante evento promovido pelo GUTS-RS em Porto Alegre/RS. O objetivo é apresentar as principais conclusões do World Quality Report 2014-15. O relatório contém tendências mundias na área de QA e Teste e é elaborado anualmente pelas empresas HP, Sogeti a Capgemini.
[GUTS-RS] DOJO de Arquitetura e Estratégia de TestesGUTS-RS
Dado um produto, serviço ou sistema conhecido, como testaríamos? Quais os tipos de teste? Quais os níveis de teste? O que está contido em QA e o que está contido em DevOps?
A proposta deste DOJO foi criar a arquitetura e estratégia de testes de forma colaborativa e gerar aprendizado. A dinâmica foi conduzida por Guilherme Motta e Émerson Hernadez que atuam como Agile Coachs e na gestão de equipes que desenvolvem software.
[GUTS-RS] Workshop (prático) de Testes Automatizados para dispositivos móveis...GUTS-RS
Os aplicativos móveis tem nos acompanhado em todos os momentos. Cada vez mais diferentes empresas lançam aplicativos para manter o usuário conectado com seu produto ou marca. Logo é necessário, como testadores, não somente saber como testar manualmente estas aplicações, mas também como automatizá-las.
Neste workshop veremos a vantagem de utilizar a ferramenta de automação para dispositivos móveis Appium, com foco em Android. O Appium é baseado na API do Selenium WebDriver, onde colocaremos todo nosso conhecimento desta ferramenta para o desenvolvimento de scripts automatizados para aplicativos móveis.
[GUTS-RS] Testes de Usabilidade e Acessibilidade para melhorar a experiência ...GUTS-RS
A palestra tem como objetivo apresentar os conceitos de usabilidade e acessibilidade, mostrando como uma interface que segue esses conceitos pode melhorar a experiência de uso do usuário. A usabilidade e acessibilidade de sistemas deve ser analisada durante o processo de desenvolvimento a fim de garantir eficiência, satisfação e segurança dos usuários. Também serão apresentados exemplos e benefícios associados aos sistemas que cumprem as boas práticas no sentido de usabilidade e acessibilidade.
[GUTS-RS] GUTS Testing Games - Jogo BDD WarriorsGUTS-RS
O BDD (Behaviour-Driven Development) é uma técnica colaborativa para implementar uma aplicação através da descrição do seu comportamento. Utilizada juntamente com automação de testes funcionais e TDD, ela permite a geração de uma documentação viva, onde mudanças tanto na especificações como na aplicação são detectadas pelos testes automatizados.
O jogo BDD Warriors é um jogo de cartas print&play projetado para auxiliar iniciantes a pensar em termos de cenários e questionar a lógica da especificação, além de fixar a sintaxe básica. O jogo foi projetado por Ana Carolina Hermann que é desenvolvedora Java e .Net na empresa DBServer.
[GUTS-RS] Práticas de desenvolvimento aplicadas na automação de testes com Se...GUTS-RS
Robson Bittencourt apresenta dicas práticas para ajudar você a organizar os seus testes automatizados ao criar suites de testes mais robustas, com foco na reutilização de código e clareza dos testes utilizando práticas de Orientação a Objetos e organização de código, como Clean Code e SOLID. Tudo isso para que você possa aumentar a cobertura dos seus testes automizados de forma simples e fácil!
Palestra "Tudo o que você precisa saber para começar a automação de testes em dispositivos móveis".
Visando ajudar os profissionais que querem começar na área, Elias Nogueira apresenta os primeiros passos e principais conceitos para iniciar a automação de testes de aplicativos móveis. Conhecimentos técnicos necessários para testar aplicações híbridas (iOS e Android) e ferramentas disponíveis no mercado são apresentados.
[GUTS-RS] GUTS Talks - Ferramentas de Automação de TestesGUTS-RS
O GUTS Talks é um evento com quatro palestras de curta duração (10 ou 15min cada) e com um fishbowl de encerramento para proporcionar a troca de conhecimento entre os participantes.
Cada edição do GUTS Talks terá um tema central onde os palestrantes apresentarão o mesmo tema sob diferentes perspectivas. A edição de julho será sobre ferramentas de automação de testes.
DevOps representa o alinhamento do time de desenvolvimento com o time de operações, em relação à processos, ferramentas e responsabilidades, visando acelerar as entregas em produção com um elevado grau de qualidade.
A palestra da Kamilla Queiróz intitulada DevOps pela visão de QA apresenta o papel de DevOps sobre a perspectiva de um QA, trazendo e desmistificando a origem e a relação entre infraestrutura e desenvolvedores. Além disso, mostra como é a atuação do profissional envolvido e os ganhos com o mesmo.
On Wednesday 23 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, will deliver the first Autumn Statement since the Brexit vote. He will set out the Government's taxation and spending plans based on the economic projections provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
A engenharia de performance é utilizada por grandes corporações como Dell, HP, Microsoft, Google, Facebook e Amazon para prover sistemas que sejam escaláveis, estáveis e rápidos.
Esta apresentação cobre a motivação na execução de testes de desempenho, o que ele é e o que busca responder, qual o processo que se utiliza e os principais problemas de performance encontrados nos sistemas.
O principal objetivo do GUTS Universitário é aproximar o GUTS-RS com a comunidade acadêmica através de encontros e palestras dentro de universidades. Queremos levar temas relacionados a qualidade e testes de software para alunos de graduação com o intuito de reforçar a importância da nossa área e instigá-los a buscar respostas para os desafios enfrentados por nós como tema para trabalhos de conclusão de curso (TCC) e artigos acadêmicos. Com isso, podemos aproveitar o conhecimento acadêmico para melhorar o nosso dia-a-dia dentro das nossas empresas, equipes ou projetos.
Apresentação realizada em Abril de 2015 durante o GU Day 2015. É uma breve apresentação sobre TDD já que o objetivo principal foi realizar um Coding DOJO para aprender na prática sobre esse conceito.
[GUTS-RS] World Quality Report 2014-15 Key FindingsGUTS-RS
Apresentação realizada em Março de 2015 durante evento promovido pelo GUTS-RS em Porto Alegre/RS. O objetivo é apresentar as principais conclusões do World Quality Report 2014-15. O relatório contém tendências mundias na área de QA e Teste e é elaborado anualmente pelas empresas HP, Sogeti a Capgemini.
[GUTS-RS] DOJO de Arquitetura e Estratégia de TestesGUTS-RS
Dado um produto, serviço ou sistema conhecido, como testaríamos? Quais os tipos de teste? Quais os níveis de teste? O que está contido em QA e o que está contido em DevOps?
A proposta deste DOJO foi criar a arquitetura e estratégia de testes de forma colaborativa e gerar aprendizado. A dinâmica foi conduzida por Guilherme Motta e Émerson Hernadez que atuam como Agile Coachs e na gestão de equipes que desenvolvem software.
[GUTS-RS] Workshop (prático) de Testes Automatizados para dispositivos móveis...GUTS-RS
Os aplicativos móveis tem nos acompanhado em todos os momentos. Cada vez mais diferentes empresas lançam aplicativos para manter o usuário conectado com seu produto ou marca. Logo é necessário, como testadores, não somente saber como testar manualmente estas aplicações, mas também como automatizá-las.
Neste workshop veremos a vantagem de utilizar a ferramenta de automação para dispositivos móveis Appium, com foco em Android. O Appium é baseado na API do Selenium WebDriver, onde colocaremos todo nosso conhecimento desta ferramenta para o desenvolvimento de scripts automatizados para aplicativos móveis.
[GUTS-RS] Testes de Usabilidade e Acessibilidade para melhorar a experiência ...GUTS-RS
A palestra tem como objetivo apresentar os conceitos de usabilidade e acessibilidade, mostrando como uma interface que segue esses conceitos pode melhorar a experiência de uso do usuário. A usabilidade e acessibilidade de sistemas deve ser analisada durante o processo de desenvolvimento a fim de garantir eficiência, satisfação e segurança dos usuários. Também serão apresentados exemplos e benefícios associados aos sistemas que cumprem as boas práticas no sentido de usabilidade e acessibilidade.
[GUTS-RS] GUTS Testing Games - Jogo BDD WarriorsGUTS-RS
O BDD (Behaviour-Driven Development) é uma técnica colaborativa para implementar uma aplicação através da descrição do seu comportamento. Utilizada juntamente com automação de testes funcionais e TDD, ela permite a geração de uma documentação viva, onde mudanças tanto na especificações como na aplicação são detectadas pelos testes automatizados.
O jogo BDD Warriors é um jogo de cartas print&play projetado para auxiliar iniciantes a pensar em termos de cenários e questionar a lógica da especificação, além de fixar a sintaxe básica. O jogo foi projetado por Ana Carolina Hermann que é desenvolvedora Java e .Net na empresa DBServer.
[GUTS-RS] Práticas de desenvolvimento aplicadas na automação de testes com Se...GUTS-RS
Robson Bittencourt apresenta dicas práticas para ajudar você a organizar os seus testes automatizados ao criar suites de testes mais robustas, com foco na reutilização de código e clareza dos testes utilizando práticas de Orientação a Objetos e organização de código, como Clean Code e SOLID. Tudo isso para que você possa aumentar a cobertura dos seus testes automizados de forma simples e fácil!
Palestra "Tudo o que você precisa saber para começar a automação de testes em dispositivos móveis".
Visando ajudar os profissionais que querem começar na área, Elias Nogueira apresenta os primeiros passos e principais conceitos para iniciar a automação de testes de aplicativos móveis. Conhecimentos técnicos necessários para testar aplicações híbridas (iOS e Android) e ferramentas disponíveis no mercado são apresentados.
[GUTS-RS] GUTS Talks - Ferramentas de Automação de TestesGUTS-RS
O GUTS Talks é um evento com quatro palestras de curta duração (10 ou 15min cada) e com um fishbowl de encerramento para proporcionar a troca de conhecimento entre os participantes.
Cada edição do GUTS Talks terá um tema central onde os palestrantes apresentarão o mesmo tema sob diferentes perspectivas. A edição de julho será sobre ferramentas de automação de testes.
DevOps representa o alinhamento do time de desenvolvimento com o time de operações, em relação à processos, ferramentas e responsabilidades, visando acelerar as entregas em produção com um elevado grau de qualidade.
A palestra da Kamilla Queiróz intitulada DevOps pela visão de QA apresenta o papel de DevOps sobre a perspectiva de um QA, trazendo e desmistificando a origem e a relação entre infraestrutura e desenvolvedores. Além disso, mostra como é a atuação do profissional envolvido e os ganhos com o mesmo.
On Wednesday 23 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, will deliver the first Autumn Statement since the Brexit vote. He will set out the Government's taxation and spending plans based on the economic projections provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Slides from the Nevin Economic Research Institute's post Budget seminar. Speakers Michelle Murphy (Social Justice Ireland), Cormac Staunton (TASC) and Michael Taft (UNITE)
The EU Referendum - what's the big dealWorld First
World First's chief economist, Jeremy Cook, talks about the history of Britain in Europe, the arguments for and against Brexit, and what impact it will have on businesses.
This presentation discusses austerity measures as part of a government fiscal management cycle. The emphasis of the presentation is to look government debt and deficits as way to understand how to managed those areas.
Organised by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK Research Office
Tuesday 11 February 2014, Brussels
The Scottish Government is holding a referendum on 18 September 2014 asking “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
The UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has initiated a Future of the UK and Scotland programme of activities bringing the best of UK social science to the debate about Scotland’s constitutional future and its implications for the rest of the UK and Europe. This work aims to both inform the debate in the run-up to the referendum and assist in planning across a wide range of areas which will be affected by the outcome of the vote – whether for Scottish independence or continued Union.
This meeting offered an overview of the programme of work and focused on the key areas of migration and business, on questions about Scotland and the UK’s future membership of the EU as the Scottish referendum – and potentially a UK referendum on EU membership – approach.
Francis Clark is delighted to present our 9th annual Finance in Cornwall event, which has become an integral part of ‘Cornwall Business Week’.
The event looks to bring together people representing the funding and support streams potentially available to SMEs. Therefore, the event is of great relevance to Business Owners and Managers looking to find the best finance options available for their business and the support on offer to help them achieve their aims.
This year's event includes presentations from the big banks as well as the "alternative" finance providers. There will also be a number of organisations contracted to provide business support; including the providers of the Growth Hub and an update on 'European Funding'.
Uk gilt holdings and qe - money for nothing gilts for freeJohn Ashcroft
Since QE began in early 2009, UK gilts in issue have increased from £600 billion to £1.6 trillion. Bank of England holdings have increased from zero to £400 billion accounting for 25% of all gilts in issue. BoE holdings peaked at almost 30% of total holdings in 2012. Overseas holdings of gilts, have doubled from £200 billion to £400 billion. In the most recent period, overseas holdings have fallen to 25% of all gilts in issue, compared to an historical average of 30%. UK institutional holdings of gilts have increased from £400 billion to £800 billion accounting for 50% of all gilts in issue. Holdings of gilts by pension funds and insurance funds have increased from just over £200 billion to almost £500 billion. As a share of total gilts in issue, pension fund and insurance company holdings have been steady at around 28% over the six year period. Other UK financial institutions have seen a fluctuation in holdings with some suggestion of “front running” i.e. buying gilts ahead of the Bank of England purchase programme to benefit from rising prices. in the initial stages. In fact, all major stakeholders in gilts have increased holdings over the five year period. This raises an interesting question about from whom has the Bank of England bought gilts as part of the QE process? Only in the very early stages of QE is there evidence of purchased from the private sector (note 7). In reality it would appear the Bank of England purchases gilts from the Debt Management Office and not from financial institutions. Asset values are guaranteed by Treasury. JKA
Dividends, yields and coupons are also returned to Treasury, which effectively enables the government to finance borrowing with a Dire Straits underpin “Money for nothing - Gilts for Free.”
The official name of UK is “United kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland”
United kingdom began in 1707 with political union of the kingdom of England and Scotland
The economy of UK is highly developed & market oriented
It has made significant contribution in technology & industry to the world economy.
01062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
03062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
हम आग्रह करते हैं कि जो भी सत्ता में आए, वह संविधान का पालन करे, उसकी रक्षा करे और उसे बनाए रखे।" प्रस्ताव में कुल तीन प्रमुख हस्तक्षेप और उनके तंत्र भी प्रस्तुत किए गए। पहला हस्तक्षेप स्वतंत्र मीडिया को प्रोत्साहित करके, वास्तविकता पर आधारित काउंटर नैरेटिव का निर्माण करके और सत्तारूढ़ सरकार द्वारा नियोजित मनोवैज्ञानिक हेरफेर की रणनीति का मुकाबला करके लोगों द्वारा निर्धारित कथा को बनाए रखना और उस पर कार्यकरना था।
role of women and girls in various terror groupssadiakorobi2
Women have three distinct types of involvement: direct involvement in terrorist acts; enabling of others to commit such acts; and facilitating the disengagement of others from violent or extremist groups.
31052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
In a May 9, 2024 paper, Juri Opitz from the University of Zurich, along with Shira Wein and Nathan Schneider form Georgetown University, discussed the importance of linguistic expertise in natural language processing (NLP) in an era dominated by large language models (LLMs).
The authors explained that while machine translation (MT) previously relied heavily on linguists, the landscape has shifted. “Linguistics is no longer front and center in the way we build NLP systems,” they said. With the emergence of LLMs, which can generate fluent text without the need for specialized modules to handle grammar or semantic coherence, the need for linguistic expertise in NLP is being questioned.
Do Linguistics Still Matter in the Age of Large Language Models.pptx
2015 march prem_sikka_morning_star_conferece_presentation
1. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
“HOW TO FIGHT
AUSTERITY”
Prem Sikka (prems@essex.ac.uk)
Centre for Global Accountability, University of
Essex, UK
Director, Association for Accountancy &
Business Affairs (aabaglobal.org)
1
2. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Almost Permanent Austerity
•Systematic erosion of normal people’s
purchasing power and dignity
•Organised Humiliation of Normal People
•Corporate Welfare programme
•Predatory Capitalism
•Political System ignores the concerns of
normal people.
2
4. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
Shrinking share of GDP
•1976: Wages and Salaries
65.1% of GDP
•2014: 53/54%
•2020: less than 50%?
4
5. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Low Pay and Insecurity
•5.3 million paid less than the living wage
•700,000 on zero contract hours (casual labour).
TUC says much higher
•250,000 workers denied the minimum wage
•13 million live below the poverty line – rise of the
working poor
•Gender pay gap
•Legalised age discrimination – not even minimum
wage for the under 20
•Ian Duncan Smith – Anyone can live on £7 a day.
Malcolm Rifkind can’t live on £60,000 5
6. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Rising income/wealth inequalities
•Wealth of the richest 1% = combined total
held by the poorest 55% of the population.
•Top 10% have 44% of all household wealth
•Poorest 50% muster 9% of total wealth.
•UK workers have experienced the biggest
real-term drop in their living standards since
the mid-19th century
•2014: Wealth of the richest 1,000 people
increased by 15.4% to £519 billion.
6
7. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Low Pensions
•Demise of the final salary pension schemes
•Poorly paid workers can’t provide for pension
•UK state pension is low
•Italy: 70% of earnings
•France: 50%
•Australia: 50%
•UK: 32.6%
•Mexico: 28.5%
•UK Retirement Age raised whilst elites retire early
with massive pensions
7
8. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Pension Tax Relief
•Tax relief on pension contributions is worth
£34.8bn a year. To put this into perspective, the
budget for NHS England is around £95bn, while
the total spend by the military is around £33bn.
•70% of that £34.8bn in tax relief is taken by
higher or top rate taxpayers.
•Reduce tax relief to basic rate of 20% for all up
to a maximum pension pot of say £1m. Savings
= £10-£15bn?
8
9. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Loss of free university education
•Life of debt for students and their
families
•Labour introduced fees in 1998 - £1000
•2014 – Average about £9,000
•Miliband: reduce it to £6,000
•Scotland: free higher education
•Germany: Abolished university fees
9
10. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
Regressive Taxation
•1979- Poorest 10%paid 35% of income in
direct/indirect taxes; richest 10% -37%
•1997 – Poorest 10% paid 44% of income in
direct/indirect taxes; richest 10% - 34%
•2010 - Poorest 10% paid 43% of income in
direct/indirect taxes; richest 10% - 33%
•2014 - Poorest 10% paid 47% of income in
direct/indirect taxes; richest 10% - 35%
10
11. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Systematic weakening of workers’ rights
•1980: 80% of workers covered by collective
bargaining agreements; 2014: 25%
•Trade union membership – 1980, 13 million; 2014,
6 million
•2014: fees to take cases to employment tribunals
•Redundancy consultation period to be reduced
from 90 to 45 days for 100 redundancies
•Less than 20 staff: no consultation is
necessary
•
11
12. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Economic recovery based on personal debt
•The highest personal debt (about £1.4 trillion), the
highest per capita in the EU.
•Government is banking on £2.15 trillion
•Haven for payday lenders
12
13. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
A SOMETHING FOR
NOTHING SOCIETY:
CORPORATE
WELFARE
13
14. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Contrary to neoliberal claims, the state has not
been rolled-back. State power used to create
private monopolies – gas, water, electricity
(profiteering).
•The state guarantees corporate profits and
transfer wealth upwards
•Govt outsourcing at a round £88bn a year.
•£85bn a year in grants, subsidies, insurance
schemes, preferential credit and government
services (Kevin Farnsworth research)
•Little specific information – hidden behind cloak of
confidentiality 14
15. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Bank Bailout: Now creative Accounting
•Oct 2014: Public sector net debt excluding public
sector banks (PSND ex) was £1,449.2 billion
(79.5 % of GDP).
•October 2014: Public sector net debt including
public sector banks (PSND) was £2,285.3 billion
(125.8% of GDP). This figure has now been
revised down to £1,763.0 billion (97.0% of GDP),
a decrease of £522.3 billion, primarily due to the
re-classification of LBG to the private sector
•Quantitative Easing - £375 billion
15
16. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•In 2012, the European Union provided €83bn
(£70bn) in support of agricultural producers,
about 19% of the total farm receipts. Over the
years Tate & Lyle has received €830m even
though it does not own any farms. Nestle has
collected €93m. Others include Haribo, the
sweet manufacturer; Groupe Doux, a French
chicken processor, which does not raise poultry;
Coca-Cola, the Duke of Westminster, the UK
Royal family and the Catholic Church.
16
17. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•G4S could not provide security for the London
Olympics
•Private companies running prisons
•Serco received £2bn of taxpayer funded
contracts. The company has been accused of
charging the taxpayer for electronically tagging
offenders who were dead or in prison. The
Serious Fraud Office is examining the claims
•SERCO could not provide out of office cover
for GPs in Cornwall
•Private Academies 17
18. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Railway Companies: £4-5 billion subsidy for
each year since privatisation
•BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and
Shell: In the last decade, they made profits of nearly
$1 trillion, but demand subsidies for drilling for oil
and gas in North sea. The industry probably picked a
subsidy of $6.8bn (£4.25bn) in 2011
•BT has annual turnover of £18 billion and profits of
£2.5bn, but received a government subsidy of
£1.2bn to install broadband for rural areas.
18
19. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Atos has been severely criticised for its
handling of the £500m project for carrying out
"fitness to work" tests on disabled benefits
claimants, and had to be removed. Soon, it
received another public contract to extract
patient records from GP surgeries for the NHS
data sharing scheme.
19
20. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•EDF and its partners are set to
receive £17.6billion subsidy for
building a nuclear power plant to
generate electricity even though this
investment is projected to provide a
return of up to 21%
20
21. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•PFI: Capital value £55bn. The government is
committed to repaying £301bn, a guaranteed
profit of £247bn
•Some PFI contracts moved to tax havens so
the companies won’t pay UK corporate taxes.
•Walt Disney Corporation collected a subsidy of
£16.6m for making parts of Captain America,
Thor, and Guardians of the Galaxy in the UK.
The film receipts go to Disney. Since 2007 -
£137 million (Kevin Farnsworth)
21
22. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•With 13million people living below the poverty
line, many on low wages and lengthening queues at
food banks, most Britons can only dream about
buying a sporty car.
•Lotus, the sports car manufacturer, has received
£10billion subsidy.
•And in case someone on minimum wages gets fed-
up with Lotus they can always try their hand at a
Porsche where the price of a £90,000 model is
reduced by £5,000, thanks to a government subsidy.
22
23. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Tax Avoidance/Evasion is rife
•HMRC: Tax gap - £34 billion a year (6.8% of
total tax liabilities)
•Other estimates - £120 billion a year
•No action against HSBC, PwC or any other
corporation
•Corp tax rate reduced form 52% (1979) to
20%, but no let-up in tax avoidance.
•Social security benefits: £164 billion, fraud
£1.7bn (0.7%). 2012/13: 9.836 prosecutions
23
24. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Boots generates about 40% of its UK revenues by processing NHS
prescriptions
•Following a buy-out, the company shifted its headquarters from
Nottingham to the Swiss canton of Zug.
•The buy-out was financed by a debt of £9bn.
•The debt bought a global business, but has mostly been left in the
UK
•The UK government gives tax relief on interest payments even
though the debt is not entirely used in the UK.
•This has enabled Boots to reduce its UK taxable income by £4.2bn
from 2007 to 2013 and lower its tax payments by nearly £1bn.
•The UK government could change the rules so the level of tax
relief is restricted to the amount of debt relevant to the UK
business, but has not done so. 24
26. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Since the 1970s
•Privatisations (public is bad, private is good –
HSBC, banking sleaze)
•Strive to meet market profit expectations
•Must declare higher profits
•Profit related pay
•CEO tenure is less than 5 years
•Profits cooked
•No personal consequences
26
27. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Banks have been serial offenders
•Accountancy firms are the epicentre of global
tax avoidance
•Fake supermarket sales
•Tesco accounting
•Rip-off practices by train, gas, water, electricity,
phone companies
•Price comparison websites cheat customers
27
28. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•No industrial democracy (unlike Scandinavian
countries)
•Directors cast thousands of proxy votes
•Shareholder model of corporations has failed.
•The UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking
Standards concluded that “shareholders failed
to control risk-taking in banks, and indeed were
criticising some for excessive conservatism”
(UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking
Standards, 2013)
28
29. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•The Banking Standards Commission has
urged the government to consult on a
proposal to amend section 172 of the
Companies Act 2006 to remove shareholder
primacy in respect of banks, requiring
directors of banks to ensure the financial
safety and soundness of the company ahead
of the interests of its members (UK
Parliamentary Commission on Banking
Standards, 2013).
29
30. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•Political System ignores the concerns of normal
people.
•Political parties for sale to the highest bidder
•MPs- Cash for access
•Corporations provide money/jobs for former and
potential ministers
•House of Lords: buy political patronage
•General election: few seats decide the outcome.
•Government promote economic religion – markets,
private interests and have no reflections on failures
•All policies designed to appease financial markets
30
31. Morning Star Conference – 1 March 2015
•The challenge:
•Promote alternative policies
•Enrol younger people into politics
•Empower women
•Challenge conventional wisdoms
•Give people something to vote for – The
Scottish referendum example
31