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| By bashing the unions, the Tories are fighting the battles of the past | By bashing the unions, the Tories are fighting the battles of the past |
| (about 9 hours later) | |
| Strikes are anathema to personnel people, so if their professional body thinks government plans to clamp down on industrial action are a bad idea then ministers might do well to listen to it. On the face of it, it seems counter-intuitive for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to be making a fuss. Its members are usually charged with dealing with the fallout from industrial disputes. Objecting to measures designed to restrict them seems like turkeys gathering at Santa’s HQ to cry roll on Christmas. | Strikes are anathema to personnel people, so if their professional body thinks government plans to clamp down on industrial action are a bad idea then ministers might do well to listen to it. On the face of it, it seems counter-intuitive for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to be making a fuss. Its members are usually charged with dealing with the fallout from industrial disputes. Objecting to measures designed to restrict them seems like turkeys gathering at Santa’s HQ to cry roll on Christmas. |
| But on closer inspection, the CIPD has good reason to stand with those in opposition to the plans. For a start there is precious little evidence that they are needed. While certain disputes have been very visible recently – particularly those affecting London’s Underground – strikes generally have become rather rare. | But on closer inspection, the CIPD has good reason to stand with those in opposition to the plans. For a start there is precious little evidence that they are needed. While certain disputes have been very visible recently – particularly those affecting London’s Underground – strikes generally have become rather rare. |
| As the CIPD points out, the number of working days lost annually to strikes has fallen to something like a tenth of the levels common in the 1980s. While some employers and unions still display antediluvian tendencies, they are not reflective of how things are done in most modern workplaces, where the two sides have found better and more cost-effective means of dealing with disputes – based on talking about them in good faith and finding compromises that are mutually acceptable. | As the CIPD points out, the number of working days lost annually to strikes has fallen to something like a tenth of the levels common in the 1980s. While some employers and unions still display antediluvian tendencies, they are not reflective of how things are done in most modern workplaces, where the two sides have found better and more cost-effective means of dealing with disputes – based on talking about them in good faith and finding compromises that are mutually acceptable. |
| Thus the CIPD is on the money when it accuses the Government of fighting the battles of the past and creating unnecessary friction. What it doesn’t comment upon, because it has to maintain working relationships with ministers, is the motivation for all the new regulations being prepared by a Government that claims to favour deregulation. | Thus the CIPD is on the money when it accuses the Government of fighting the battles of the past and creating unnecessary friction. What it doesn’t comment upon, because it has to maintain working relationships with ministers, is the motivation for all the new regulations being prepared by a Government that claims to favour deregulation. |
| These appear to be born from a desire to score cheap points with the troglodytes in the party’s base – those that have a habit of kicking up if they feel ministers are in danger of straying too far from the Thatcherite flame. What, you’re worried that we’ve decided to make some compromises with those rotters from the EU? Well just you see how we’re beating up on those big bad union bosses. We’ll put ’em in their place. | These appear to be born from a desire to score cheap points with the troglodytes in the party’s base – those that have a habit of kicking up if they feel ministers are in danger of straying too far from the Thatcherite flame. What, you’re worried that we’ve decided to make some compromises with those rotters from the EU? Well just you see how we’re beating up on those big bad union bosses. We’ll put ’em in their place. |
| Labour has been accused of retreating into the 1980s and the bad old days of the “loony left” with the impending election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader. But is the “modern” Conservative Party really any different? It might trumpet its so-called living wage, and progressive measures such as the legalisation of gay marriage, but this reactionary and cynical retreat into knee-jerk union-bashing suggests that it isn’t. The 1980s remain alive in Westminster, if nowhere else. And MPs wonder why they’re seen as out of touch. | Labour has been accused of retreating into the 1980s and the bad old days of the “loony left” with the impending election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader. But is the “modern” Conservative Party really any different? It might trumpet its so-called living wage, and progressive measures such as the legalisation of gay marriage, but this reactionary and cynical retreat into knee-jerk union-bashing suggests that it isn’t. The 1980s remain alive in Westminster, if nowhere else. And MPs wonder why they’re seen as out of touch. |
| As the unnecessary sideshow of a “consultation” on the proposals draws to a close, the CIPD points out that the UK economy faces real challenges: solving the productivity crisis, for one. Saner heads in the Government might care to reflect that in most successful, modern economies, where that crisis doesn’t exist, co-operation is the watchword for handling labour relations. | As the unnecessary sideshow of a “consultation” on the proposals draws to a close, the CIPD points out that the UK economy faces real challenges: solving the productivity crisis, for one. Saner heads in the Government might care to reflect that in most successful, modern economies, where that crisis doesn’t exist, co-operation is the watchword for handling labour relations. |
| It's 'sayonara' to Amlin and its few remaining peer | |
| Would it surprise you to learn that a sizeable subsector of the London Stock Exchange is close to being wiped? Amlin is the latest of its members to succumb to the lure of foreign capital. The insurer, operating at Lloyd’s of London (and in Bermuda), has just fallen to a £3.5bn bid from Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI). | |
| The insurer has been in the sights of predators for a while now. The clue to the game being up came a month ago when its chief executive, Charles Philipps, said “we are not for sale”. When a chief executive says that it’s rather like a football chairman insisting his manager has his full backing after a run of 12 consecutive defeats. | |
| Naturally, Mr Philipps sang a different tune upon the deal’s announcement, twittering about the “compelling” combination between the two companies and the “high regard” he and his pals have always had for MSI. He’s clearly happy about the chunky buyout premium he’s achieved, and the City loves the fees, but should we feel the same way? | |
| Only four broadly similar companies remain on the LSE when there used to be twice as many. Barring an earthquake (and that’s not a metaphor because an earthquake is the sort of thing that calls a halt to deal making among insurers) there will be fewer still in a year’s time. | |
| Formerly known as “integrated Lloyd’s vehicles” they emerged from the reforms that allowed corporations to be admitted to the insurance market as members; they then set about listing their shares and diversifying their businesses. The latter process resulted in them moving their incorporations en masse to Bermuda to take advantage of the island’s tax breaks. | |
| More of them could, and perhaps should, have got together in the meantime; but deals proved hard to do because self-interested executives and their boardroom colleagues were none too keen on consolidating their own jobs. So they stood pat until overseas buyers arrived with pots of gold that were too big to resist. | |
| We’re in the endgame now, and to be honest, few will mourn their demise. Lloyd’s is awash with capital, and the insurance sector is thriving. The big players have been foreign-owned for a long time and it doesn’t seem to have mattered much. | |
| As we say sayonara, it’s pushing it a bit even to describe the few remaining ILVs as UK businesses anyway. They are, to all intents and purposes, Bermudan operations, so parting shouldn’t generate much sorrow, sweet or otherwise. |