UK

Remote Work Could Permit Whitehall Downsizing

Wendell Cox — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 11:46:16 -0400

Alex Chisholm, chief operating officer of the United Kingdom civil service and permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office, said that the new-found ability of officials to vary working patterns was a “huge positive,” according to The Times of London. He told the House of Commons public accounts committee that “letting people work flexibly would also allow the civil service to shrink its footprint on Whitehall, the location of a number of national ministries and other offices of the national government in London. He cited the costly London real estate costs as a consideration favoring downsizing the government’s presence in Westminster (central London).

Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, an international public policy firm located in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He is a founding senior fellow at the Urban Reform Institute, Houston, a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in Orange, California. He has served as a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. His principal interests are economics, poverty alleviation, demographics, urban policy and transport. He is co-author of the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey and author of Demographia World Urban Areas.

UK Economy Survives Pandemic: Government Assistance and Remote Work the Reasons

Wendell Cox — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 20:28:58 -0400

In an article entitled “Financial hit from Covid far less drastic than feared,” The Times of London reported on July 8 reported that “Unemployment, debt and earnings have not worsened significantly as a result of the pandemic, Britain’s leading economic think tank has concluded, hailing the findings as “astonishing”.

The report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) expressed “surprise” that unemployment is much lower than was expected, that there has been only a small increase in people in arrears on bills and that the number of people using food banks increased minimally during the pandemic and is now below pre-pandemic levels.

At the same time, IFS noted “while the national picture was remarkable, its figures masked groups who have seen clear increases in hardship, particularly the self-employed and families already experiencing in-work poverty before the pandemic hit.”

The article attributed the positive developments to government interventions to support working people, more than one-third of whom received government support during the pandemic.

We add that, had it not been for the conversion to remote work, these results could not have been achieved. According to the OECD (See Note below), in Mid April of 2020, 49% of the United Kingdom pre-pandemic work force was working remotely, while 20% were working at their physical employment locations, leaving 31% who were not working (Figure). This data suggests that about 70% of the working population was teleworking (Figure). Had remote work not been embraced, the unemployment rate would have been far higher and the economic disruption would likely have been at least as bad as the most dire expectations.

Note: OECD, “Working during COVID-19: Cross-country evidence from real-time survey data.” At oecd-ilibrary.org

Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (1977-1985) and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appointed him to the Amtrak Reform Council, to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (1999-2002). He is author of War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life and Toward More Prosperous Cities: A Framing Essay on Urban Areas, Transport, Planning and the Dimensions of Sustainability.

Former London Mayor Blames Jewish Vote for Labour Loss

Wendell Cox — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 20:52:47 -0500

The Daily Mirror (London) headline reads: “Ken Livingstone says it's 'the end' for Jeremy Corbyn and blames 'Jewish vote'” Livingstone, the former two-term mayor of London commented on the landslide Jeremy Corbyn Labour Party loss, saying “The Jewish vote wasn’t very helpful.”

Numbers may not be the former mayor’s strength. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and his Tories racked up a 2.7 million electoral majority in the election. Of course, British parliamentary elections, like American presidential elections are not determined by the popular vote. It is not known how many voters among the 650 constituencies would need to have changed their votes for Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister.

However, the vote margin dwarfs any possible number of Jewish votes. The Jewish population of the United Kingdom is estimated at under 300,000. If Jews voted in the same proportion as other UK citizens, there would have been fewer than 150,000 votes. Even if it is assumed that cutting the Johnson total in half, it would have required the unanimous votes of nine times as many Jews as live in the United Kingdom to have permitted Corbyn to move into #10 Downing Street.

Livingstone was indefinitely suspended by the Labour Party and reportedly faced “a full probe into his alleged anti-Semitism” (see: “Ken Livingstone suspended from Labour indefinitely and will face full anti-Semitism probe”). Livingston subsequently resigned from the Party.

Johnson succeeded Livingstone in the mayor’s office and also served two terms, before entering parliament and now winning the election to earn a full term.

UK High-Speed Rail Blowout: Costs Triple

Wendell Cox — Sun, 22 Sep 2019 19:21:19 -0400

London’s Daily Telegraph reported on September 21 that the cost of HS-3, the high-speed rail line from London’s Euston Station to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds is now expected to cost £106.4 Billion. The Telegraph notes that this cost is double the amount maintained by former Prime Minister Theresa May’s government until her recent resignation. In fact, the cost is more than three times the £33 billion announced in 2010, which is indicated in a detailed times in the Telegraph article.