I would argue the biggest change in the attitude to smoking was brought about by legislation. That is the ban on smoking in public places. Prior to that all the advertising bans and so on didn't do a great deal to stop smoking. Restaurants, pubs and even offices were cloudy places to be despite the hands off approach which basically just said smoking is bad for you. I grew up with both parents smoking. My Mum for all of her 89 years and my Dad for some of his 85 and when I started work there was no need for the smokers to leave the office for a drag. The biggest change I have noticed in smoking is as a direct result of legislation.

So if you are putting the history of smoking in this country forward as a kind of example where education results in a gradual change for the better I think you have instead highlighted the fact that to really make a difference quickly the game changer was legislation not education.



The idea tax an NI should be collected from the employee via direct debit is ludicrously impractical. That is tens of millions of direct debit mandates HMRC would have to keep up to date instead of dealing with the (far fewer) employers making single payments to HMRC. God knows how it would work with an increasingly casual based workforce as well.

In fact what we want is an extension of P.A.Y.E to everyone. It's quite clear whenever possible people who don't receive their salary through P.A.Y.E are as quick to spot their own mini tax avoidance schemes as anyone who has been vilified for doing this on a large scale such as Jimmy Carr.

P.A.Y.E and the resulting P60 is also how the government judges your entitlement to things like the level of University Maintenance loan your kids can apply for (just one example of many). I know people who were outside of of P.A.Y.E who were not rich by any means who still managed to create a picture of virtually no tax paid so their kid even got a grant never mind a loan and tuition fees paid. Outside of P.A.Y.E it is far too easy to hide income from the tax man. I am sure tax avoidance would go through the roof if what you suggest was implemented.

Also getting rid of tax codes is also impractical. What does a sliding scale mean? It is just in effect many more tax codes! I am sure you know the amount of tax paid by an employee in any one month is based on their total income to date in the tax year and that the amount of tax is basically read off income tax tables for a particular tax code.

That means unless you have a basis for the employees tax liability (their tax code) you can't construct the tax tables. The only thing you could do is collect all the tax in one go at the end of the tax year when you knew the employees full tax liability. That would starve the government of tax revenue during the year. Taking some tax off employees as the year progresses with a view to sorting it out at the end when the correct liability was known would be a nightmare as well.

Finally your comment about not taxing people to death. Our tax rates are some of the lowest around already. The problem is we don't manage to collect it all from both individuals and companies. If we did we might not have such a great big bloody whole in the public finances. So instead of strange schemes such as those you suggest I'd say devoting effort to plugging the tax gap would go a long way to sorting the public finances out.

A greater emphasis in turning raw materials into finished products and the technology that supports it - in a word manufacturing.

One major problem with that is the fact we can't do it cheaply enough, hence why a lot of it is done abroad.

My own view is that we need to do a lot more of the things we're good at (designing, engineering, marketing etc) as a lead into making things abroad. In fact that's already happening - most car manufacturers have the R&D departments here, for instance.

Yes, but how do you achieve that? It takes people to get up and do it. It takes innovation to come up with new things to make. It takes capital and risk-taking. No one seems to have the ability or guts these days. As has been said, lots of major companies are stuffed with cash but there are virtually no comepetent Chief Executives who can see opportunities and who are willing to invest. They are much happier to take no risks, which in many cases will cause the companies to decline. Traditionally, recession was a time where major companies increased market share by investing, buying up competitors, etc so they came out stronger.

Emotionally I'm in favour but destroying something (or selling something off and then spending the money to make your feckin dreadful economic figures look slightly less dreadful) is a damn sight easier than finding the money to buy it back again, especially in a recession.
So, fiscally, we can't afford it.

My suggestion is for Cameron to get the EU working time directive changed.

It should be changed to have a maximum working week of 35 hours.
Bingo, jobs galore available.

It's only an extension of what he's been doing anyway, which has been replacing full-time jobs with part-time ones.

Here's as good as anywhere.

rlA very interesting piece of analysis/opinion.rl

at any rate, we sort of shot our selves in the foot years ago, i sure people have already said here about selling off our industry to the highest( or lowest bidder),
ive been trying to summerise what makes german society different from the english one. people do not believe in debt here. it is somehow seen as a sin. they are proud of there industrys and constantly ask me why you got rid of all yours and i cant honestly answer the question. i know im gerneralising, and german culture to me seems a little grey. but just as an example last week i tried to buy a tv with my credit card in a nationwide shop and the refused me there and then. i have used this card in the darkest depths of south america and next door to england you cant. the german population i have met are very good with there money, and maths and that leads to its education system. they mostly refuse applicants for degrees, all tiers because they perceive our education system to be inferior, and they are right in my opinion. there is no quick fix we have to educate our children to the best level possible, Uni prices on par with germany, ( you will be amazed if you dont know already) and to teach people the skills that are going to push the country forward, not pushing trolleys.

Used to read his every column in The Times. He writes credibly but over the years I read his pieces he got everything, withot fail, wrong!

Indeed, German businesses have only recently started accepting credit cards.


Actually, we haven't, not all of it.
Stats are bandied about showing how the manufacturing workforce in the UK has declined dramatically ... but these stats don't usually take into account the fact that, in the old days, a canteen worker in a factory was counted as working in manufacturing but nowadays that function is most likely contracted-out ... ditto for security, IT services, cleaning, back-office functions etc etc., thereby making the stats look even far worse than they otherwise would be.
But your point does still stand, our manufacturing output has declined more than Germany's.
If Germany can retain its manufacturing, why can't we?
There is a general and erroneous notion here that all German industry is in the high-end, high-profit areas but, whilst they do make a lot of higher-end goods, they also make pencils and everyday commodities.

To me, the biggest differences are ...
1. The way in which German management and workforce in manufacturing collaborate rather than conflict, enabling the workforce to feel a sort of ownership and pride in the product and in doing a good job.
2. The German view is usually in the longer term (saving to get the cash to build their own home, for example) and this is reflected in German banks taking a longer term view of their loans to business, again seeing it as a collaboration. Where a British bank will pull the plug and forclose on a business at the first sign of anything negative, a German bank is more likely to turn up and offer to help to sort the problem out.

Nail, head. my bank in germany hypovereinsbank, only gave me a cash card when i first opened my account.. for 4 months, the deal is they want to see if im careful with money. imagine that in Uk. secondly the bank manager rings me up when im at work and asks me how im doing, is there anything she can do to make my service better, i said could i use my new debitcard in england, as at christmas it was blocked ( perhaps not the bank but the card is a maestro not as commonly used) she said no problem. while i try to bumble in my 8 months of german, ha. the other thing that makes me laugh is they have a mark on equipment that says in english, 'made in germany' apparently its abit of a one up on america and england for inferior quality products, yet i still find old tools made in england, my collegues say the new stuff is crap, which is true, im a plumber i know the diffenence. but the old stuff was made to last. What happened? my boss at the moment is just one of thousands in the Munich area that buys land in the countryside and builds a bloody great big house, with whiste and bells and would need a direct nuclear strike to level it. El Barbudo you are correct that building a house provides investment in the future it does. People here in Germany ( apart form typical quick money men/women) are in for the long run. A draw back from this is i think a massive depression problem, i wish i had shares in vallium. twice last week was my U-bahn stopped bacause of suicide, perhaps that is a Munich thing because on the land its pretty cheery and relaxed while Munich is much like london, Apart from prowling gangs, fear for one life by going down the wrong street etc. I am proud of my country, to be a miner's lad and always will be and i feel like like my country is falling through my hands like sand at the moment, why cant we be at the forefront again, punching above our weight in education and technology . We had the smartest minds in the world at one time or another. where is our modern day Brunel or Dirac? Think Graphene, think Skylon engines, think fusion. we have these technologies in Britain, and my cynical side is who's the highest bidder going to be. We cant think short we have to think for our children's children . Sorry for the rant. im now going to have a Franzikaner.

As an aside, I just found out that my local Tesco carries this. Good times.

I must stop posting ideas on here, Blanchflower has taken this idea and run with it in this week's New Statesman.
He makes the point that it would allow the underemployed to increase their hours and earnings.

A wonderful beer! Enjoy!