Realist, not conformist analysis of the latest financial, business and political news

Boris’ Green Plan And Jobs

From our Swindon correspondent:

Something shared by both the green announcement and the defence announcement was all the jobs that would be created. From the green announcement:-

Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. My Ten Point Plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050.

Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.

Setting aside the thing this blog often mentions, that job creation is a bad thing, because it’s a cost, is this really going to happen?

Car assembly is generally shifting away from the old countries like UK, France, Germany and Italy. It’s cheaper to make Renaults and Toyotas in Turkey, Fiat 500s in Poland, and VW are looking at moving more production to Slovakia, because Slovaks are cheaper than Germans. In general, production lines in everything, from toys to TVs have gone abroad.

Most manufacturing here is niche or custom. Aston Martins, parking meters, F1 cars, false hips. If you’re only making something in small volumes, or orders have more customisation, the value of running a foreign factory is a lot less. There’s overheads to outsourcing. As of now, Mini are making electric minis in Oxford, but does anyone think they’re going to expand production in one of the most expensive cities in the UK? Especially when they make more minis in the Netherlands and are building an electric car factory in China?
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Spike
Spike
4 years ago

A new article at CNN touts “period leave” for female workers, problematic as, to get it, you have to ask for it, which no one wants to do. (And only slackers are eager to declare that an officially sanctioned excuse renders them unable to do their jobs.)

So the tendency to send work offshore will continue. But it doesn’t have to be so. It’s not the result of progress but of “progressives.”

jgh
jgh
4 years ago
Reply to  Spike

meh. If somebody wants to work 15 days a month, let them.

Spike
Spike
4 years ago
Reply to  jgh

But this is not a gig economy in which somebody elects to bag the workday because of abdominal pain. This would be a gov’t edict, affecting all workplaces, where workers can declare that something has happened to me that is not my fault. And is therefore your fault. (The article says it’s unpaid leave. But it surely assumes the business must regard her as reliable in the face of new evidence to the contrary.)

Barks
Barks
4 years ago
Reply to  Spike

Unpaid in step one. Then, the argument will be that all other leave is “paid” and period leave should be too. Camel’s nose and all.

Spike
Spike
4 years ago
Reply to  Barks

Yup, “closing loopholes.”

But separately, even the “right” to unpaid leave casts a shadow over diligent female workers, and it will certainly be illegal to ask a candidate to pledge never to exercise the “right,” or even disclose that you have an opinion on it that might dissuade them, like “everyone here hustles.”

John B
John B
4 years ago
Reply to  Spike

Can men get prostate leave, I wonder?

Pat
Pat
4 years ago

To paraphrase the plan, Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East made in China using Chinese minerals using power from Chinese coal and transported on Chinese ships powered by diesel, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands of China using Chinese minerals all powered by Chinese coal and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales- we have no idea what these will be, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future. It would likely be greener from a worldwide view to import Chinese coal,… Read more »

Spike
Spike
4 years ago
Reply to  Pat

Again, this “environmentally correct” energy plan (regardless of whether it is) becomes “incorrect” the first time the easels come out at the Planning Board and neighbors see how it looks and commission their own “studies” that their property resale values will drop in half.

Snarkus
Snarkus
4 years ago
Reply to  Pat

makes one wonder if the whole green energy scheme is China using useful idiots to ensure the West voluntarily will not compete,becoming client states around the Middle Kingdom. Bit like how much of the anti-nuclear and unilateral disarmament mobs were fronts for Soviet influencers

Bloke on M4
Bloke on M4
4 years ago
Reply to  Snarkus

Not unreasonable to assume they’re funding some propaganda. Zero Carbon doesn’t stop western countries buying things made in China.

Like the links of German politicians to Russian gas, and closing down nuclear power just looks like treason to me.

John B
John B
4 years ago
Reply to  Pat

Or better just to move to China, save the emissions from the transportation.

MrVeryAngry
MrVeryAngry
4 years ago

‘Expensive to make stuff here’. Socialism/welfarism -the greatest wealth creation and jobs killer yet discovered by man,

John B
John B
4 years ago

Batteries, electric motors, vehicle bodies are already being made, mostly in automated production facilities. Where will the ‘new’ jobs be? Jobs making internal combustion engines and components, servicing and repairing them, plus jobs of everyone in the motor-fuel supply chain will be lost. Since few will be able to afford a replacement vehicle because the second hand car market will evaporate as the ten years cut-off approaches, therefore demand for magic electric cars will diminish too, or rather barely increase from the near zero state it is in now. Now normally, one might opine logic and reason dictate that no… Read more »

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