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Free Public lecture during Malvern Hills Civic Week 2012 *Malvern Hills Vista:Creation,Wealth and Poverty Emeritus Professor Barry E Jones PhD,DSc,CEng FIET Vice President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology * Lansdowne Crescent Methodist Church at 7.30pm on Thursday 7th June 2012 1 A Growing Vista Good evening ladies and gentlemen…………Malvern Hills Vista;Creation,Wealth and Poverty.Let me initially take you on a pleasant journey,and then I hope to invite you to consider some harsher realities and to provoke your thoughts.Of course tonight I give a lecture including only my personal opinions and ideas,for which no one else or organisation can be held responsible. Some 60 years ago in a lovely vale sitting under the Cotswold escarpment in the small town of Winchcombe, the ex-capital of Mercia, three young school-boys in short trousers climbed into the back of an Austin 7 motorcar for a day out with Mum and Dad across the Severn towards the mysterious hills of Malvern and beyond.The distant Malvern Hills seemed to be a land of strange people who had once lived on the forted hill-top,then cleared some of the surrounding King’s forest to start a settlement.In due course monks had built a Priory.The waters from the many wells based around the hills was very pure and so the small town had become an attractive spa town for the well-to-do and professional people particularly those from the East and London.Extra horses had been linked to the carriages to pull them up the incline to Malvern Vue.Gas lamps had been installed edging the green common lands.Looking down from the hill tops towards the Cotswolds to the East the boys could see not only the remains of the Priory,but spires of many churches,large college buildings,school buildings and playing fields,sports pitches,the tall tower of a theatre complex ,the marks of a railway line,a large green exhibition site and then there were pockets of business industrial-looking buildings, as well as sturdy looking houses and care homes.All this surrounded by pleasant green pastures.It was believed you might see the Ural mountains on a very fine day.To the north and south you could look along the nine miles of Malvern Hills. 2Just turning around and facing to the West,the boys could see a magnificent view into Wales,the Brecon Beacons,the Cambrian Mountains,the Welsh Marches,the Forest of Dean,with beautiful countryside to the fore, north and south.A few years later one of the boys was to play cricket for Cheltenham Grammar School against a college team on the lovely Malvern College green.He has no recollection of the result of the match,but it was a very sunny day and the cucumber sandwiches were excellent! This was a reinforcement of the wonder of this Malvern place.And while Cheltenham had a claim to composer Gustav Holst and some link to composer Ralph Vaughan Williams,the Malvern Hills vista could boast of internationally famous Edward Elgar.Indeed the very existence of these hills and the sweeping Severn plain had inspired him ; in1904 he wrote of this place “Music is in the air all around you--you just take as much as you want”.Elgar’s music symbolises the very essense of Englishness—a gentle beauty,a comfortable calmness but with some grandeur --- and a real sense that all is well in this enclave,protected by an ancient culture,heritage and nature,by a civilised tradition,a paradise of creation in Worcestershire,positioned so carefully and conveniently between the spires of Worcester,Hereford and Gloucester,and yet so well sited for access to great cities of the country.Here was a place where celtic customs around the water wells had taken place on Mayday to celebrate the life-force of Earth.A place where later Dr John Wall was to remark: ”The Malvern water is famous for containing nothing at all”.A place where famous authors W H Auden,C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien,and famous scientists Walcher,Darwin and John Cockcroft had been inspired.A place where George Bernard Shaw had promoted theatre.A few years later still and this same boy,now a young man was to work on radar for a senior scientist who had been transferred to Government Communications Headquarters(GCHQ),in Cheltenham from the UK’s Telecommunications Research Establishment(TRE) based at Malvern. What an amazing place this Malvern must be! It just seemed to have everything,and this 3impression remained during my travels afar, until one day a black and white television film by Ken Russell about Edward Elgar brought back memories of the Malvern Hills and surrounds ,the hidden gem of England.Now the secret was getting out! Would the vista be spoiled?To have a Malvern Hills vista seemed to allow celebration of creation itself,both in the wonder and beauty of nature and of the creativity of human inspiration in music,arts and science.And all this in such a relatively small area! And for us now to live in this lovely area is a great delight . The unique and wonderful embroidery exhibition here in this church building and celebrating Creation is an outstanding example of human creativity by Sue Symons.So much to see and study for the good people of Malvern.And so this moves me on to human creativity in the field of wealth creation, a very important part of the overall Creation.In the Victorian nineteenth century John Ruskin strongly argued that “THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE. Life,including all its powers of love,of joy,and of admiration”. And this life could only be reached by virtue he wrote.Does the Malvern vista contain this virtue?Wealth CreationThe natural creation has been turned into wealth creation by human endeavour.Historically this has not been done in a sustainable manner and so our human species faces a very uncertain future.Wealth itself is generally a good thing.Of course we might think it is wrong if only the other person has it! There are three ways to create wealth in Malvern: you dig it up,like Malvern stone from the quarries or by taking water from the Malvern wells;you innovate like QinetiQ the privatised TRE,Morgan Motor Company, Malvern Instruments, Malvern Science Park starter-companies and the many micro-enterprises of the area and then sell newly-designed products and services around the globe to pay taxable earnings to employees, earn foreign currency 4 to pay for manufactured imports and pay company tax so the area can have up-graded and new hospital facilities and schools,can have social and welfare provision, as well as goods in the shops and jobs for local traders ; or you can move wealth around on computer screens,like Malvern estate agents, insurance agencies and banks,but at least here some service is provided and more local and national taxes are paid.You can also show-off the natural wealth of the area and the historical wealth of the town with tourism. Unfortunately,too little of the UK’s wealth finds its way into long-term support for creative and innovative companies.This is in stark contrast to Germany where long-term investment funding has long been built into the German financial structure.Today we have a further economic recession and now economic stagnation with the public wealth reductions largely aimed at the weaker sections of society.This is not good creative leadership.I need to remind you that the engineering sector in the UK now employs approaching 5 million people across over 500,000 enterprises,and provides about 20% of the turnover of all businesses in the UK. But,the sector has seriously declined during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2nd,and needs now to be far bigger and stronger if the British economy is to revive,and this is certainly not assured. If Malvern is like the rest of Britain,then about half of Malvern’s assets have been sold to overseas owners.This means that the working lives of a large number of Malvern people have in effect been sold to another country,and yet our townsfolk still feel they are fully British.This is what an unregulated global capitalism does to people—it changes their actual identity without even asking them and without many of them realising it can happen totally outside their control.Another figure to let you know how British leaders have sold the country’s silver: nearly 40 % of UK patents are owned by global firms,triple the EU average.This is pilfering of our science and knowledge base on a major scale. 5German leaders protect people who live in Germany,French leaders protect people who live in France,no doubt Chinese leaders protect Chinese people,but British leaders sell-off anything they can lay their hands on to make a quick one-off sale to get rich or balance the books.David Hare had a front page piece in the Guardian last Saturday:and I quote from it---“ Today’s festivities coincide with the worst economic crisis for 80 years,brought about,we should remember,by the failure of the political class to offer the country even a modest degree of protection from a rampantly destructive City of London”.Like so many other towns in Britain Malvern has to be vunerable because British leaders seem incapable or in part unwilling to look after the long-term interests of all the people living in Britain,and for that matter all those who live in Malvern. I have no doubt that in general much of British leadership is largely dysfunctional and this goes way beyond the financial and banking sectors.This in large part stems from a lack of proper understanding and experience of the common good.Finally,while on this issue,let me make it absolutely clear: multiculturism and diversity are wholly good for Malvern and both immigration and emigration of people has been and continues to be very beneficial to the Malvern vista,as it is for other parts of the country.And so the issue here is not about movement of people,which should be as free as possible,but the adverse effects of large movements of capital and ownership without people-consequences properly considered.Global capitalism can be a great servant,but for the many it has become a very poor master! How then do we see the future? Today,it is not commmodities,but knowledge,skills,advanced science and technology that are the prime sources of long-term sustainable competitive advantage in the global market-place.This is why British universities and the full science base are so important to the country. 6To rebuild and create a new much bigger advanced-science industrial base for the new industries now urgently needed by Britain will be a very big job indeed and take very many years.I believe the country will need to be put on the equivalent of an “industrial war-footing” to accomplish this.And for this to happen will require a much stronger,capable,creative and knowledgeable leadership at the top.From basic science through to successful large science-based industry the UK is sluggish.For example,the science budget in the UK will be about 15% lower in 2014/15 than it was in 2010/11,whereas in Germany it will be at least 7 % higher.In the year 2010 manufacturing output(ie making new products and providing services) in Germany was nearly three times greater than that in the UK and growing far more rapidly.And population sizes of the two countries are not that different. China is expected to increase basic research by 26% this year. Actually,Malvern should be growing far more rapidly than it is at present,notwithstanding expansion of the Science Park, and in the advanced science and technology sector to create good opportunities and a lively future for all its local and regional citizens,and not least the young.Britain now needs towns such as Malvern to rapidly expand its high-tec industry and attract-in many more science and engineering graduates and their equivalents to provide a powerful networking cluster effect.I suggest that the town needs to attract at least double the current number of science and engineering graduates and qualified technician engineers already based here.There is plenty of space for the infrastructure and in due course a direct and rapid easterly bridge-link across the Severn to the M5 could be justified.Tourism would substantially increase with a rapid park-and-ride service from the motorway into the town.A clean infrastructure could be made to blend with the environment so as not to detract from the outlook across the Severn.Creation of a co-operative investment bank in the area under- written by the local authorities would provide finance.Forget the big national banks. 7Someone has to pay for the local NHS,schools,caring-services, for the pensions of the large and growing numbers of older people and pay for the care homes that are such a dominant feature of the town.And Malvern should be contributing much more towards the needs of other less prosperous areas.We cannot justify being kept in a splendid greenfields isolation when the region and country is economically and industrially “on its knees”.In any event the town will not prosper in the future unless it expands and provides opportunities for more high-skilled businesses which in turn will employ local traders,shopkeepers and local young people.The creation of a new university training/innovation and technology transfer institute based in or near Malvern and run by a consortium of the regional universities and the local schools,academies,colleges,businesses and local authorities would have a massive impact for good in the area.We need such a local business/university cluster/network of excellence concentrating on appropriate industrial sectors to support high-tec training and innovative growth for existing and the further new high-tec companies that need to be attracted to the area.Let me quote Will Hutton writing last week in the Guardian:”With the acceleration of new technologies,the average life expectancy of firms is falling:firms on average only survive a dozen years,compared with 40 years in the 1950s.Most company managements know that they will have merged,restructured or gone out of business within a decade”.Most high-tec employees face a future of many jobs.Malvern survival requires that there be many more companies here to enable these high skills to be kept in the area and to be able to attract high skills from other areas because job uncertainties here are seen as being much smaller than elsewhere.Thus we have the idea of clusters of companies in defined industrial sectors to give stability and resilience to the local labour market.It of course also encourages companies to come to the area in the first place.The Malvern Science Park already shows how to proceed.A local high skill base is everything 8 today.Attract the right people to the town and keep them here or the town dies.Expand or die!But what a combination to sell: a securer job market in a very beautiful place for the outdoor life and with lots of educational and social facilities.But rapid expansion and rapid access are essential if this “tasty dish for creating a living” is to become reality in the future.Otherwise decline can quickly set-in and be difficult to stop,and other more progressive and accessible areas will move ahead.There is and will be very stiff competition in the UK for the limited number of highly skilled and specialist people in high-tec fields. What is this innovation we talk about? Well innovation is about doing something different that has impact.And support for industrial innovation in the UK is far too low.At present there is no integrated industrial strategy for major new high-tec industries beyond largely leaving it to the whims and fancies of individual private companies.This is not something other countries do,in particular the USA which is lavish with State integrated support for leading-edge technology, support for new high-tec companies including help in commercial exploitation and with market growth,as well as with the new science and infrastructure.Creation is a long-term activity and innovation funding must stay the course if towns such as Malvern are going to be wealth creators in the future.Money and capital need to be available to the many and not to be tightly restricted by the few for the few.Money (and for that matter property) assets are like manure,best used by spreading it widely everywhere to everybody such that all people can flourish through creation of demand for both the essentials and luxuries of life,and then by using a lot of it for the new industries to get,for example, sustainable greentec and cleantec growth.It seems clear that an austerity programme holds back economic growth and results in still further national borrowing and greater debt.It is a classic and foolish economic mistake,and simply ignores economic history. 9 You will not be surprised to be reminded by me that professional engineers and technologists,applied scientists and mathematicians, engineering and computing technicians have in the past and do now in the present play a key role in the success of Malvern.We must be pleased that at least one of our state secondary schools gives an emphasis to technology.It is worth reminding ourselves that Malvern’s wealth since the last great war has largely come, at least until more recent times,from the public purse.The last war and its aftermath significantly benefited Malvern economically and culturally with substantial increase in the intellectual base of the town through the opening of large UK Ministry of Defence research and development sites in the town and with the influx of lots of PhDs.The large provision of Malvern wealth by one company QinetiQ which is now listed on the London Stock Exchange may not be so stable and reliable an economic base for the town into the future, as such private ownership and capital has proven to be very fickle in Britain during the past 40 years or so.I suspect this large technology company will find it increasingly hard to get and keep the high-level skill base it requires in this area.Employee loyalty is likely to be much lower now than when TRE and its Government –owned successors existed.Private ownership and capital operating in a global economy with few restrictions placed on it,as is the special case in the UK, can transfer and move very quickly.Of course I am glad for Malvern that QinetiQ is currently a large and successful technological company in the legitimate and important aerospace,security and defence sectors,but I also have two particular concerns for this lecture.My first concern is that there must be a real danger that QinetiQ has or will become involved in the new aggressive military technology that almost inevitably kills innocent civilians. Much military technology is now used by dictators to demonise their own citizens.The armed forces are keen to use remotely-guided weaponry that is already proven to kill many innocent civilians.I suggest therefore that Malvern should be careful that its vista doesnot become covered in the blood of the innocents. 10 Professional scientists,engineers and technicians do need to take to heart their personal professional ethical codes of conduct that should require them to try to avoid doing harm to innocent people.The researcher and developer in the laboratory cannot avoid responsibility simply by placing all blame on the puchaser and eventual user.Nor should management put unreasonable ethical challenges to employees.Everybody ,including companies, must take a direct responsibility for what they do and its likely outcomes and consequences. My second concern is that leading–edge disruptive technological developments at QinetiQ for a broad range of applications could or has already become a casualty in a country without the major public/state support needed for long-term R&D,innovation,exploitation and market creation.Today most private industry in the high-tec field will never do the long-term ground-work needed without some form of Government support,because only the State can harness the resources required, create the local and national networks and markets needed, and take the long-term and high risks involved.Clearly there has to be a strong partnership between industry,finance and the State nationally,regionally and locally for a country to be successful in the modern world of rapidly changing knowledge and advanced technology,for example,the new greentec,cleantec,information-security and creative industries. Industrial competitors in successful countries generally donot suffer from Governments that only really promote the private enterprise approach.This could spell disaster for Malvern in the medium term because the move by a privatised QinetiQ towards a multitude of shorter-term development–type projects to provide shorter-term profits is not necessarily in the long-term best interests of the company, British industry or citizen employment and could lead to a foot-loose company.For 60 years Malvern has been part of the countrys’science base,but now this is very much in doubt. Is it so fanciful to think that China may come to partly own QinetiQ and Malvern in the future? After all they have already got the British Weetabix! 11Poverty CreationIt seems that all vistas have dark patches when you get closer.And yes, poverty also does get created,it doesnot just happen.Poverty of course is not a disgrace,but name anything else in its favour!The increase in wealth in Britain has been largely due to the rising value of the stock market and to increased house prices.It has thus been due to capital gains rather than saving.Property wealth is the largest component of wealth in the UK and in Malvern,about 40% of all wealth,and mostly in residential bricks and mortar.This large component of the Malvern vista wealth just sits there,doing practically nothing for the growth of the area. The key problem has been that housing is relatively untaxed as an asset class,and this strongly encourages excessive house-price rises,and undeserved and static wealth.Exhorbitant and continuously rising land,property and house prices does seem like a form of highway robbery,but in a reverse order,for it really does seem as if the rich and well-off older generations take from the poor and younger generations. This endemic process in the UK demonstrates the falsity of a worship of market forces in the field of a basic human requirement--affordable housing.The process represents a means by which the rich and ultra-rich get richer at the expense of the poor and ultra-poor.As a consequence the ratio of the wealth of the very rich in Malvern to the wealth of the very poor in Malvern has dramatically increased, effectively in an undeserved manner which is very undermining of a decent moral foundation. Everybody now knows that the country,including Malvern, has rather too many undeserving rich whose net contribution to the common good is far too low and whose over-rated contribution to society is rewarded far too highly.House prices are a good gauge of this in Malvern.The average price of a house in Malvern is currently about ?250,000 , some 75% higher than just ten years ago,and now some 14 times the average wage in the area of ?18,000,while current property prices at the top end of the market in the Malvern region are 12 ?2 million and above and rising driven by buyers from London and the South East. This inequality has a direct bearing on poverty in the Malvern area, for growing inequality and an expanding unfair distribution of income and wealth are the key drivers behind a growing child poverty,a downgading of help for the disabled and the homebound long-term sick,a penalising of low-income part-time working women and a growing under-poverished group of “left-behind” families,many working hard,but struggling to meet basic needs of food,heating,transport,clothing,school equipment and trips.It is not economic growth alone that matters for happiness,well-being and flourishing families in Malvern,but also a significant managed reduction in inequalities. Poverty creation is and will continue to be an outcome of current Government policies through their managed removal of much employment and social security and caring provision,certainly in the short-to-medium term.My guess is that larger poverty will be a much longer-term outcome in Malvern and elsewhere. Far too many children and young people will have blighted lives,social mobility will be further restricted,women will continue to loose freedom and choice, and economic inequalities will continue to grow,all this caused by the wretched pursuit of private CAPITAL interests and an unwillingness by Government to undertake a major programme of wealth and opportunity redistribution to create wide market demand and encourage wealth creation. Our national leaders are running scared of international capital—so you can forget thoughts of democracy with strong leadership! Indeed what we are getting is weak leadership and wide scale destruction. If the world was made out of chaos in the first place,today wer’e back where we started! A disfunctional global capitalist system with large market failures requires regular wealth redistribution through democratic processes for maintenance 13and growth of market demand and for creation and maintenance of just societies.This needs strong visionary leadership,so lacking now in Britian. And there most certainly is poverty in Malvern.Already some 800 children are reported as living in homes in Malvern where the household income is at poverty levels.In many of these homes the income for working families will be far to low because of low wage levels.Some families will be bad money organisers.It will no doubt also be true that some people have not acquired the basics from education or acquired the necessary social and work skills.And too many have become involved with drugs.But while sensible palliative local measures to help families,keep youngsters and the unemployed out of trouble, give some help for children in low-income families,give advice and clean-up the place a bit,we should not delude ourselves that a new civic Malvern can arise in a sustainable way in an unjust society. Oscar Wilde had a sharp wit : ”To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting.It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less” Creation of Civic Pride Proper civic pride comes from a truthful re-assessment of ourselves, a reformed attitude to a Godly creation,and a much stronger willingness to be dutifully creative about economic forces for the common good. Like most of our English towns,a Malvern that has lost faithfulness cannot I believe have the inner strength that was given to many of the English in earlier times to undertake really great tasks for the common good.Good attitudes towards others and to a strong social and work ethic do I believe require an active religious faith dimension to people’s lives,as history seems to show.The example of good family life is essential,and the fracturing of so many partner relationships often caused by stressful housing,employment and financial circumstances,and in which children are involved,is clearly damaging to individuals and the community. Faith communities in Malvern do provide help and support for families in this situation. 14None-the-less I do feel that both a crude secularisation and an inadequate leadership from faith-groups has damaged the English character,and money greed, de-industrialisation and family disintegration have been allowed to grow.Perhaps as we celebrate Creation through these fine works of embroidery and calligraphy we might ponder about our life together,its economic,cultural,scientific,economic,home and religious aspects,and say a quiet prayer for a new commitment to a civic pride that is based on a creatively just society because the people have inner faithfulness and continuously develop and sustain virtuous character. I have chosen to see Civic Society as much more than just buildings and surroundings,which I do feel is a rather narrow vision.Dare I suggest that each Civic Week in the Malvern Hills area a key-note lecture should be given to critically examine this broader Civic Society? Tonight might even be considered as the first such occasion.A Fallen EnglishnessThis evening I have given personal views and suggested that for all the created beauty of the Malvern Hills vista,there is a dark side to the Civic Life of the area.It is of course not untypical of much of Britain in that for all the good work of local schools,colleges,councils,parliamentarians,conservators,agencies,benefactors,churches ,sports clubs,youth groups,political parties,societies,co-operatives,newspapers and the charitable activities of a relatively small group of people,there is still too much civic complacency and an attitude of resignation within the population. Some may believe that all is well in this bit of God’s England --- as long as it is kept the same---except that a divine creator and presence is barely acknowledged in life-practice by the great majority of the people,and this, in my view, dulls and undermines their vision,commitment and daily toil. 15 Certainly 30 or more church buildings in the Malvern area is now a massive over-supply.Many of the churches have small elderly congregations struggling to maintain buildings.The Christian churches should of course set an example by better use of resources and this will have to include more church buildings put to other purposes,some shared-worship buildings,some congregations joining together,and some building closures with no doubt removal of church spires to alter the vista. Today people in the street care little or nothing for the separation of religious denominations and their ministries,and bishops now really have little sway.Sadly I regret that too much of our church institutional life,some theologies,and the thinking of some church leaders and congregations address previous ages,not this one. I have suggested that a key driver for the downfall of the Englishness of the Malvern Hills vista has been been a rather vacuous secularisation with its dreary hopelessness. The historical character of the English for a high-minded moral duty brought on by a religious imperative has largely dissipated in a self-centred individualism,privatisation of wealth and service,and a worship of celebrity and retail therapy.This ultra-modern character now even prioritises incentives for the monied and better-off lest they sulk away like cowards,hardly a biblical theme. When a globalished capitalism is allowed,or perhaps chosen, by national leaders to dominate and drive all national life,there can be no real sustainable life,freedom,or virtue for individuals or localised societies as sought for by John Ruskin.And none of this will build a decent Big Society in a local setting.A Big Society deals with the Big Issues,like for example,creating the localised entrepreneurial community and dealing with incentive,income and wealth inequalities.We need people who are big minded,the source of big creation.Yes,the Malvern vista,as that of many other areas,when seen deep down could be so much better! Creation of Goodwill 16 To achieve these improvements does require a major change of heart and attitude by the many in our Civic Society. We know,as people living locally,that people of the Malvern Hills vista have great potential for goodness,so tonight let us hope for the creation,renewal and growth of much more virtuous human character and goodwill and a regaining of a Godly moral compass for the common good! Professor Robert Skidelsky ,Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Warwick University and his lecturer son Edward Skidelsky have just published a new book entitled “How much is enough?”. The concluding chapter asks the question “Could a society entirely devoid of the religious impulse stir itself to pursuit of the common good? We doubt it”.Well my argument tonight is that a Malvern without the vision provided by a strong religious impulse driving the common good will not be able to create a society sharing wealth more justly so as to create a community in which all people can flourish. Far from the religious impulse being weird,in fact without its full and proper expression by a population a decent society cannot be achieved. The Queen’s diamond jubilee reminds us all of virtuous duty,long-term commitment and Godly faithfulness and the London Olympics and Paralympics will we hope be a great time for communal enjoyment,not least in Malvern.So let this year also become an Elgar “land of hope and glory”.What a prospect we have in the Malvern Vista for a better and more worthwhile creation!In a Methodist Church building it seems appropriate that Charles Wesley should have the last word: “…….Finish then thy new creation,pure and spotless let us be………”. I thank you for your kind attention and your patience,and I thank the Methodist Church for inviting me to give this lecture during Malvern Hills Civic Week 2012. Email address: barryedwardjones@ Additional material Malvern of course has features like so much of the UK,particularly the City of London and Canary Wharf,namely people and organisations who indulge simply in thin-slicing of lots of wealth created by others,perhaps by developing wealth-grabbing computer algorithms, and in the process forcing up prices that penalise the have-nots and in particular today the young.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I find it amazing that a Britain proud of being first into a wealth creating industrial revolution ,and a country who with the support of allies and a degree of luck,it must be said,just managed to win a major war against the might of industrial Nazi Germany,with, I do acknowledge,a major contribution from the scientists and engineers in Malvern,should now find itself struggling to earn its living in a more reliable and sustainable manner,and to find itself to be well behind Germany in wealth creation through innovation and high-class manufacturing.Today our leaders must go to Germany to learn.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the coronation of our Queen in 1953,the souvenirs on sale across the nation were,as one might expect,almost entirely British-made.Yet nearly 60 years later in 2012,a high percentage of Diamond Jubilee keepsakes have been manufactured in China.This is but a simple example of the surrender by and neglect of British industry I have seen in the past 60 years which really has been quite appalling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Indeed our present party-political system which is so dominated by the public schools and younger political careerists who have achieved little in life beyond development of TV media-presentation skills,doesnot,it seems to me, create very worthy or capable leaders.They simply have not experienced the economic hardships of ordinary life and therefore are bound to be “out-of-touch”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------During these last 30 years in Britain there has been a growing worship of money itself and a growth of the processes to get quick-easy-money.British private capital runs away from long-term risk,and seeks only to capitalise in the short-term.It speaks volumns about the negative impact on British public well-being of poor leadership. In England and in this area great wealth is hoarded by a relatively small number of people and institutions with,in my view, not enough regard for common social purpose.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The company is sited in a country that doesnot have a Government which believes in the entrepreneurial State, but on the contrary thinks private industry can be left to do the job on its own solely through private enterprise,and particularly if the State is weakened.History of the last century shows the falseness and the foolishness of this nostalgic,cavalier and Victorian approach which has become an ideological fixation for some rich and influential people. It cannot succeed in the modern world of speculative private finance and highly advanced science and technology. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Did you know that in Britain a top banker is paid one hundred times more than an average farm labourer? Well,a banker can be paid ?1000 an hour. But a banker cannot provide my dinner like the farm hand who is only paid ?10 an hour!Half of the UK population now own just 1% of all the country’s cash,while the wealthiest 20% own a massive 84 % of Britain’s wealth.And the highest earning 10% of households have a total wealth of nearly 100 times the bottom 10%.And the inequalities continues to grow. Did you know that Britain is one of the most unequal of all the developed countries? No one has been able to seriously challenge the extensive research evidence that shows there is a strong correlation between income and wealth inequalities in a society and a wide range of health and social problems and lack of social mobility.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For all the decent promise we see in much of our current youth,we older generations should be ashamed that we have allowed and in some cases encouraged a nastiness that they must now face. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ................
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