Monday, September 13, 2010

North and South

Its all going pear shaped. The Public Sector Unions who, of course, finance the Labour party, are threatening a revolution unless the rest of us keep them in jobs for life with gold plated pensions. Ed Milliband has nosed ahead of his almost-sane brother in the Labour leadership Poll which, if he does win, will send Labour back to its core vote in the North . ( It currently holds only 12 seats outside London in the South )
All of this makes the supposed North South Divide starker and picking up on this Jackie Ashley piece the Guardian today.It contains the usual mournful flat cappery played by brass bands down a dis-used mine.
I had a little fish around for some facts.In April 2009, the median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees on adult rates who were resident in the North East was £439, lower than the UK median of £489 (ONS) House prices however were about half the levels of the South east as can be seen here
Interestingly the disparity of employment in the Public Secrtior does not seem so vast to me . According to the ONS its seems ot be abouit 235 in the NE as compared to 17% in the SE
. Am I missing something?

5 comments:

Bill Quango MP said...

When the minimum wage came in the south received almost no benefit. Many being on wages already higher than the minimum.
The North however, got a big boost. Minimum wage takes no account of the cost of living, mortgage, transport council tax, number of children etc.
Labour are very proud of minimum wage. Well, they would be wouldn't they?

Newmania said...

True dat

Auntie Flo' said...

Three HGV drivers who work for me come from North East. Every Monday they share a car down south and they share lodgings while here.

Every Wednesday evening, these guys travel home to the NE for their four day weekend of leisure.

I asked them if they would like to cover an extra day each week to make it worth their while travelling down here: they laughed and told that they don't need the money.

The drivers earn £2000 a month, pay mortgages of just over £200 a month each and benefit frrom the North East's cheaper food and living costs. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

Auntie Flo' said...

They're just a few of the staff we've had from the NE at one time or another too, so it must be a viable option for north Easterners. Though we've never had a female driver from the NE, not sure why.

I was wrong about when our current 3 NE drivers travel back home though, they go on Thursdays, so it's not quite a 4 day weekend, still more time off than most working people get though.

Newmania said...

I think what you say is born out by relative standards of living stats Flo

Hi to you .... I am not blogging really

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