Author Archives: GovWorldMag

The budget and the productivity black hole

The ONS tells us productivity is still not rising. They say they got their forecasts wrong again and need to serve up worse figures for the UK outlook just in time for the budget.

I am not surprised they got the numbers wrong. They usually do get them wrong. They were fashionably too pessimistic for the year after the Brexit vote. It is a difficult task to get right.

Nor am I surprised they and others are worsening their figures for next year as growth is slowing a bit. I have forecast continuing problems in the housing and car markets thanks to tax attacks by successive Chancellors and to credit tightening by the Bank of England.

Productivity is stagnant for good as well as bad reasons. The UK economy continues to generate a lot of extra jobs in lower value added activities, whilst high value added like oil production and some banking services are in decline. Its good news we are creating more jobs. Industrial productivity is doing fine. The bad news is the weak productivity performance of the large public sector.

So what should the Chancellor do? Instead of going gloomy and saying there is no money for spending or tax cuts he should have a budget for extra growth.  Selective tax cuts to boost incentives and enterprise should  figure prominently. As I have often described, the right tax cuts can also pull in more revenue. The public sector does need a bit of extra spending and needs to help people work smarter. We need to make sure all EU contributions stop in March 2019 to help pay our bills.

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John Redwood MP •

7 suspects detained over Tibetan antelope car chase

Seven people have been detained by police and are under investigation for chasing a herd of Tibetan antelopes, using off-road vehicles, reports thepaper.cn.

The drivers of two off-road vehicles are now under investigation for chasing Tibetan antelopes on October 4, 2017. [Photo: Weibo/Safe Lhasa] 

It followed the posting of a short video online showing two vehicles driving close to a herd of Tibetan antelopes, which officials identified as being near Co Ngoin Lake in Tibet Autonomous Region.

An official investigation was immediately launched by local police.

Photos of two white off-road vehicles chasing Tibetan antelopes on October 4, 2017 were posted online two days later. [Photo: Weibo]

Police said the suspects had approached the Tibetan antelopes in the off-road vehicles in order to take photos of them at close range, and did not intend to hit them. No Tibetan antelope was killed or injured as a result of the incident.

The investigation is still underway.

Tibet is home to around 125 species of wild animals of national priority protection, including Tibetan antelope, wild yak and kiang, a type of wild donkey.

The Tibetan antelope is native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. More than 200,000 individuals remain in the wild, most of which dwell in the Qiangtang National Nature Reserve. They have become endangered due to poaching in recent years.

The Tibetan antelope is listed among the protected species under China’s national legislation.

According to its National Wildlife Protection Law, if anyone, in violation of the provisions of this Law, hunts or catches wildlife without a hunting license or in violation of the prescriptions of the hunting license, his catch and unlawful income shall be confiscated and he shall be fined by the department of wildlife administration and, in addition, his hunting gear may be confiscated and his hunting license revoked.

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East Asia