Engineer, Inventor, Dad, STEM Educator, Philosopher, Stoic, Youth First Advocate | Opinions are my own. "You can never have too many drill bits."
Earth (b4 the next asteroid)
Joined May 2017
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Engineer since I was knee high. Invented motorised plank of wood aged 8 with spare RC motors, a whole lot of D cells, WD40 and duct tape. Often found randomly bringing stuff together to make inanimate objects move. Occasionally also do the same with people, reluctantly.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
The bottom line here is that government should not meddle in private enterprise - even in these circumstances. Yes, 12000 jobs are on the line, the but job of government is not to pick winners and losers - not least because they usually pick losers. The job of the government is to create the conditions where those workers can lose their jobs on a Friday and be in new ones the following week. It's only shit news for poundland workers because Labour's economic vandalism means these people will be unemployed for months. That is where the policy response must be.
🚨Poundland is a scandal. Here’s why:
People have attacked me for taking up this fight, saying ‘businesses go under all the time, that’s just the free market’. Sure, but this is *crony capitalism* and the 12,000 workers deserve better.
This is what’s really happening:
Poundland’s owners, an American outfit called Gordon Brothers are trying to put the business into administration. They bought it for £1 and have a £30m loan out to it, which they want back.
It’s a tough sector, suffering from fierce competition, battered by Labour’s tax increases and customers feeling the pinch. However, the business is solvent, sales grew 6.7% in the last year and 8.4% in the first three weeks of October. It’s about to see the best trading weeks of the year approaching Christmas. This is not a business that has to shut its doors.
What’s more, if Gordon Brothers want to walk away, there are others keen to take it on, as a going concern. I’ve spoken to two, highly credible parties today, who have attempted to buy the business. Both tell me they have the money. One, a hugely successful British retail entrepreneur, didn’t even get a response from Gordon Brothers. They would keep the stores intact and keep the positive momentum going.
I’ve been inundated with messages from staff and suppliers, all saying how hard they’ve worked in the past year to turn the business around.
Instead, Gordon Brothers are risking 12,000 jobs just before Christmas (and retail isn’t an easy industry to get another job in right now) and potentially another 10,000 amongst the suppliers. Poundland has a number of suppliers that only or largely supply them, and who will face an uncertain future without them.
Then there’s the loss to the landlords, the rates owed to local councils, tax due to HMRC and the lost footfall on our high streets if 600 stores shut.
The wage bill of Poundland is close to £500m, so you can imagine the cost to the taxpayer in benefits if 12,000 people lose their jobs.
Could it be that Gordon Brothers, far from being a real ‘turnaround specialist’ is just trying to look after themselves and make a profit at the expense of literally everyone else?
Might they be using the administration process to protect their loan?
And the advisors who handle administration will also pockets millions in fees. Naturally.
Could we see a decent business run down, shelves slowly emptied and then folded, with everyone losing out bar them? Thats what happened with another, similar business, Poundworld.
It’s not for nothing that loyal staff emailing me are calling them ‘Greedy Brothers’.
Should politicians be interested in this scandal? Too right they should. Frankly I’m shocked more aren’t. It shows how little Westminster cares about working people. You can be pro business, but anti crony capitalism. Reform UK is.
The Business Secretary needs to ask searching questions of Gordon Brothers and this administration process, before a 35 year old mainstay of our high streets and 12,000 jobs are destroyed by them.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Circa 1996-2003, the job market was so healthy you could tell a boss to go fuck himself and be working somewhere else in a week or so. That's before minimum wage and EU employment red tape kicked in. It was better for workers to have the flexibility and choice and better for employers as the people working for them actually wanted to. That's what we need to get back to - not bailing our failing poundshops.
The bottom line here is that government should not meddle in private enterprise - even in these circumstances. Yes, 12000 jobs are on the line, the but job of government is not to pick winners and losers - not least because they usually pick losers. The job of the government is to create the conditions where those workers can lose their jobs on a Friday and be in new ones the following week. It's only shit news for poundland workers because Labour's economic vandalism means these people will be unemployed for months. That is where the policy response must be.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Don't know what's wrong with you lot, why aren't you all running pie making companies for purely altruistic reasons, with no desire to profit from the production of pies.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
And that is one of the chief issues
Almost 3 generations of the wrong type of politicians
The system has forgotten how we used to govern ourselves
But worse, it selects for the worst kinds of politicians too - incompetent ones, who see politics as entirely performative
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
The combined IQ in this room doesn't reach double figures.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Yeah but these are just facts
We have a political system designed around fairness which basically means giving money and things to everyone else except for the people who contribute
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
The concept of “operating at a loss” only exists in the Public sector.
In the Private sector, you operate at a profit or your business fails.
This is why people who work in the Public sector, should never be in control of the rules around Private enterprise.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Name one? How about a few?
Rockefeller lowered the cost of kerosene through efficient refining and distribution.
Ford made automobiles affordable through mass production.
Carnegie reduced steel production costs through industrial innovation.
Walton lowered retail prices through bulk purchasing and efficient logistics.
Dell made computers cheaper by eliminating retail intermediaries.
Kamprad made furniture affordable through flat-pack manufacturing and distribution.
Bezos intensified retail competition through Amazon.
Koum made international messaging practically free through WhatsApp.
Page and Brin made search, navigation, email, and translation available without direct charges.
And that's barely scratching the surface.
In fact, it would be considerably more challenging to find a billionaire who earned their fortune through voluntary trade without lowering costs, improving quality, increasing productivity, or making something more accessible.
That's how fortunes are generally made in competitive markets. You create value for others, and the more people you serve, the greater your potential reward.
You don't even have to buy from these businesses to benefit. Their competitors must improve their offerings or risk losing customers.
These clout chasers destroy their credibility daily without so much as flinching.
They enjoy the accumulated benefits of capitalist innovation while confidently demanding evidence that any of it ever happened.
The economic illiteracy would be impressive if it weren't so commonplace.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
The average civil war costs £40 billion. The Covid debacle cost Britain £400 billion. Ten civil wars. For a cold. Is anyone going to apologise to the kids? Is anyone going to hold the culprits responsible? Absolutely vile dishonesty from the worst generation in British history.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Embarrassing issue illiteracy. The moment the wind drops off, which it does this time of year, we have to find gigawatts of reserve capacity. Renewables have made us more dependent on gas than ever. These people are criminally stupid.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
One thing I never understand about people who hate landlords is why they think it is terrible for a landlord to earn profit on their labour and capital but are quite happy for the head of a housing association to earn significantly more providing a worse service.
About 20 years ago Mrs CB and I thought we won't be able to rely on the state for a pension so we needed to take action. We chose rental properties.
I did a plastering course, taught myself woodwork. We bought a rundown, empty house, refurbished it whilst having other jobs, and turned back into a family home. Through a lot of effort and money we did that 10 times. First the Tories, then Labour attacked landlords to mask their own uselessness at providing adequate housing.
Some people seem to disagree. And I'm fine with discussing the finer points of employment economics, but minimum wages and NI rises are easy pickings for politicians and done with little care for the reality for a business. Govt greed is not ok.
I just want a govt who doesn't feed idleness. I want young people to have every opportunity to find their place in the world but to know it always comes with sacrifice. I don't want to be sacrificing my time just to make ends meet in an ungrateful nation who spites success.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
This all started and enabled by the Tories btw
🚨 NEW: Ofcom says all adults should have to use their ID to access social media.
• Ofcom has recommended four methods for verifying users’ ages ahead of the UK’s ban on social media for under-16s, which is due to come into force in March next year.
• The four methods suggested, subject to government approval, are photo ID matching, banking-based checks, live facial age estimation and digital ID.
• The regulator noted that verifying the ages of 16 and 17-year-olds is challenging because many do not have credit cards, full driving licences or passports.
• Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said the ban can work if firms carry out highly effective age checks, and that the regulator will take action against companies that fail to comply.
They know its just tip of their economically destructive iceberg. They're heading off the inevitable blame before they announce an election.
I just can't rationalise the current political fervour for an intervention in Poundland, which has gone into administration, with the underlying economics and model of the business itself.
It's just a bloody distributor, it produces nothing, there's no strategic importance. There's literally another business called Poundstretcher doing the same thing. And myriad low cost supermarkets.
Any taxpayer funding would just be a straight up subsidy to maintain jobs that are only being lost because the Labour government made employing people prohibitively expensive.
Put simply, a bailout would be economic illiteracy.
And yet MPs will jump up and down on the bandwagon and demand it because they have local constituents affected.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
Not to sound all libertarian but the healthy mindset is aspiring to earn that much instead of punitively cranking up the taxes on people that do
£125k wouldn't even put someone in the top 10% of earners in the US. I don't think we realise just how poor we are in this country.
Engineering Dad 🔧🌍🇯🇪 retweeted
“People over profit” is a particularly ignorant slogan when you consider that profit is what makes satisfying people's needs economically sustainable.
Profit rewards the creation of value, encourages production, and provides the means to expand supply.
Without profitability, production eventually becomes unsustainable.
Putting people over profit makes about as much sense as putting human survival over food production.