High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Jackie Mulheron

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Robert Henderson

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Magnus Paterson

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Robert Henderson

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Ian Smith

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Robert Henderson

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Ian Smith

Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons

Jackie Mulheron

From:	Jackie Mulheron
Subject:	High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:41:36 -0000

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=61822005

Tue 18 Jan 2005

Scots have the skills - but not the pay

HAMISH MACDONELL
SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR

SCOTS have more skills than workers elsewhere in Britain but are paid less,
according to a comprehensive study of the Scottish economy.

Local Futures, an economic think-tank, says skill levels are higher than the
rest of Britain in almost every part of Scotland and the country's "skills
profile" matches that of the south-east of England.

The problem is this has not been translated into wages, with the average
take-home pay in Scotland of £326 a week 6 per cent below the UK average.

The report for Scottish Enterprise identifies pockets of success in
Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh, but says a dependence on the public
sector and a narrow band of industries, such as tourism, are holding back
the economy. It calls for better transport links with the rest of the UK,
and more diversity in business.

The report represents a warning that ministers need to help the economy
adapt and develop.

Local Futures states that Scotland has a "low-value bias" combined with a
"large public service sector" and this is hindering growth.

The researchers say Edinburgh is the only place in Scotland able to act as a
strong magnet for migrants and that the whole of the country, except
Glasgow, needs better transport links with the rest of the UK.

Edinburgh and Aberdeen are praised as areas of growth but other areas are
not seen in such a good light. South-west Scotland is said to "struggle"
with an unskilled workforce, the Highlands has a narrow industrial base and
low earnings, while Dundee has a "high dependence on the public sector".

Allan Hogarth, from the Scottish CBI, said the report showed the mixed
picture of the Scottish economy.

However, he added: "As far as earnings are concerned, the cost of living is
substantially less and the quality of life substantially higher in Scotland
than the south-east of England. The real challenge is for both the public
and the private sectors to create the business environment which will
attract people to Scotland, creating new firms and, subsequently, jobs."

Murdo Fraser, for the Tories, said the economy would benefit from better
transport links, lower business rates and a "lower cost base" for
businesses. "Scots are paying higher levels of charges than elsewhere - the
sort of costs which are preventing higher salaries."

Jim Mather, for the SNP, said: "As long as we remain a branch economy whose
centre is in the south-east of England we will fail to use the high-quality
skills of our people."

WHY WAGES ARE LOWER ACROSS THE BOARD

WHY do Scotland's superior skills not translate into higher average
earnings?

One major reason is the higher proportion of Scots in public-sector jobs,
where wages tend to be less than in the private sector, certainly for
low-skilled occupations. Scotland's public sector grew by 6 per cent in the
four years following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, rising by
nearly 30,000 employees. There are now more than 612,000 public-sector
employees out of a total workforce of 2.2 million.

Another factor is the low wage rates of women. Women in Scotland earn
consistently less than their counterparts in the rest of the UK. For
instance, female managers and senior officials earned an average of £517 per
week in 2003, while for the UK the figure was £578. This suggests that women
in managerial grades in Scotland are farther down the promotion ladder than
in the south. However, even taking all this into account, every kind of job
in Scotland - public or private - commands lower average weekly earnings
than the rest of the UK. Even managers working north of the Border get only
87.9 per cent of the UK rate, while plant workers get 97.9 per cent.

Partly this reflects the loss of HQ functions from Scotland, as Scottish
firms are taken over. Another explanation is the London weighting allowance.
It is not the fact that Scottish wages are low, rather London earnings are
artificially boosted.

Even public-sector workers get additional payments for working in London.
Soldiers at Chelsea barracks qualify for an extra £3 a day. And to add
insult to injury, while tax inspectors outside London are paid on a scale
between £19,000 and £31,000, their colleagues working in Westminster are on
a scale between £21,700 and £35,300.

GEORGE KEREVAN

From:	Robert Henderson
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Mon, 24 Jan 2005 06:49:18 +0000

In article <41f3dfd2$0$25848$a8266bb1@news.titannews.com>, Ian Smith
writes
>
> Ha! Scotch comes in a bottle. If you can't even get that right,
>what chance have you of being taken seriously with the rest of your
>utterances?

Burchfield [1] has some interesting things to say on this topic:

Scotch. Scots, Scottish. It is not pos-
sible to set down here all the complica-
tions of this somewhat sensitive group
of words. The adjective Scotch, in origin
a contracted variant of Scottish, 'had been
adopted into the northern vernacular
before the end of the 18th c.; it [was] used
regularly by Burns, and subsequently by
Scott' (OED). But 'since the mid-19th c.
there has been in Scotland a growing
tendency to discard the form altogether,
Scottish, or less frequently Scots, being
substituted' (OED). Scots is also a long-
standing variant of Scottish. The outcome
is that all three adjectives are still cur-
rent, but Scotch is the least frequent and
survives mainly in certain collocations,
e.g. Scotch broth, Scotch egg, Scotch mist,
Scotch terrier, Scotch tweed, Scotch whisky,
and a few others. Scots is the term regu-
larly used of the form of English spoken
in (esp. Lowlands) Scotland. It also occurs
in the names of certain Scottish regi-
ments. But the all-embracing general ad-
jective meaning 'of or relating to
Scotland, its history, its day-to-day life,
or its inhabitants', is Scottish. These are
middle-class preferences. 'Paradoxically,'
A.J. Aitken reports in OCELang. (1992),'for
working class Scots the common form
has long been Scotch ... and the native
form Scots is sometimes regarded as an
Anglicized affectation.' Outside Scot-
land, and esp. outside the UK, Scottish
preferences are less well-known. Scotch is
likely to occur, both as adj. and noun, in
contexts which middle-class Scots would
regard as either droll or improper.

[1] R W BURCHFIELD (ed.): Fowler's Modern English Usage. 3rd ed, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1996. ISBN: 0 19 869136 2.

--

--
Robert Henderson
philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk
Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk

From:	Magnus Paterson
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:23:36 -0000

Robert Henderson wrote:
> In article <41f3dfd2$0$25848$a8266bb1@news.titannews.com>, Ian Smith
> writes
>>
>> Ha! Scotch comes in a bottle. If you can't even get that right,
>> what chance have you of being taken seriously with the rest of your
>> utterances?
>
> Burchfield [1] has some interesting things to say on this topic:

Indeed he does (or, rather did, as he is dead) when you look
closely.

> Scotch is the least frequent and
> survives mainly in certain collocations,
> e.g. Scotch broth, Scotch egg, Scotch mist,
> Scotch terrier, Scotch tweed, Scotch whisky,
> and a few others.

Ah yes; the inanimate adjective, as we have been telling Rabbie
all along, when he persists in using it for the animate form.

But wait; what's this??

> 'for working class Scots the common form
> has long been Scotch'

Our Rabbie at last admits his Scottish working-class background.

How enlightening.

From:	Robert Henderson
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 07:28:24 +0000

In article <41f30594$0$25870$a8266bb1@news.titannews.com>, Ian Smith
writes
>
> Your arguments are antagonistic, bigotted, and unfactual. In my
>book, that makes you a fucking arsehole.
>
A Scotch "intellectual" in action. RH
--
Robert Henderson
philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk
Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk

From:	Ian Smith
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:51:16 -0000

"Robert Henderson" wrote in message
news:+pChgUCYI18BFwLS@anywhere.demon.co.uk...
> In article <41f30594$0$25870$a8266bb1@news.titannews.com>, Ian Smith
> writes
>>
>> Your arguments are antagonistic, bigotted, and unfactual. In my
>>book, that makes you a fucking arsehole.
>>
> A Scotch "intellectual" in action. RH
> --
> Robert Henderson
> philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk
> Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
> Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk

Ha! Scotch comes in a bottle. If you can't even get that right,
what chance have you of being taken seriously with the rest of your
utterances?

.................................................................
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>>>> at http://www.TitanNews.com <<<<
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From:	Robert Henderson
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 06:34:20 +0000

In article <35d0moF3smmheU1@individual.net>, Jackie Mulheron
writes
>
>Local Futures states that Scotland has a "low-value bias" combined with a
>"large public service sector"

Much of it funded by the vast subsidy England gives the Scotch. RH
> and this is hindering growth.

Hilarious Scotch "weening". It's "t'anglish makin' us pooor". RH
--
Robert Henderson
philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk
Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk

From:	Ian Smith
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 02:20:02 -0000

"Robert Henderson" wrote in message
news:eDPJ6LAsPf8BFwNn@anywhere.demon.co.uk...
> In article <35d0moF3smmheU1@individual.net>, Jackie Mulheron
> writes
>>
>>Local Futures states that Scotland has a "low-value bias" combined
>>with a
>>"large public service sector"
>
> Much of it funded by the vast subsidy England gives the Scotch. RH
>> and this is hindering growth.
>
> Hilarious Scotch "weening". It's "t'anglish makin' us pooor". RH
> --
> Robert Henderson
> philip@anywhere.demon.co.uk
> Blair Scandal web site at http://www.geocities.com/blairscandal/
> Personal web site at http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk

Your arguments are antagonistic, bigotted, and unfactual. In my
book, that makes you a fucking arsehole.

.................................................................
Posted via TITANnews - Uncensored Newsgroups Access
>>>> at http://www.TitanNews.com <<<<
-=Every Newsgroup - Anonymous, UNCENSORED, BROADBAND Downloads=-

From:	Jackie Mulheron
Subject:	Re: High skilled Scots, Low paid Britons
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 13:44:00 -0000