Some Unqualified Good News for Once

Generali

The UK has risen from 13th to 12th in the annual World Economic Forum competitiveness survey after several years of decline (which just happened to coincide with a Labour Government coincidentally enough).

Link

Switzerland is top and the French 15th. Always good to beat the French I reckon. Aussie comes in 16th.

purch

Some Unqualified Good News for Once

Wrong Forum.

ILW

Not sure it's great news.
Would we celebrate coming 12th in the world Cup or are we just resigned to mediocrity.

Jennifer_Jane

As someone who lived a long time in South Africa, I definitely think that beating the Australians in something, is great news.

Chris2685

ILW wrote: »

Not sure it's great news.
Would we celebrate coming 12th in the world Cup or are we just resigned to mediocrity.

True. There are 208 FIFA members too (http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/associations.html).

Only 139 in the WEF figures

michaels

Sadly I suspect many in the Labour Party, whatever message they parrot to the press, would not see this as good news as increased competitiveness must be the flip side of a coin that has increased regulations and more social protection on the reverse side.

My impression is that the median UK residents perception of where the trade-off between competitiveness and social protection should lie would be further down the competitiveness league.

Generali wrote: »

The UK has risen from 13th to 12th in the annual World Economic Forum competitiveness survey after several years of decline (which just happened to coincide with a Labour Government coincidentally enough).

Link

Switzerland is top and the French 15th. Always good to beat the French I reckon. Aussie comes in 16th.

Generali

ILW wrote: »

Not sure it's great news.
Would we celebrate coming 12th in the world Cup or are we just resigned to mediocrity.

It's a move in the right direction. You're not going to go from 13th to 1st and the UK has been heading the wrong way down the table for some time.

michaels wrote: »

Sadly I suspect many in the Labour Party, whatever message they parrot to the press, would not see this as good news as increased competitiveness must be the flip side of a coin that has increased regulations and more social protection on the reverse side.

My impression is that the median UK residents perception of where the trade-off between competitiveness and social protection should lie would be further down the competitiveness league.

It's quite an interesting study and goes a long way beyond the things you'd expect like wage costs and whether or not you can fire someone incompetent. They also take in things like corruption, infrastructure, property rights, the Scottishness of the Government* and many other things besides.

The study has some weaknesses not least of which is that a different data gatherer is used in each country so there may be problems with consistency, the LSE is used in the UK for example. I think it lies somewhere between a bit of fun, or at least what passes for fun amongst economists, and a serious study. I suspect the people that put it together wouldn't agree with me.








*Actually I made one of the list up.

blueboy43

Generali wrote: »

The UK has risen from 13th to 12th in the annual World Economic Forum competitiveness survey after several years of decline (which just happened to coincide with a Labour Government coincidentally enough).

Link

Switzerland is top and the French 15th. Always good to beat the French I reckon. Aussie comes in 16th.

Except that in 2001, the UK was 12th in this table and is still 12th after 9 furthers years of Labour government.

I do admit that its a remarkable achievement by the Tories to lift us up a place after only 3 months in power.

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/PastReports/index.htm

Generali

blueboy43 wrote: »

I do admit that its a remarkable achievement by the Tories to lift us up a place after only 3 months in power.

Pretty good eh? Give them a second term and England will win the Ashes and the World Cup too.

Did you know that England have never won or retained the Ashes under Labour*?

blueboy43

Generali wrote: »

It's a move in the right direction. You're not going to go from 13th to 1st and the UK has been heading the wrong way down the table for some time.



.

Hmmmm,

Do you have the rankings for the 1990's, as from 2001 the UK has occupied more or less exactly the same position ?

Generali

blueboy43 wrote: »

Hmmmm,

Do you have the rankings for the 1990's, as from 2001 the UK has occupied more or less exactly the same position ?

Nope. I was unwise enough as to accept a piece on FT Alphaville as my source without going to the primary source.

To be fair, that's what almost everyone does on here. The links are pretty much always to the BBC, Telegraph or whatever rather than to the piece of research.

It is still good news that the UK is becoming more competitive.

I accept my line about Labour was a cheap shot.