h/t James Delingpole – Britain’s Labour Opposition Party, which has a real chance of winning the next UK election, is seriously considering a think tank proposal to radically cut working hours and wages to reduce everyone’s carbon footprint.
Plan for 10-hour working week with 75% paycut under Labour
Martine Berg Olsen Monday 10 Jun 2019 7:54 am
The Labour Party is discussing plans to bring in a 10-hour working week and slash pay by 75 per cent to tackle climate change. The radical report titled The Ecological Limits of Work by the Autonomy Group states unless current carbon emissions are cut there would be an ‘unprecedented decrease in the economic activity’.It says the sustainable work week would likely be ‘well below 10 hours per week’.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has previously backed a four-day working week, said: ‘This is a vital contribution to the growing debate around free time and reducing the working week.’ Leo Murray, adviser to Shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis, said: ‘I like this take a lot.’
Lewis has previously backed another controversial report from the group on reducing the working week.
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/10/plan-10-hour-working-week-75-paycut-labour-9878450/
…
The full report, “The Ecological Limits of Work”, is available here.
Under the topic “other considerations”, the report authors express concern that their proposed cut might not be deep enough, because people working shorter hours might be more productive during the time they do work, which would cancel some of the ecological “benefit” of a shorter working week.
This is not a fringe proposal. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who praised the proposal, is a senior figure in the Labour Party, and has a real chance of being put in charge of Britain’s banking system and economy after the next election.
The report kind of skips over issues which might concern some workers, like how British workers already suffering fuel poverty are supposed to warm their homes and feed their families with 75% less money, and how they are supposed to pay their mortgages and bills (maybe all mortgages will be forgiven?), but I doubt the politicians considering this radical policy proposal have ever personally experienced real hunger, poverty or cold.
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But dont worry. The report says
“……..a growing discussion sees a reduction in working hours as a multiple dividend policy, increasing, among other things, individual wellbeing, productivity and gender equality whilst simultaneously potentially contributing to a reduction in unemployment and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
There. Nothing to worry about, it will increase individual wellbeing.
Yup, dead people never get sick or have bad days and gender equality is almost perfect in cemeteries, so starving and freezing 2/3 of the population will eventually increase individual wellbeing for the majority. The 1/3 of the population that survives may not really think so and the 2/3 that starve and freeze will no doubt have a few questions about this socialist utopia while they’re starving and freezing, but that’s progressive progress.
One would think the Godzilla-stomping obvious insanity of this proposal would bleed over into more skepticism of the global warming stampede in general. Anyone proposing something this dumb should be given no credence on any topic whatsoever.
Not if people glue themselves to a moving city bus, as it then goes viral, and spiral popularity for the proposal is practically assured.
How will British subjects warm their homes? By burning Labor politicians as firewood. Then next election, they can get this stupid proposal repealed.
I’m sure farmers would like to cut their hours by 6.5x under this plan. They might just be able to grow enough for themselves, though.
https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/health-and-wellbeing/fit2farm-farmers-weekly-campaign-to-improve-farmers-health
In other news the UK Labour party proudly announces the discovery of a new massive seam of Stupid, big enough to provide for all of the British Isles for the next 250 years…
On the plus side I suppose, if this goes through the Pound will be so low that us foreign types will be able to visit the UK for about $0.39 a day.
I was watching a video the other day, that was just a day old, of a cab trip on a train from Winchester to Basingstoke. In the video you can see a red-brick building to the right as the train pulls in to the station. That building is called Normandy House. The last time I was in that building was 1994, and it has been empty ever since.
The UK is on a one way trip to economic doom with or without Brexit. It started in about 2008.
Great idea. And if the
peasantspeople run out of bread, they can always have cake instead.You all seem to think he is talking of everyone cutting down to 10 hours a week.
He is really only talking of those who vote for liberals, which in the US , on average, would be an increase if the 10 hours was productive work.
He expects conservatives to continue carrying the load.
So, which 10 hours a week will the hospitals be open?
Or the grocery stores, or …
Appreciate the honesty here. Just more Progressive War on the Middle Class.
Yes. I think they said exactly what they really mean. And that is a good thing because it is sooooo obviously deserving of ridicule, derision, and rejection!
With police and firemen working such short hours I’m sure this won’t affect the crime rate. Neither will all these poor, hungry people with lots of free time. They wouldn’t consider crime just because they are starving.
face::palm.
If this happens I suggest that all the British people should move to America and join the ‘I can’t be bothered to get a job but can I have a working salary anyway’ mob that AOC will introduce. They won’t even have to get visa’s etc. as AOC will let them all in for free. They can then turn the UK into a giant historical fun park…
Ooops.. no need, I forgot we’ll all be dead in about 11 years and 7 months or so..
I heard Theresa May saying something stupid about climate change. Now Labor is being real stupid. Who’s the British public got to vote for that isn’t nuts?
That’s absolutely the problem for people like me who are sceptics.
Unfortunately politicians think this is a popular issue with the climatologists in the majority, so they jump on the bandwagon. We need a party to do some serious thought on this and lead the way to more rational solutions.
If the #trillions+, that it will cost to tinker with the climate via CO2, were to be spent on coping with climate instead, then the problems of warming, cooling or staying the same (we have now and have had for ever, droughts, floods, storms, etc, etc ) could be dealt with and a lot more beside.
OTOH the Extinction Rebellion crowd want to do away with democracy and have mob rule by activist minority, so political parties and voting would be irrelevant.
Perhaps it is a good thing that the far left, environmental, loony fringe is no longer fond of wearing a thin veneer of pretend logic. They have gone whole hog for fantasy land to the extent that anyone with a heart beat can see what the outcome of their policies would be and how society would dissolve into chaos in less than a week.
In my working career, I always modelled myself on Wally from the Dilbert cartoons. I can see a lot of upside in this proposal.
For example, by the time you take off a lunch break and a couple of coffee breaks, it’ll hardly be worth even logging on. Especially if I shank my password and have to get IT to reset it a couple of times a day. In which case, might as well save the commute and just stay in bed. I’ll send you my bank details, just EFT my salary and we’ll be sweet.
Of course as soon as they get into power the first thing they will do is to cut their own pay by 75%…
If politicians were to only work 1 day a week, we’d all be better off.
My God! There is an upside to their proposal…
The whole article from the Autonomy think tank is based on the assumption that 1/ there is a major climate emergency, and 2/ it is caused by human CO2 emissions. There is significant scientific evidence that neither are true.
3/ killing most of the population is the best solution to 1 and 2.
You’re not thinking it through!!!! These poor ruling classes have to consider the long-term future for the good of the Nation, trouble is, when the concentration camps are built, what will they gas us with? Conventional natural gas or evil wicked fracked natural gas? Oh the awful dilema they face! (As we all know, fracking was only invented by the evil wicked capitlists of Big Oil a couple of years ago to increase their riches)……FACT!!! Not!
I think a rename to LObotomy think tank more apt;-)
Has not Venezuela already accomplished this fine goal?
And I think Greece and Spain had some claim to this kind of perfection as well.
Of course the Professional Parasite is projecting,as he and his kind work less than 3 hours/day..there fore every one else can.
The problem with being a kleptocrat,otherwise known as a parasite,is you fail to understand your host.
Never having worked,this character cannot see what work produces.
Production is just a phrase to him.
Me thinks our elites are very effete and need replaced.
I bet he has an Economics PhD from some liberal university too.
The counter proposal should be to cut Government employee (including the politicians) work hours and pay by 75%, but leave everyone else alone.
I have to believe that is Fake News. Not rational by any measure.
It is. John MacDonnell was talking about a quite different report, not concerning climate change. There is no evidence of Labour support for this one.
The Autonomy Group folks who created, “The Ecological Limits of Work by the Autonomy Group,” quote the spokesperson for Labour’s 4 day workweek campaign praising it.
Where? I see no such claims in the 10-hour paper by Frey. There are endorsements of the different 4-day week proposal, in that report, including the one by MacDonnell. The proposal to make possible a shorter week has been a subject of active discussion, as is well known, for reasons little to do with climate change.
Nick
McDonnell has spoken approvingly of the report and it is being ‘considered’ although that is not the same as an endorsement.
Autonomy is a new left leaning research group looking at all the things beloved by labour. Here is a detailed summary of their activities. They have yet to file their accounts.
http://autonomy.work/about-us/
It would be astonishing if McDonnell and others on the left were not being actively consulted by Autonomy or at the least were not enthusiastic recipients of the output by the group.
Tony,
“McDonnell has spoken approvingly of the report”
Do you have evidence of that? As I noted here, the quote attributed to MacDonnell was in fact about another quite different report, on a four day week, which was not about climate change. The quote appeared months before the 10-hour report highlighted here was published. I can see no reason to believe that this latter report was considered by any senior level of the Labour Party.
“…Where? I see no such claims in the 10-hour paper by Frey…”
Didn’t lift a finger, did you?
http://autonomy.work/portfolio/ecologicallimitscoverage/
Emma Williams, Spokesperson for the 4 Day Week Campaign says:
“We welcome this attempt by Autonomy to grapple with the very real changes society will need to make in order to live within the limits of the planet. In addition to improved well-being, enhanced gender equality and increased productivity, addressing climate change is another compelling reason we should all be working less”
“Emma Williams, Spokesperson “
So who is Emma Williams? Certainly not a member of Parliament. And her organisation is not part of the Labor Party. No identified Labor figures are listed in that praise list.
So it goes here. The Shadow Chancellor praised the report? He didn’t? Who cares – someone leftwing praised the report. It’s all the same.
Wut.
Just… wut.
Global dimming (aerosol masking effect)! Wake TFU.
Turn off global industrial production by only 33% and climate change accelerates rapidly (6-12 weeks).
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘞𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩…
https://globalwarmingclimatechangemethane.blogspot.com/
Global Warming must have caused a massive increase of ” magic schrooms ”
and these people must have them at the bottom of their food pyramid .
If you’ve ever talked to Labour activists or Greens, I think you would realise that rationality is not their strong point. Many of them will surely agree with this. Fortunately a lot of them want to get elected and do have enough sense to realise that 75% pay cuts are not so popular.
Extinction Rebellion supporters unfortunately have no such democratic constraints and, believing they have no future, may well try to ensure that belief is fulfilled by destroying human civilisation to preserve the planet.
Easy: Feed your animals once every 4 days. Water your plants once every 4 days. Cook your food once every 4 days. Eat in a Labour soup kitchen the other three days.
That saves the world, but is that world really worth saving?
Every generation or two, Britain’s Labour Party tries to commit suicide.
In the 1930’s before WW2 pacifism became the Labour party’s official policy in opposition. Pacifism – getting rid of all military capability. And that while the threat of AH and his movement was growing in Germany.
Pacifism in the run-up to WW2 is a very good analogy for renouncing fossil fuel energy, in the face of what lies ahead in the coming decades.
75% wage cut? We’re talking about genocide. That should be a real vote-winner for them!
One can only hope that resuscitation efforts will fail this time.