Category Archives: Government

Business, Economic, Government, Politics, Society

A cultural shift is needed to end gender discrimination

GENDER EQUALITY

IF we truly wanted to tackle the gender pay gap, we should be focussing on our biggest challenge: by encouraging women into the highest paid positions across all aspects of industry and employment.

In Scotland, only about a quarter of FTSE 100 company directors, public body chief executives, university principals, sheriffs and councillors are women. There are no female editors of major newspapers, or chief executives of FTSE 100 companies. Only seven per cent of senior police officers are women.

A way needs to be found to give women and men the same opportunities, and to create a pathway of equal chances. The senior management posts and highest-level specialist posts in so many fields are still significantly dominated by men.

One way to do this is by changing the grass roots narrative. Girls should be told from the earliest age that they can be anything they want to be; from train driver to football player; and from nuclear scientist to chief executive. Young girls should only be limited by their ability and their desire: never by their gender.

Our society needs to change its attitude, and in many cases its practices. If we are to ensure that girls get to progress in significantly growing numbers, starting in the home and then through pre-school, school and further education, these changes must now be our priority.

It is widely acknowledged that STEM careers are male-dominated. In the UK, just 15 per cent of engineering graduates are female. The figures are 19% for computer studies and 38% for maths. The shortfall is hardly surprising when we consider that only 13% of the overall UK STEM workforce is female and there are relatively few female STEM role models as a consequence.

We all need to embrace and encourage a fundamental change in attitude, and deliver a new atmosphere of equality – not just in business, but across all areas of society. By creating senior role models across traditionally male dominated sectors, we can foster a new attitude in young women, by encouraging them to pursue careers that they may not have originally considered.

Some of this change will evolve naturally through time, but society needs it sooner rather than in a generation or two. Women need to be correctly recognised and valued, and their potential realised for the benefit of our economy.

Research generated in 2015 showed that a more diverse and inclusive workforce helps business by bringing new skills, creativity and innovation, and achieving higher staff retention. Moving towards parity at top positions is not only likely to help the company’s performance; it could bring in added tax revenue. The same study estimated that closing gender pay gaps in work could add £150billion to UK gross domestic product in 2025.

Yet, there are still businesses in Scotland that pay male staff a higher rate than their female colleagues for the same job. We should be tracking down the offenders in this area, where like for like jobs are not paid the same. These disparities are unacceptable.

The Institute of Directors strongly supports the principle of equal pay and the need to create a better balance between male and female participation in the workforce so as to broaden the talent pool available to firms and employers.

Measuring pay gaps is very complex, and the use of averages can be misleading as peculiarities of industry, the nature of companies, geographies or circumstances make such comparisons unfair.

Governments should focus more on affordable and accessible childcare, encouraging more girls to study STEM subjects and providing better careers advice in schools. Policymakers should also focus on provision of leave and other measures which could help spread the strain of caring for children or the elderly.

Ultimately, a concerted effort must now be made to challenge the cultural norms: by encouraging more men and women to enter jobs that are outside conventional gender roles. Publishing crude averages alone will not tackle the root causes of the gender pay gap. There are numerous ways to improve the prospects of women in business and in other walks of life, but these must be done as part of a package of complementary measures designed to aid real and lasting change. Advancing the cause of women in the workplace and dealing with the gender pay gap are issues that aren’t going to go away until they are properly dealt with.

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Britain, Government, Health, Politics, Society

NHS at 70: The Health Service faces tough choices to survive

THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

Intro: The NHS is creaking under the strain of an ageing and unfit population

The natural lifespan of a human being was once viewed as being three score years and ten. But while a baby girl born in 1948 could reasonably look forward to a life that long, the life expectancy of a boy was less than 66.

How times have changed. Today, the respective figures for either gender are about 10 years longer, thanks in large part to the National Health Service which turned 70 on the 5 July.

Among its major achievements, the NHS has saved countless lives from infection or injury, eliminated horrific diseases like polio from the UK, introduced comprehensive vaccination programmes, and enabled the birth of the world’s first IVF baby. It has many other successes to its name.

NHS staff have become the heroes of modern-day Britain: nurses were last year voted the most trusted profession, with doctors a close second. Nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, recently told of how she was “astounded” by the level of care she received, with medical staff “putting their lives on hold and working round the clock” to save her.

And she is certainly not alone. The Commonwealth Fund, a US think tank, last year ranked the NHS as the best healthcare system in 11 leading countries, including the US, France, Germany and Australia.

The UK’s total spending on public and private healthcare is about 10 per cent of national income. This is lower than in the US (16%), as well as Japan, France and Germany (11%). The simple comparisons would suggest we are getting a top-class health service on the cheap; indeed, the NHS has been described in the British Medical Journal as the “world’s most cost-effective healthcare system.”

Yet, for all that, the NHS is clearly showing signs of decrepitude as it moves on from its 70th anniversary. Its success at enabling the average person to live an extra decade has created a vast amount of new work to keep the diseases of old age at bay. Meanwhile, poor trends of bad diets and physical inactivity have produced a surge in rates of obesity and associated illnesses, some of which are threatening to overwhelm the NHS.

While healthcare funding has been increased by both Labour and Conservative governments, the extra cash has failed to keep pace with the rise in demand, leaving doctors and nurses increasingly overworked and stressed as waiting times for treatment have increased.

However, whilst governments and health secretaries can change, we, the public, must share some of the blame. Most people bang the table to demand appointments and yet a staggering 1.7million, about 10 per cent, of them were missed over the last decade at a cost of some £200million. Many also insist on antibiotics when they are not needed.

If we wish the NHS to continue as part of the societal fabric of the UK, then some tough choices may need to be made. And, on this, the public may be more accepting of the need for change than politicians realise.

A recent poll found 75 per cent of respondents backed fining patients who repeatedly missed appointments. Plastic surgery for purely cosmetic reasons and other non-vital procedures may need to be cut or scrapped completely.

Laws that were enacted in applying a 5p charge for plastic bags resulted in an 80-90 per cent fall in their use. So, unless we can be persuaded to stop putting so much pressure on the NHS, perhaps the time has come to consider small charges for prescriptions and even GP appointments to make us all value them more.

For if the NHS is ever lost, we will rue the day we lost sight of just how worthwhile it is.

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China, Economic, European Union, Government, Politics, Society, United States

Trump’s trade war is a risk to the global economy

GLOBAL TRADE WAR

AN escalating trade war between China, the US and Europe could plunge the global economy into turmoil, international experts have warned.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said the battle of wills between President Donald Trump and rivals in China and the European Union has put “economic recovery in jeopardy”.

In a major report on the 20 largest economies – known as the G20 – WTO economists warn that angry rhetoric and rising tariffs on all sides are a severe threat.

The WTO said that G20 countries slapped £52.6billion of sanctions on trade between October and May. A total of 39 new restrictive measures were introduced to block goods from competitors – double the number in the previous report.

The WTO said: “The G20 economies must use all means at their disposal to de-escalate the situation and promote further trade recovery.”

President Trump vowed on the campaign trail to protect US jobs and industries from globalisation. He has imposed aluminium and steel tariffs on China and the EU, and hit the Chinese with extra duties on everything from bulldozers to touchscreens.

Beijing responded in kind, hitting key US exports such as its important soya bean trade. Meanwhile, Brussels has slapped tariffs on American goods, including motorcycles and bourbon whiskey.

The President is now threatening to act against Europe’s prized car manufacturers. Last week, he said: “The EU is possibly as bad as China, only smaller. They send a Mercedes in, we can’t send our cars in.”

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