The spirit of George Osborne lives on.
The second UK Northern Powerhouse Conference & Exhibition is taking place (somewhere up north) today and tomorrow.
Building on the success of last year’s event, the conference will have sessions on The Northern Powerhouse in the Post-Brexit era; Delivery and Finance; Competitiveness and Productivity; Air and Road; Ports and Rail; Powering the Powerhouse; Manufacturing the Powerhouse; and Big Data.
Some conferences have signing for the deaf; this one has translators for southern softies who don’t understand what is meant by putting wood in t’hole.
This chap (@manwhohasitall) has noted that all 85 speakers scheduled to speak are male. I’m saying nothing (or “nuffink”, as we say in Essex).
CONGRATULATIONS to the 85 male speakers at the #northernpowerhouse17 conference for getting there on merit alone. Very well done all of you.
— manwhohasitall (@manwhohasitall) February 14, 2017
It is possibly coincidental, bearing in mind the acerbic post from “manwhohasitall” that another hashtag trending on the popular social media platform today is #GenderPayGap.
Some are arguing that the gap does not exist at all and that it’s all about job choice. I have not read through all the Tweets – I’ve got a bean bag that needs refilling with beans and a recently creosoted fence that I am anxious to watch dry – but the general gist of the deniers (isn’t that something to do with tights?) is that women wilfully choose jobs that do not pay as well as the jobs men tend to choose.
Not everyone agrees with this assertion.
ONS chart: only 20% of jobs pay women (barely) more, the #GenderPayGap is not about job choice, it is not a myth https://t.co/BsztVuJOOD pic.twitter.com/VECZzupy4s
— Chad Greggor (@CGreggor) February 21, 2017
The subject is also trending on Google News, and has even crossed the Atlantic where a Utah Republican, James Green, has resigned after writing a letter explaining why women should be paid less than men.
He was responding to an "Equal Pay Amendments" bill introduced in the Utah State Legislature.
“Here’s the problem with the Equal Pay bill being considered by the Utah Legislature: Traditionally men have earned more than women in the workplace because they are considered the primary breadwinners for families,” Green wrote in a letter to two local publications.
“They need to make enough to support their families and allow the Mother [sic] to remain in the home to raise and nurture the children. If businesses are forced to pay women the same as male earnings, that means they will have to reduce the pay for the men they employ, simple economics.”
Well, er … yeah. I can see why that would never happen (cf. turkeys voting for Christmas) but I think Green has cracked it in terms of coming up with a solution.
Then again, I would say that as my missus earns more than me.
On the corporate news front, Anglo-Dutch foods giant Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) is still featuring heavily in the news.
Kraft Heinz, not exactly the most popular company in the UK after it peddled half-baked truths to grab control of much loved confectioner Cadbury, may have exited the scene to continue covering the world in 57 varieties of plastic cheese, but the general consensus seems to be that the pressure is now really on Unilever boss Paul Polman to cut the (Colman’s) mustard.
It is, as they like to say in football circles, a “big ask”. Turning around a company the size of Unilever is like trying to do a three-point-turn in a double decker bus that has been parked in an alley.
Analysts suggest Polman will go on a cost-cutting blitz to spruce up the company before the next bid emerges … which may not be long.
Among the small caps attracting attention, Vernalis plc (LON:VER) stands out, if only because of the share price plunge after the pharma company’s interims.
The shares lost around one-sixth of their value as figures came in below expectations. Revenue eased to £5.6mln from £6.1mln the year before, and the loss widened to £11mln from £10.2mln the previous year.
On the plus side, it has £74.2mln in cash, which is more than half the company’s stock market valuation.