EDITION 1037
16 SEPTEMBER 2024

On this day in 1620, a group of pilgrims sets sail from Plymouth, England aboard the Mayflower, headed for America. The settlers landed in December and founded Plymouth, Massachusetts: the first permanent New England colony. The Mayflower voyage remains one of the most significant in the history of the New World, but the fate of the ship remains a mystery to this day.

So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

Just before you dive in, remember our POTENTIAL workbook [see below] is on offer for only £99. This unique workbook will help guide your organisation to its highest potential. Contact us today to start your transformation.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to save time by saying no. What matters more: the amount of time you work or the results you produce? Any smart leader would say the latter. Yet, many people spend long, wasted hours at work. Learning to say 'no' is crucial for protecting your time and energy. While it might feel uncomfortable initially, setting boundaries is essential for your productivity and well-being. READ MORE

2. The one and only TV showdown. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump traded insults in a fiery TV debate in Philadelphia. Though pundits were divided as to whom had “won” the head-to-head match, Harris scored notable hits by pursuing her tactic of making Trump seem ridiculous. Minutes after the ABC debate, which Trump’s supporters said had been biased against him, pop star Taylor Swift told her tens of millions of followers that she was backing Harris. CNN and Fox News polls of voters who had watched the debate found that more than 60% considered Harris the winner. Who would you prefer to win the US presidential election in November. Please share your thoughts in our latest poll. VOTE HERE

3. National debt forecast to triple over next 50 years. UK national debt is on course to triple over the next half a century due to several pressures. Those pressures include an ageing population, climate change, and rising geopolitical tensions, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said. The OBR said without extra tax revenues or a return to post-war productivity levels, the public finances were not sustainable over the long term, and something has got to give. UK national debt is currently at almost 100% of GDP. The OBR says its base scenario is a national debt of 274% of GDP in 2071, with risks from war, disease, cyber-conflict and trade tensions pushing that even higher. Over the next 50 years, the government's public spending is projected to rise from 45% to over 60% of GDP. However, income generated is predicted to remain at around 40% of GDP. BBC

4. And then there were four. Mel Stride was eliminated from the Conservative leadership race on Tuesday in the second round of voting by MPs. That left two contenders from the right of the party leading the field – Robert Jenrick, with 33 votes, and Kemi Badenoch, with 28 – and two from the centrist wing: James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, both on 21. Priti Patel had been eliminated last week. The final four "will make their pitch" at the Tory conference in Birmingham at the end of the month; MPs will then whittle them down to two, before members get the final vote. The Telegraph

5. Job market cools as pay rises ease. UK wage growth is cooling and job numbers have dipped, according to new Office for National Statistics data, potentially easing pressure on the Bank of England (BoE) to keep interest rates higher for longer. The figures, released on Tuesday, show annual wage growth excluding bonuses slowed to 5.1% between May and July, down from 5.4% previously. While overall employee numbers are up 0.4% year-on-year to 30.3 million, recent months show slight declines. The employment rate remains steady at 74.8%, with unemployment at 4.1%. The government suggests these signs of a "stagnating" labour market should convince the BoE to cut rates "rather sooner" than later and risk more weakening of the jobs market. ONS

6. Students joining long-term ill. More than 60,000 recent university graduates were ill on a long-term basis upon finishing their studies in 2022, according to analysis by the NHS Confederation. There are now around 2.8 million people in the UK who are not working due to long-term illness, a record figure. The researchers found that students were one of the biggest cohorts of people considered long-term ill. Sickness in Britain has risen 27% since the pandemic, with one in 15 people of working age off work due to long-term illness – twice the rate seen in Italy and 69% higher than Germany. The number of students unable to work due to long-term illness has risen 24% since 2014. The increase is mainly due to a rise in mental health conditions after the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the report authors said. The Times

7. Plymouth 'most liveable' UK city. Plymouth has outranked London, Manchester and Birmingham in a list of the UK's best cities to live and work in. In fact, Britain's three biggest cities all came bottom of the table in 2024's Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index. Meanwhile, Plymouth, Bristol and Southampton led the top 10. The annual Index scores 51 of the UK's largest cities on 12 economic measures, including jobs, health, income, work-life balance, commute times and housing. The southwest came out on top this year, scoring above the UK average for health and safety, and skills. Meanwhile, cities with the largest social housing waiting lists, which include London, Birmingham and Manchester, ranked low on the Index. Daily Express

8. The pressure on GPs. GPs spend more than a third of their time treating a relatively small but growing group of patients who have multiple illnesses, new research has found. The analysis of more than ten million patients at 824 surgeries revealed that in 2019, 16% had three or more long-term conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and dementia, up from 9.7% in 2005; and that these patients accounted for 34.5% of the time GPs spent with their patients, up from 22.5%. The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, also found that the average person sees their GP less often than they used to; but that the consultations last longer and involve more paperwork. British Journal of General Practice

9. Don’t let them out of jail, try to get them in. We need to release prisoners early – not just to relieve pressure on an overloaded system, but because we’re locking up too many people in the first place. That’s the view of Britain’s most senior judges, set out in a new penal-reform paper. And they do make some strong points about how expensive our prisons have become and how bad they are at rehabilitation. But the idea we’re locking people up too much is hard to credit when you consider just how hard it is to get jailed today. Since 2007, there have apparently been more than 50,000 occasions on which offenders have been spared jail despite having more than 50 previous convictions. There’s a strong case for arguing Britain is not locking up too many people but too few. The Times

10. The bottom line. Royal Mail announced that the price of a first-class stamp will go up to £1.65 next month. It blamed the 30p increase on “urgent” financial challenges. Daily Mail