Category: Economics

What a Blunder: Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng trips up over his own ego

Continue reading What a Blunder: Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng trips up over his own ego

Clueless Kwarteng borrowing time and giving to the rich

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivered a mini budget unfit to purpose by giving away a large slice of the government’s current income to rely heavily on borrowing instead. Cuts in government  income and National  Insurance  is sure to have an impact on this government’s  abilities to deliver on previous  promises of improvements to the NHS  and the  seemingly  forgotten pledge of ‘ levelling-up’. What’s  also gone from the mandate of  which this government  was elected to do is the commitment to ‘Net Zero’ by scrapping  or postponing the funding which was set aside to do this. So on almost all mandates from the 2019 Conservative  Election  Manifesto they have broken almost every Election  Pledge. This goes to show that the Tories  can’t be trusted to deliver.

Trickle Down Economics doesn’t work

Now Kwarteng is gambling with the economy. He has tried to convince us that he is a genius but instead he has shown that he has only a rudimentary  grasp of economics. His most recent  attempt shows that he can master smoke and mirrors. The majority  of us in the UK will receive a mere 1 penny in the pound amounting to 2 bars of soap and a litre of milk over the course of a month and we are supposed  to be grateful for that: whilst the rich benefit disproportionately. This is another attempt  to install a failed economic theory first tried out by Margaret Thatcher. It didn’t  work then and it won’t  work now. It’s  not a new idea it’s  a rehash of Thatcherism. Trickle down economics doesn’t  work. All it does is increase the divide between  the rich and the poor and opens the door for the richest to exploit the poorest with unemployment  and wage slashing.

To achieve this Kwarteng  has sacrificed the government’s income and instead has reverted to borrowing  to keep the County  afloat. This equates to a situation  of being afloat in the middle of the ocean in a boat full of holes which is sinking, whilst sending out a Mayday  call to the Super Rich to come and rescue us. I doubt there will be much interest  as the Rich will just remain at home counting their increased riches which this mini budget has so kindly  laid at their doorstep.

Continue reading Clueless Kwarteng borrowing time and giving to the rich

Price Cap: My Arse

There is no EnergyPrice Cap. No meaningful intervention  and no controls and certainly  no regulating body. Price Cap: my Arse. Energy  companies  and utilities are setting any arbitrary  prices that they like without intervention from this useless Tory Government. Energy companies  and utilities  can basically  charge what they want and over inflate their greed and profiteering  at the same time. Only the threats of re- nationalisation can rein them in now.

It is widely expected that the Bank of England will raise interests rates today : why is this wrong to do so?

This post has been made in response to Kevin Peachey’s article that appeared today on the BBC’s App and website  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57764601  .It is widely  expected that the Bank of England will raise interest rates today in order to tackle Inflation. This is a very predictable text book response to Inflation and seen by many as the preferred method  to tackle  Inflation. The BBC has inferred  that this Inflation is as a result of the lack of goods in the Economy after the Pandemic. From what I remember of the Pandemic is wasn’t goods availability that was problematic it was just that there appeared to be a shift away from people actually going to get goods to a situation whereby goods were being mainly ordered and delivered. Sure enough there was some drop in production but this didn’t impact greatly on availability. There was however more of a drop in services in that sector of the Economy.  However today all I ever see down our street and on our estate is loads and loads of delivery vans constantly  shuffling about and delivering goods to people’s  homes via Amazon and DPD to name but a few. Also I myself  have ordered much since the Pandemic  ended and have enjoyed taking advantage  of one day delivery schemes. So when the BBC state lack of goods as a cause of this current period of Inflation , I simply have to  laugh. I have never recently gone onto the Internet and Amazon, in particular, where I remember being informed that the goods that I wished to order were out of stock. This has been my recent experience.  So where is this shortage of goods driving this Inflation? It simply does not exist but has become an easy  scapegoat to avoid the real finger of suspicion.

The real cause of Inflation is the greedy energy and utilities  companies hiking up profits and disguising these as pass on costs.

Continue reading It is widely expected that the Bank of England will raise interests rates today : why is this wrong to do so?

COP26 and government policies won’t necessarily stop environmental degradation

COP26 and government policies aren’t  necessarily  going to stop environmental degradation instead focus should equally  be falling on individual  responsibilities and the activities  of businesses.  The activities  of these aren’t  necessarily  going to be directly influenced  by either the decisions  of COP26 or government  policies resulting from this conference.

Continue reading COP26 and government policies won’t necessarily stop environmental degradation

The stench of BRITISH privatisation is becoming evident in the run up to COP26

The stench of British  privatisation is becoming evident in the run up to COP26. Government ministers  are running for cover and attempting to hide under stones after a Government motion was defeated which would have forced the private water companies to clean up their act. However what happened was actually very embarrassing for the government because the bill  was defeated which actually  looked liked a huge endorsement for the behaviour of the private water companies and a signal that it was OK to keep discharging untreated sewage in the rivers of Britain  and into the seas around the UK. This is a huge embarrassment to the government in the run up to COP26. Again it is a stench resulting  from the privatisations of the water companies  pioneered by previous Conservative governments.

It appears that ministers voted on the matter in the way that they did mainly  because of huge investments in the infrastructure that would be needed to update the antiquated system currently  in place. Cost in this case was prohibitive to improving and maintaining the environment  so the choice preferred was to continue to pollute and degrade the environment.

So why haven’t these private companies  been investing in making these improvements themselves and why are they still reliant on funding from the government  and the tax payers? What has gone wrong with privatisation? Surely  the idea of privatisation was to become independent of the tax payer and yet these companies  still manage to bother the tax payers to subsidise their profiteering  enterprises.

No Special Relationship and No Phenomenal Trade Deals Post Brexit

There will be no special relationship and no phenomenal trade deals with the USA post Brexit that much is obvious now. The special relationship is just a sham and the phenomenal trade deals will be tailored to suit the USA to the detriment of the UK. Over the last week or so Donald Trump has shown that he simply cannot be trusted. He pulled American Forces out of Syria in what amounted to a betrayal of the Kurds and then stood by silently as Turkey took the opportunity for a land grab. Previously the Kurds had been an ally of the USA in Syria helping to fight Isis.

Next we have seen an example of the kind of special relationship that the USA has in store for us post Brexit. The imposition of a 25% import tax on a range of popular UK exports in a tit for tat trade war that has not been highlighted by the Uk’s Tory government. No wonder that they are not keen to highlight this because it demonstrates the kind of one sided trade agreements that we can expect from Trump’s USA post Brexit in the future. The special relationship seems to have been conveniently sidelined so that Trump can get his point across and Trump doesn’t like to loose. Let’s get a perspective on this Trump has been elected President of the USA on the premise that he will ‘put America first’ and that is certainly what he intends to do. The special relationship is nothing more than words, it is a sham. Trump cannot be trusted at all, he has shown this on 3 occasions in the space of only a week so why would we as the UK want to put any faith in dealing with him?

Post Brexit the UK will be in a desperate position looking for trade deals and this desperation will be exploited by countries like the USA who will see it as an opportunity rather than a mutually beneficial agreement. Trump is after all a businessman who is used to the ways of business. Not everything in business is always fair, good and proper and there are often winners and losers where business is concerned. Profiting from business often favours the more powerful protagonist. Exploitation is often a theme in business and the UK should be aware of that. Desperation and having a weak hand is not a good position to be in when negotiating.

Clumsy and Cynical Handling of the Anne Sacoolas Affair

The last example of untrustworthiness shown lately by Donald Trump was in his disrespectful handling of the parents of Harry Dunn ( the tragically killed teenager ). It appears that a meeting was set up at the Whitehouse with Donald Trump with the undisclosed purpose of actually and publicly (photographers were reportedly present at the meeting) putting the parents of Harry Dunn in the same room as Anne Sacoolas, the woman at the centre of the diplomatic controversy and the woman who is under suspicion of being implicated in the road accident that caused the tragic death of the teenager. This action of attempting to bring about this meeting against the wishes of the teenager’s parents and revealing this purpose only during the meeting between Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles and Donald Trump seems to have been an calculated & underhand and cynical attempt to draw a line under the controversial diplomatic row going on between the UK and the USA about this matter. Rather than respect the wishes of Harry’s parents for justice to be done in the UK whereby Ann Sacoolas comes back to the UK and foregoes any diplomatic immunity to face up to the consequences of her actions: instead there seems to have been a cynical and clumsy attempt to swerve these issues and the wishes of Harry’s parents by attempting to get a meeting between the 2 parties and a quick and convenient resolution in a deceitful and untrustworthy fashion. The whole thing has the hallmark of Trump stamped all over it. This meeting and the possibility of a face to face between Harry Dunn’s parents and Anne Sacoolas would not have been possible without the knowledge and involvement of the the President. Arrangements had been made to make Sacoolas available to Harry Dunn’s parents at the time of the meeting so presumably she was in another room in the Whitehouse. The pressure put upon Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles was quite unacceptable and unjustifiable and in extremely poor taste. I have the utmost respect for them for refusing to give into that kind of pressure at that level Quite simply Trump just cannot be trusted. Britain Post Brexit beware of what lies in wait for you!

Brexit means Wreckbrit

Let’s be honest I think Wreck it Ralph could do a better job of the Brexit negotiations than either Theresa May or (yawn-go-to-sleep,  I’m simply uninterested anyway, laughing stupidly) David Davis. Not to mention the exceptional wrecking abilities of Boris Johnson who basically wrecks anything that he comes into contact with including his own political career, the Country and his own Conservative Party to name just a few. So it has occurred to me a better solution to our relationship with Europe and our economic policies is to put  Wreck it Ralph in charge of Britain and let’s put this one to the the people’s vote. Most people know the animated character of Wreck it Ralph and have a better understanding of what he stands for than say Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn even, so I am sure that the British Public would vote for him if they saw him on an electoral ballot sheet. Letting the country make a contribution to the wrecking of Britain (Wreckbrit) and our economic future might be a good idea anyway and a political vote winner; oh but wait a minute that is what has already happened isn’t it? It also appears that all 4 of these characters ( with the exception of Corbyn I might add who has not yet been given the opportunity yet to wreck anything) have something in common they are all good at wrecking things. The only difference is that Wreck it Ralph only wrecks things in an animated world that is not real. All the others either directly wreck things that matter or support the wrecking of things that matter and have importance for the future economic stability of Britain and the future well-being of it’s citizens. This is a process that I now declare as Wreckbrit.

Continue reading Brexit means Wreckbrit