Do they think we are stupid?

 Back in May 2022 Kier Starmer stated "Law makers cant be law breakers" when criticising Boris over "Partygate". Well it seems Sir 2TK doesnt practice what he says. He conveniently ignored party girl Angela's failure to pay the right tax.  Back in September 2024 Labour MP Jas Athwal of Rdbridge constituency didnt pay or register for selective licensing for 15 rental  properties.  Now Rachel hasnt bothered to get a selective licence for her East Dulwich house in the borough of Southwark. I don't agree with selective licencing - it's little more than a tax with huge consequences.  Failure to register for selective licencing is a CRIMINAL act.  Councils and social housing are exempt for selective licencing yet the worst housing standards are in council and social housing .  On the most part private landlords have good quality, safe accomodation unlike the public sector. So failing to register for a selective licence results in a CRIMINAL record and a £30...

 The cost of how much the government is spending on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers is in the news this week.  The BBC News made a big thing saying they had fact checked the spend but seem incapable of doing basic maths.  Here's what they said: "The average nightly cost per person fell from £162.16 in March 2023 to £118.87 by March 2025, according to BBC Verify's analysis of official data obtained through a Freedom of Information request." This looks like it is wrong. Not sure what analysis they have done. Here's the data for the year to December 2024   So there were 18,226 asylum seekers housed in hotels. The Home Office's annual accounts,  show £2.1bn was spent on hotel accommodation for the period April 2024 to March 2025 - there's not data for the same period as above but it's likely the numbers have not changed dramatically. So we have a hotel bill of £2.1 Billion for 18,226 people.  Dividing these numbers and dividing by 365 days equates t...

 Having just read the back page Bill Boner article in this week's Moneyweek - he opened my eyes to a truism.  He said "Policy has no competition".   He's right - no amount of new government policy can create real economic growth and there are no concurrent competing policies.  Any competing policy comes from other political parties and requires a change of government for them to come into effect. Policy can definitely create bubbles, inefficiencies, bureaucracy, red-tape etc.  Policies on stimulus rarely create sustained growth - once the stimulus is removed it usually collapses - in the meantime there's usually opportunity for a bubble to be created since stimulus policy usually means subsidy. Then there's anti-policy or "regulation". This usually stifles growth or contracts a market.  Current landlord policy is causing the rental housing market to contract - landlords are selling up and leaving the market. The side-effect of this government policy ...

 The news has been plastered with the farcical state of affairs with migrants.   Sing: "In-out In-out shake it all about". An Iranian migrant deported to France on the  19th September 2025 returned 1 month later on the 18th October on a small boat. It looks like the migrant received legal aid on first arrival as he had no money. The 2nd small boat crossing would have cost him circa £3k so somehow he managed to find £3k in 1 month to pay the people smugglers for the second crossing. He would have also had to travel from Paris to Calais as he was deported on a flight to Paris - further expenditure. Don't forget he also had money to pay the £20k to be trafficked from Iran to the UK.  It suggests he had money in order to make the second crossing so therefore he obtained legal aid when he would not have been entitled. That's illegal - that's fraud. His argument that he wanted to escape people traffickers suggests he didnt get the second crossing on credit. He had the...

 September 2025 government borrowing reached £20.2 Bn for the month.  That's a Rachel sized black hole every month.    To explain this, that number is how much more Rachel has spent than received in tax income.  £20 BILLION more than she has received in tax receipts. That borrowing number is £1.6 Billion higher than September 2024. The borrowing for the last six months is £99.8 BILLION - the second highest number since records began and the previous record was set as a result of the pandemic. The borrowing is £7 BILLION more than the OBR forecast after her last budget. So the inflation numbers released today were stubbornly high  at 3.8%. So September borrowing was £1.6 BILLION higher than last year. That's 8.6% more than last year.  I'll be generous and allow 3.8% for inflation so £706 MILLION of that is due to inflation. In September 2024 10 year gilts were in the region of 3.7 - 3.9 % whereas in September 2025 10 year gilts were pretty stable at 4.6...

 The legal profession is largely about words so I guess it should be no surprise that Starmer is full of words but little action. Having finished the Labour conference in Liverpool this week where he was more focused on trashing Reform than actually sorting the mess the country is in, I thought it would be useful to reflect back on his first day in power where he made promises in his address. Here's some extracts from his speech on the 5th July 2024  "When the gap between the sacrifices made by people and the service they receive from politicians grows this big, it leads to a weariness in the heart of a nation, a draining away of the hope, the spirit, the belief in a better future"  Well this definitely feels like now.  How prophetic of 2TK. "I know that, but we can make a start today with the simple acknowledgement that public service is a privilege and that your government should  treat every single person  [except Nigel Farage or Liz Truss or Boris - hel...