Do they think we are stupid?

 The news is full of NEET unemployment. That refers to that there are nearly 1 million 16 to 24 year olds who are unemployed, not in training or working in any way.  There are about 7 million 16 to 24 year olds so that means 14% are economically inactive and will in all probability never be economically active. If you look around Europe, the two major economies propping up Europe are France and Germany.  They are both in trouble. France for it's lack of budget control and Germany because of high energy prices making it hard to compete with the Chinese who are eating their lunch.  Both are largely socialist economies. The UK's minimum wage is currently £12.71 per hour (EU14.70/hr) and will increase to £13.45 .  Compare that with France EU12.02/hr and Germany EU13.90/hr. Meanwhile the Spanish economy is booming.  Their minimum wage is  just EU8.20. It has become very expensive to employ people in the UK. And certainly employers dont see the point in...

Now Rachel has left, there's a lot less talk about Black Holes from Denis Healey. Rachel liked to refer to budgeting gaps as Black Holes in order to point the finger at the Tories. But the real problem if the huge £3 TRILLION government debt pile has now actually become a black hole.  It has grown so large that the gravitational pull from the collapsing debt pile is now dragging cash out of the economy into the black hole. It's a runaway reaction where cash cannot escape. On the 20th July 2026 Burnham became Prime Minister.  As of today 30 year gilts are trading at the highest yield since 1998. The key difference is that the debt-to-GDP ratio in 1998 was just 42% compared to 94% of GDP now. Public Sector Net Financial Liabilities are now a staggering £2.6 TRILLION on top of the £3 TRILLION debt pile. That's for the generous final salary public sector pensions. Of the Black Hole sized £3 TRILLION debt, roughly 1/3rd is 10 year gilts and 2/3rds are 30 year gilts. So since Bur...

I was horrified to see this headline  UK disposable income rises as benefits payouts soar ahead of wages It adds to my concern that tax payers  are being taken for a ride.  It's also a concern that the government sees this as good news..... So let's dig into the numbers Real household disposable income per head rose by 1% during Q2 2026. Social benefits increased by £5.3Bn Wages and salaries increased by £2.8Bn That in itself is a concern that benefits increased way more than salaries (and therefore taxation). Government borrowing has to increased to balance the equation. It's also a concern that if you break down the wages and salaries increase, it's public sector workers (ie tax payer funded) who are getting inflation busting awards. The ONS reports that in April–June 2026: Public-sector regular pay growth: 6.1% Private-sector regular pay growth: 2.8% Office for National Statistics Public-sector employment was about 6.21 million , or 18% of employment .  So if the...

Showman Barnum made a big emotional tearful show of scrapping the triple lock on the state pension at this weeks show in Liverpool. Does Britain really need to scrap the safety net to ensure pensioners do not fall into poverty? A procession of inept politicians have never fixed the state pension and it is paid out of the current account unlike more robust schemes like Germany where pension contributions are ring-fenced to buy government bonds.   The UK scheme is a Ponzi scheme which relies upon young people paying contributions to pay today's pensioners from current National Insurance contributions. The total cost of the State Pension will be £154 billion  for the 2026/27 financial year. The OBR expects National Insurance contributions for the 2026/27 financial year to be £205 billion so that's the Government is making a profit of £51 Billion per year off the State Pension.  Now it could be sensible and "invest" the £51 Billion into "Pension Bonds" to ensure...

 As it currently stands, someone paying National Insurance is hypothetically paying into their state pension. The current rates are: Employer contributions:    15% of salary Employee contributions:  8% of salary So that's 23% of salary Let's compare that to Germany  Employer contributions:     9.3% Employee contributions:     9.3% That's just 18.6% of salary not 23% of salary like the UK system. In Germany the total contributions are capped a gross salary of EU101,400 so no additional contributions can be made. So someone who has worked 45 years would receive EU 1,913 per month in Germany compared to the UK's £1,045 (EU 1,216).  So the UK payout is 57% less for 23.7% more contributions.  It suggests pensioners in the UK are getting ripped off by our government. One reason is,unlike Germany, National Insurance contributions are not being ring fenced for pension payments but are being spent on a whim by politicians - it's Ponzi scheme...

 Wind the clock back barely 9 months ago and Rachel Reeves on the 4th November 2025 was making a speech about the cost of borrowing and how she was going to adjust the fiscal rules to bring it back under control. She correctly the stated the problem:  "We are spending £1 in every £10 of tax payers money on servicing our debt". Back then the gilt borrowing rates were hovering around 4.2%.  In barely 9 months Labour has been splashing the cash and the bond markets are growing more concerned about the UK's ability to service, let alone repay, the colossal £3 Trillion debt pile. Because of this gilt yields have crept up to 5.05%. Now increasing from 4.2% to 5.05% doesn't sound so bad does it? Well to update her statement "We are spending £1 in every £8 of tax payers money on servicing our debt" "We are spending £1.20 in every £10 of tax payers money on servicing our debt" It's 20% worse than 9 months ago. Come back Liz Truss - all is forgiven in yo...

Showman Barnum's latest PR stunt is to announce £65M help for drought struck farmers. Dig a little deeper into the headline and it's not really £65M.  £50M is for sustainable farming incentive (SFI) - ie helping nature - not drought contingency.  If you have watched the latest Clarkson's farm series  - Clarkson thought he could get SFI  grants for doing nature things eg damming rivers etc - the reality is there's lots of paperwork involved and is it really worth the effort?  The farmer can earn more working in McDonalds. The remaining £15M of Barnum's £65M  is for help to build farm reservoirs - probably useful if drought is to become the new norm - although last year lots of crops were lost to too much rain.... There are 209,000 farms in the UK.  If each farm gets an equal share of this £15M that's £71 for each farm...I suspect that's hardly going to make a difference to drought struck farms.  Wheat yields are down 14%. Oat yields are down 9%. In...

 As we are finally starting to hear from our not so new Prime Minister, we can start compiling a lookup table to translate between them Starmer               => Burnham Laser Like focus   => Relentless focus I get it   =>  I hear what you say As Burnham opens his mouth more I will populate this table....

 I find the left wing phrase "pay their fair share of tax" really irritating. It's not specific or measurable and is highly subjective. What is a fair share? Those on benefits don't pay any tax yet often are financially better off than those working full time.  Is that fair? It's a sneaky phrase as it implies the rich are not contributing anything which a complete lie. At least Count Binface's policy of  “I'll cut your taxes and raise everyone else's.” makes more sense than this stupid quote. So let's start with the macro view.  Income tax raises £330 Billion. National Insurance raises £204 Billion and all forms of taxation raises £865 Billion. The problem is Government spending is £1.2 TRILLION so there's a shortfall of £400 Billion raised from taxation.   We have the highest rates of taxation since the second world war and we are not at war.... So income tax raises £330 Billion yet welfare spending is £156 Billion and the State Pension is £17...

Today Gary Lineker asked Barnham to tax him and other millionaires more. He has suggested a 2% wealth tax. ie paying 2% tax on your overall wealth each year if you have wealth more than £10Million. So Gary's net worth is widely reported as £30 Million.  He no longer receives the £1.35Million salary from the tax payer funded BBC. So he would be paying an additional £600,000 tax each year. Since leaving the BBC it looks like most of his "income" is into companies which he either owns or has control of and it is unclear whether he has any income from these companies. So let's assume he was still at the BBC earning £1.35Million. He would take home £727,286 after tax so he would be paying an additional £600,000 in tax so his net income would be a modest £127,286. Now maybe he is OK with this. There is nothing stopping him paying £600k additional voluntary tax each year.   If his income sources dry up then it won't be long before his net wealth declines. The problem is ...

 Showman Barnam is barely 24 hours into his new job as Prime Minister and it's looking like pressure on GBP is headed our way.  Barnam will of course blame the black holes on the previous administration - the Labour administration that is not the conservatives although he does seem to be blaming Thatcher.... I don't envy him as he has inherited an economy which raises £868 Billion / year from taxation and spends £1.2 Trillion / year so there's not really any room to manoeuvre. The ONS statistics released today show that wages are growing at 2.9% with the public sector growing at 5.5% - yet more money we don't have. He has promised to remove VAT on electricity bills from 1st Oct costing £840 Million per year stating this could be funded from scrapping Digital ID which it turns out was not funded anyway. It looks pretty certain that Barnum will have to either raise taxes or borrow yet more money.  I doubt he would do the right thing and stop spending. Increased taxation w...

 Farage has clearly grabbed the headlines by forcing a by-election. So up pops StarmerBot saying Farage represents SLEAZE.  If he really thinks that, then why is he not fielding a candidate to oust Farage in Clacton?  Instead he's creating a farcical contest between Farage and Count Binface. Having said that - Count Binface's manifesto certainly looks more realistic and deliverable than Labour's wish list.  I think the British public can really get behind 99p flakes actually costing 99p ! I can still picture Starmer taking the sanctimonious high ground that Labour were morally better than the conservatives because he didn't eat cake and Boris did. He waved the sleaze furiously at the time. Strangely Sue Grays investigation into Starmer's own little parties was that he did not break any rules. The benefit of hindsight explains her decision.... So let's examine Labour's sleaze scoreboard. Freebie Starmer doesnt have that reputation for nothing.  Lots of undisc...

 We all know that the current crop of Labour MPs are not blessed with intelligence or basic maths skills but the now Housing Secretary "City" Steve Reed seems to be setting new depths at basic maths. In his speech at the Lloyd's Banking Group Social Housing Forum on the 6th July he said  "Taxpayers pay tens of billions in benefits to subsidise private landlords to rent out homes that taxpayers also paid to build." Either he is stupid or he is a liar.   Firstly I would say 99% of private landlords did not buy former council houses from the government.  They paid market rate + additional stamp duty to buy an asset that the government were stupid enough to sell at a 70% discount on market rate to the former renter.  Surely City Steve should get that providing massive discounts on this scale is ludicrous. In a recent blog post I analysed the current house building programme  and the social housing rents do not even cover the cost of finance. It would take ...

 NHS consultants have voted to go on strike over pay. If it's not Junior Doctors striking it's someone else in the NHS.  It seems the poor little darlings are struggling on a base salary of £152,000 per year + 23.7% employer pension contribution of £36,024 per year.  They can also get extra money for additional clinical sessions, on-call and Clinical Excellence Awards.  That also ignores the private work they can also do.  So it's quite a tidy little package. So by any stretch of the imagination the 63k consultants in England, 5k in Scotland, 2.5k in Wales and 1.5k in Northern Ireland are hardly poorly paid.  They are in the top 1% of highest paid people in the UK. Or to put it another pay - NHS Consultants make up 20% of all of the top 1% highest paid people in the UK. Of course the NHS is paid for out of taxes so these are public sector workers and therefore have to paid for out of taxation. NHS Consultants recently had an inflation busting 28% pay rise ...

 Labour tax adviser Dan Needle has suggested to Burnham that means testing the state pension could save £1 Billion to fund more freebies for those on benefits. I have a serious problem with this.  Firstly Labour consider a pensioner couple with  a combined gross income of £51,376 to be rich. However the retirements Standards states that for comfortable retirement a couple needs a gross income of £60,600 per year -  which is greater than the threshold Labour consider pensioners to be rich. If you engage with any adviser for retirement planning they factor in the state pension into the mix. The current state pension is £241.30 per week per person so assuming the couple have contributed enough then each will receive £12,547 per year which combined is £25,095 per year. That's 41% of the £60,600 joint income to be considered to be comfortable and 48.8% of Labour's rich pensioner threshold. So means testing eligibility for the state pension could actually leave those who h...

 The King of the North seems to want to put his devolved No 10 in Manchester - presumably for an easy commute.  Why Manchester and not Rotherham or Leeds? Manchester does have a high productivty rating - because of the Busy Bee population of Manchester - but the top performing town/city is Slough. Why not put No 10 there? Leeds is a vibrant fast growing city.  Excellent transport links which would allow access from around the country being more central than London. Rotherham is the fastest growing town in the UK in the last decade. Why not put No 10 there? I guess the commute for Andy is less convenient....

 Enter Starmer stage left Practice nasal tone... My fellow Britons, Now let me be clear.  I am here to announce something which will cause great sadness in the electorate. This is a moment of national mourning. A moment of great loss.  My thoughts are with the electorate at this difficult time and it will be hard for Britain to accept this loss.  I get it. I promised to put country before party but now is the time to put myself before party and party before country. But there is hope.  This is a serious moment for our country. It requires serious leadership, serious decisions, and, above all, serious people saying the word "serious" with sufficient seriousness. After careful reflection, I have decided to resign as Prime Minister. I get it. People are frustrated. People want change. People have questions. I've seen the polls. I've read the newspapers. I've avoided answering any questions at PMQ.  I've even listened to the Today programme. I was even consider...

 As the coronation of Burnham rolls ahead there is lots of speculation about who will be in his cabinet. It seems Rachel will be replaced which is concerning .  The alternatives seem dire and she is the best the Labour party has to offer although I think she's pretty useless.  In the real world candidates would sit exams and be screened on their ability but those rules don't apply in government.   To help Andy I've developed this little exam to screen candidates.  Rachel scored 50%.  Let's see if any of the candidates are clever enough to match Rachel's top score.  Feel free to do the test: Q1:  What is 1+1 ? Q2:  You are taking over an economy that raises £868 Billion / year from taxation and spends £1.2 Trillion / year.  You are borrowing money each month on the gilt markets simply to service the £3 trillion debt and cover the spending shortfall.  Your are forecast to increase the debt to £3.5 Trillion by the election term....

 Wind the clock back to 2024 and Rachel was making a big fuss about financial Blackholes.  She moaned on an almost daily basis that those nasty conservatives had left her with a £20 Billion blackhole in their finances.... So fast forward to June 2026.  In 2024/25 Rachel increased net borrowing by £148 Billion. In 2025/26 she then increased borrowing by £132 Billion and so far in April/May 2026 she has increased borrowing by an additional £46Billion (now £23 Billion per month) That comes to £326 Billion in roughly 24 months which means an average of £13.6 Billion per month.  It's beginning to look like the original £20 Billion blackhole was more a pimple than a blackhole. Where has this money gone?  It's hard to point to any tangible assets.  It looks like it's been spent on NHS pay settlements, welfare spending, education (probably teacher pay rises).  Some has gone onto house building.  So when Labour came to power, the debt pile was £2.7 TR...

 It's not often that UK parliament gives me something to laugh about but this week did. As Burnham was being signed in as a member of Parliament, one of the conservatives quipped that "He's not the messiah", quoting Monty Python Life of Brian. It was quickly followed by the next line from Life of Brian "He's a naughty boy". In the rush to crown Burnham as the next messiah of the Labour party, Starmer's love of due-process seems to have gone out of the window and there seems to be little scrutiny of Burnham. It wouldn't surprise me if indeed he is a naughty boy... Burnham's wife is Marie-France van Heel. She is a director of Be.EV. Manchester Transport awarded Be.EV a £450k EV charging contract in 2024 and there are other related contracts. Of course Burnham was Mayor of Manchester on this date. Conflict of interest??  Back in 2022 Burnham publicly rebuked any connection with his wife for the  Clean Air Zones (CAZ) contracts which were awarded...