Do they think we are stupid?

Doom merchant Kier and his depressing band of robber's have delivered their long awaited depressing, painful and negative budget.   Months of negative speculation (and leaks)  about what pain awaited us in Rachel's chamber of torture have already inflicted damage on the economy.  ABRDN have reported £3.1 BILLION in capital flight from their pensions in the run up to the budget torture show. This is just one pension company - the aggregate number is likely to be in the high tens or even hundreds of BILLIONS. Savvy investors (pensioners) have decided to seek safe harbour for their hard earned pension away from these highway robbers. I've done this myself as I still spit feathers over former Chancellor Gordon Brown stealing £60k from my pension as a "windfall tax" and the only trust I have in Labour is they will try to do the same again.  Thankfully the worst of the leaks turned out to not be true.  On the whole the budget wasnt as bad as it could have been....

 Today the news was that teachers were off sick - 14,000 people off sick per day. The lefties were claiming this was due to high levels of stress and that teachers should be paid more to reflect the harsh environment of school. What do the numbers actually say? Let's assume the number is an average and not a peak on a particular day. How many teachers are there in the UK? 641,840 How many teaching days are there in a school year? 195 Total number of sick days taken 14,000 x 195 = 2,730,000 So an average teacher takes 4.25 days per teaching year off as sick days (ignoring other days which may be contracted days of employment). The median days taken sick across the population is 4.3 so actually this is a non story - teachers are about the national average. The average number of sick days in the PRIVATE sector is 3.6 days per year and the civil service is 11.1 days so teachers are in fact healthier (or more honest) than the civil service at large. So this is in fact a non story - the ...

Killjoy Starmer, in the run up to Rachel's dreaded budget, seems to be spending considerable time and effort trying to define who are working people.   (Personally I think he should be spending the time wisely sacking the hundreds of thousands more civil servants we now have  than before 2019 - 400k more civil servants yet government productivity is lower not higher - go figure).  Well Starmer's current definition of working people is "goes out and earns their living, usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque" but they did not have the ability to "write a cheque to get out of difficulties".  I'm wondering what this means - I think it means anyone who doesn't have savings. 68% of the population have savings. So that means only 32% of the population can be considered to be working people.  What about my daughter - she has a job and she has £1000 in her bank but she also has £60,000 in student loan debts so technically she is insolvent.  Does that mean S...

 Labour now realises they may have over done the negativity of "pain", "hardship" etc.  Concern over what will be in Rachel's wonderful budget on the 30th Oct 2024 has now turned into fear. I've personally seen it with friends ringing me seeking advice on how to access pension funds as they are now paranoid Labour will raid their pensions.  I've similarly taken action to protect my pension.  Sadly there's not much data available yet on capital flight from pensions but I wouldnt be surprised if billions have been drawn from the pension companies in the last few months (potentially causing them liquidity challenges). We are already seeing an exodus of the rich moving out of the UK. Humans are hard wired to respond to  fear.  One reaction is to freeze like a startled deer in the headlights. I have personally seen this in the last week with a house sale.  I am selling up to avoid Starmergeddon rates of Capital Gains tax. Unfortunately my little old lady ...

 Rachel is busy looking to change the fiscal rules.  Currently the Bank of England's vast debt pile is part of the government's problem but Rachel is busy exploring divorcing from the Old Lady of Threadneedle Str so she isn't carrying the debt pile on her books. Who does the Bank of England lent to?  Either banks or the government. So the Government has borrowed TRILLIONS  from the BoE but isnt going to show this vast debt pool on it's books.  Let's start with the Banks. The Bank of England has lend vast sums to the banks following the financial crash of 2008.  What year is it now?  2024?  Hell!! -  that's nearly 20 years ago. Following the financial crash, the banks were required to retain a certain amount of money for liquidity. Where did they get this money?  The Bank of England. The banks weren't happy that they had to hold billions of cash on deposit so the Bank of England (ie tax payers) agreed to pay the Banks interest on the mone...

 Starmer keeps going on about his humble origins. He's the son of a "poor" toolmaker Yet he went to private school and is a public servant yet his declared net worth is £7.7 Million His house in Kentish Town is mortgage free and estimated to be worth £2M His wife is an NHS worker and reported to earn just £50k per year so the £7M is not from her. Kier Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions - a role than pays £137,179.  A good salary but certainly not one that would allow you to accumulate £7M in wealth. So how has Starmer managed to accumalate £7M in wealth?  Apparently he own 7 acres of land in Surrey which was part of his childhood home and is thought to be worth £10M.  Hang on his net worth is £7M not £17M?  Didnt he come from a "poor" family that just happened to own 7 acres of land in Surrey worth £10M.... In 2023 Starmer had an income of  £404,030 yet only paid £99,431 in tax.  How come? He should have paid £178,633 in ta...

 Ed Miliband and Angela Raynors at this weeks Labour Conferences pledged to end scourge of cold and draughty rented homes. This was clearly aimed at PRIVATE landlords and completely ignores SOCIAL and COUNCIL homes. Today Private landlords have to have a property that meets energy efficiency level of E or better.  There is no such requirement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for COUNCIL or SOCIAL housing. Scotland does require targets to be met. There are 1.6 Million council homes in the UK There are 4.5 Million social homes in the UK  There are 4.6 Million private rented homes in the UK So over 58% of Tenants are living in cold draughty rented homes owned by the COUNCIL and SOCIAL landlords yet Labour ignore this.  This is yet another example of Two Tier Kier policies. Many councils have introduced Selective Licencing to ensure PRIVATE rental properties meet an acceptable standard.  There is no such requirement for SOCIAL or COUNCIL properties. I exp...