Do they think we are stupid?

 Rachel keeps on going on about her budget was a budget for growth so I thought I would look objectively at what Governments can do to stimulate growth and see whether she is talking bollox or whether there are foundations for growth. So let's start with "What is growth".  She should mean economic output however I cynically suspect she actually means growing the size of the state. So what is the definition of Economic Output?      Economic output is the quantity and quality of goods or services produced in a given time period OK in order for the economy to grow the UK needs to sell more stuff or charge higher prices for the same  stuff. So if we have high inflation then prices will rise and in theory economic output will increase or if the pound becomes weaker we should in theory export more since our stuff will be cheaper. So what does the internet say about the conditions for stimulating economic growth?  It says you need the following things: Produc...

It's now 2029 and Labour's 5 year term in office is coming to an end. Who could have expected things to get so bad? OK the warning signs were there. Politicans around the world were losing control of spending. Government debt was rising faster than GDP.   Inflation was bubbling under the surface and volatile.  Like the First World War, it's only with hindsight we can see what sparked the economic turmoil. What was the Franz Ferdinand moment for Rachel? For the UK it started with Rachel's budget.  She committed to increase borrowing and change fiscal rules to ignore some unfunded debt. On the surface this looked lowish risk but like a butterfly flapping it's wings it triggered economic chaos. For decades successive UK government had less tax income than the government spending.  The feeble attempt in 2008 at austerity did little to quell the appetite for government spending.  By  2024 UK Government debt had reached a staggering £2.7 TRILLION - £37,900 f...

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...