"Lobby shd get reading all Simon Walters' hits cos we're shortly returning to illegal donations to secretly buy the PM/Tory leader + the Cabinet Office/Geidt coverups, deserving of a separate police investigation #RegimeChange"
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
I just don’t see 54 letters. If after Mondays performance you haven’t sent a letter in what trigger is actually going to make you do so..
After the Met report where they decide it’s all old news and quietly don’t do anything?
The report could be what some are waiting for, but the thing is we've already heard about a lot of what happened so as you suggest they might think theres nothing 'new' and so no justification to act.
Which would be a mistake, confirmation of much would be enough.
The report is different from
- Statements in the newspapers. - Statements from Dom
in that it was compiled from actual source evidence.
We hope.
The Met don't report though, they either issue FPNs or not
What nobody realises is that if Boris is FPNed he deliberately won't pay. Then they have to wait 28 days and prosecute for non payment. The courts are congested as fuck anyway, his QC asks for 3 weeks to be set aside for trial, and that buys him the right to say We must not prejudice the ongoing proceedings, till about 2032
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
When he's on the backbenches he's going to be a complete pain in the dick for his successor. The havoc he is going wreak on the party out of spite has to be a factor in the tory MPs' calculations.
You really think he'll stay on the backbenches? In the event of a VONC I expect him to flounce off and wander up and down the country being a total PITA with increasing irresponsible speeches.
He can get his £75k Parliamentary pin money plus expenses to supplement the well paid day (and evening job).
Seems the sort to find it humiliating to return to the backbenches. Wont go immediately but I doubt he'll stick around long.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
Rubbish - why should 000s of renters struggling to save for a deposit pay for your cheap mortgage?
As someone who was getting whacked at 18% 30 years ago I should have little sympathy, but I have.
Current mortgagees were sold the lie that inflation and hence higher interest rates were a thing of the past, and recent history suggests this is the case.
I have been saying on here for years that Government fiscal policy, including leaving the EU and quantitative easing in particular was inflationary and rising interest rates would follow. The artist formerly known as @Philip_Thompson claimed I was wrong as were my 1980s economics text books.
I stated an increase in M3 was inflationary he suggested " that was then, this is now".
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic.
In my view there is a limit to what government can do but using the flexibility we gained by at least suspending VAT on fuel bills is surely a more direct option (as well as reducing the impact on inflation). Of course it is only 5% and bills are going to rise a lot more than that but it shows the government is doing what it can. At the moment the government is going to take a windfall from the increased prices because that 5% will be on a considerably larger sum. Cutting or suspending the 5% also means that Scotland, Wales and NI are not dependent upon what cash strapped devolved administrations do with the money.
I was wondering about the council tax. I suppose it's possible that it will end up being a flat rate rebate - £400 if you're in band A, £200 band B, and £100 band C - and so if you're only paying £90 a year council tax because you're on benefits then council tax becomes a negative tax for this year and you get a refund for more than you've paid.
It might just be an administratively convenient way of sending the money to those most in need without having to make changes to UC, legacy benefits, pensions, or create a new payment that needs to be claimed. We'll see.
I've got a lot of time for Brandon but this is a remarkable line to take - whether the UK abides by its international legal commitments is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive??? I suspect the Scottish government will be quoting that back to the UK government at some point.....
I think the legal advice that @edwinpootsmla received needs to be made public. If it really is the case that devolved ministers aren't required to honour the UK's international commitments, can we all agree that the law should be changed to ensure they are?
Barwell tweeting rubbish there. If it was down to him we would still be in the EU. He and Theresa failed to get Brexit done and failed to beat Corbyn sad to say. Only Boris did.
Any Conservative and Unionist should warmly welcome Poots and the DUP's decision to remove the Irish border as I do. The EU always showed contempt from NI Unionists in the Brexit talks and they should not be surprised the DUP have responded at last.
Well done Brandon Lewis and Boris and Truss for backing the DUP on this and throwing out the Irish Sea border!
Your beloved Bozo is why Poots and co have a problem - it didn't exist in Theresa's plan (which would have had Sinn Fein complaining about a different border).
In 30 years time when we look back at this period Bozo will be the reason why we have a united Ireland and a united Ireland will be the reason why Scotland left.
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
The biggest swing product of gas (the US) can respond fairly quickly, and I don't think there's any shortage of capital in terms of fracking projects ?
Meanwhile, entirely predictably the Ukrainian Gov't are fed up with the US and UK pumping out bellicose rhetoric and winding up Russia. The Russians obviously don't have anything like sufficient troop numbers to launch a full scale invasion.
The whole thing is wildly exaggerated.
Anyone would think Boris Johnson was trying to deflect attention away from something ...
Unsurprisingly the article doesn't say what you claim at all. More importantly neither do the Ukrainians. Yes there are differences of opinion as to the timing but the article makes clear the Ukrainians believe an incursion is going to happen.
The Russian troop deployments are literally visible from space. Plenty of commercial imagery showing them.
I know Putin likes the they-were-just-on-holiday excuse for his military turning up in various places, but 100K+ ??
The problem for the Ukraine is that being in imminent threat of a fairly large scale invasion is having an enormously chilling effect on their economy. Who is going to invest with such a level of uncertainty? How many of your most skilled workers are looking for international visas? How much of your workforce is going to be called up as reservists?
Russia is thus destabilising and weakening the country without actually fighting and Ukraine is really not sure how to respond to this. Whilst western armaments are potentially very useful their very receipt builds the uncertainty. The solution I think that the Ukraine wants is more western guarantees of its sovereignty and territorial integrity so it can get back to business but this has not really been forthcoming. They are caught in a cleft stick.
Which is why the West is talking about the kind of sanctions that would have a similar effect on the already fairly creaky Russian economy. Russia is already waging war, and not just against Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova. Acts of violence, sabotage or cyber attacks are occurring across the globe, and perhaps, finally, NATO is seeking to force descalatuon. It is late, but perhaps not too late, and it does seem that Putin is now surprised and concerned at the stiff response he now faces.
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
I just don’t see 54 letters. If after Mondays performance you haven’t sent a letter in what trigger is actually going to make you do so..
After the Met report where they decide it’s all old news and quietly don’t do anything?
The report could be what some are waiting for, but the thing is we've already heard about a lot of what happened so as you suggest they might think theres nothing 'new' and so no justification to act.
Which would be a mistake, confirmation of much would be enough.
The report is different from
- Statements in the newspapers. - Statements from Dom
in that it was compiled from actual source evidence.
We hope.
The Met don't report though, they either issue FPNs or not
What nobody realises is that if Boris is FPNed he deliberately won't pay. Then they have to wait 28 days and prosecute for non payment. The courts are congested as fuck anyway, his QC asks for 3 weeks to be set aside for trial, and that buys him the right to say We must not prejudice the ongoing proceedings, till about 2032
That's one option, but the other is to say "£100? OK, here's the cheque. Now for God's sake let's move on." I can see voters empathising with that.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta....
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
Pray tell where you get such certainty on those numbers, since even the whips won’t know
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
I just don’t see 54 letters. If after Mondays performance you haven’t sent a letter in what trigger is actually going to make you do so..
After the Met report where they decide it’s all old news and quietly don’t do anything?
The report could be what some are waiting for, but the thing is we've already heard about a lot of what happened so as you suggest they might think theres nothing 'new' and so no justification to act.
Which would be a mistake, confirmation of much would be enough.
The report is different from
- Statements in the newspapers. - Statements from Dom
in that it was compiled from actual source evidence.
We hope.
The Met don't report though, they either issue FPNs or not
What nobody realises is that if Boris is FPNed he deliberately won't pay. Then they have to wait 28 days and prosecute for non payment. The courts are congested as fuck anyway, his QC asks for 3 weeks to be set aside for trial, and that buys him the right to say We must not prejudice the ongoing proceedings, till about 2032
I'm talking about the full Sue Gray report.
Ah OK but that is postponed till after FPN followed by non payment followed by proceedings - at that stage the "can't publish, because prejudice" argument becomes actually valid
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
I just don’t see 54 letters. If after Mondays performance you haven’t sent a letter in what trigger is actually going to make you do so..
After the Met report where they decide it’s all old news and quietly don’t do anything?
The report could be what some are waiting for, but the thing is we've already heard about a lot of what happened so as you suggest they might think theres nothing 'new' and so no justification to act.
Which would be a mistake, confirmation of much would be enough.
The report is different from
- Statements in the newspapers. - Statements from Dom
in that it was compiled from actual source evidence.
We hope.
The Met don't report though, they either issue FPNs or not
What nobody realises is that if Boris is FPNed he deliberately won't pay. Then they have to wait 28 days and prosecute for non payment. The courts are congested as fuck anyway, his QC asks for 3 weeks to be set aside for trial, and that buys him the right to say We must not prejudice the ongoing proceedings, till about 2032
That's one option, but the other is to say "£100? OK, here's the cheque. Now for God's sake let's move on." I can see voters empathising with that.
The problem with that is so you've paid the fine - hence it was a party, so you have now confirmed you lied to Parliament.
Bozo can't win by paying the fine and hoping it goes away.
I've got a lot of time for Brandon but this is a remarkable line to take - whether the UK abides by its international legal commitments is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive??? I suspect the Scottish government will be quoting that back to the UK government at some point.....
I think the legal advice that @edwinpootsmla received needs to be made public. If it really is the case that devolved ministers aren't required to honour the UK's international commitments, can we all agree that the law should be changed to ensure they are?
Barwell tweeting rubbish there. If it was down to him we would still be in the EU. He and Theresa failed to get Brexit done and failed to beat Corbyn sad to say. Only Boris did.
Any Conservative and Unionist should warmly welcome Poots and the DUP's decision to remove the Irish border as I do. The EU always showed contempt from NI Unionists in the Brexit talks and they should not be surprised the DUP have responded at last.
Well done Brandon Lewis and Boris and Truss for backing the DUP on this and throwing out the Irish Sea border!
Your beloved Bozo is why Poots and co have a problem - it didn't exist in Theresa's plan (which would have had Sinn Fein complaining about a different border).
In 30 years time when we look back at this period Bozo will be the reason why we have a united Ireland and a united Ireland will be the reason why Scotland left.
No, even Theresa's plan had no border in Ireland but kept GB in a customs union but still not as fully regulatory aligned with the single market as NI was.
BoZo's actions defying SF and the EU and refusing an indyref2 will be remembered forever as to why NI and Scotland are still in the UK
💥57% already decided that PM broke rules 💥30% rate their anger at 10/10 💥68% say partygate is important issue... 💥BUT cost of living (92%), Covid recovery (87%), and Russian-Ukraine tension (74%) viewed as MORE important
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
Rubbish - why should 000s of renters struggling to save for a deposit pay for your cheap mortgage?
As someone who was getting whacked at 18% 30 years ago I should have little sympathy, but I have.
Current mortgagees were sold the lie that inflation and hence higher interest rates were a thing of the past, and recent history suggests this is the case.
I have been saying on here for years that Government fiscal policy, including leaving the EU and quantitative easing in particular was inflationary and rising interest rates would follow. The artist formerly known as @Philip_Thompson claimed I was wrong as were my 1980s economics text books.
I stated an increase in M3 was inflationary he suggested " that was then, this is now".
You are right in the long term, he is right in the short term. When the short term ends and the long term starts we do not know.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic.
In my view there is a limit to what government can do but using the flexibility we gained by at least suspending VAT on fuel bills is surely a more direct option (as well as reducing the impact on inflation). Of course it is only 5% and bills are going to rise a lot more than that but it shows the government is doing what it can. At the moment the government is going to take a windfall from the increased prices because that 5% will be on a considerably larger sum. Cutting or suspending the 5% also means that Scotland, Wales and NI are not dependent upon what cash strapped devolved administrations do with the money.
I was wondering about the council tax. I suppose it's possible that it will end up being a flat rate rebate - £400 if you're in band A, £200 band B, and £100 band C - and so if you're only paying £90 a year council tax because you're on benefits then council tax becomes a negative tax for this year and you get a refund for more than you've paid.
It might just be an administratively convenient way of sending the money to those most in need without having to make changes to UC, legacy benefits, pensions, or create a new payment that needs to be claimed. We'll see.
Nothing for band D, or E.... - though the house price inflation has been nice and should be enough to see me through to a 60% LTV mortgage when I need to go back to the banks in 2025.
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
💥57% already decided that PM broke rules 💥30% rate their anger at 10/10 💥68% say partygate is important issue... 💥BUT cost of living (92%), Covid recovery (87%), and Russian-Ukraine tension (74%) viewed as MORE important
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
You can certainly complain but at this stage it won't help you with your primary issue. You could try speaking to the senior partner at the practice to see if he will get things moving and tell him that if he doesn't you'll make a formal complaint.
A new competent solicitor given all the papers should be able to move quickly, probably quicker than your existing one. Find a new solicitor who can deal with this case urgently. Then ring up your existing one and ask for the entire file to be transferred over PDQ, which they are obliged to do if you have paid for the work so far.
You can ask the estate agent to speak to the sellers to get them to hold off. Putting it back onto the market will delay matters and so long as your new one gets things moving a buyer with an active solicitor is better than waiting for a new offer etc, surveys and so on.
Good luck!
Also am not a conveyancing lawyer so if someone with much more experience than me in this area tells you something different follow their advice not mine!
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
BUT what did the PM would hope people would think? Something along the lines of what Robinson asked Cleverly, I think -- especially that they were told that Starmer had apologised, But of course these people didn't know that the apology was in 2013, after Starmer had got a QC to investigate what had gone wrong. Certainly Savile would have gone to Court in 2009 if the CPS lawyer who reviewed the police case in 2009 had decided differently. But Starmer had no hand in that decision, as is made to seem by repeating the fact that Starmer apologised.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
You can certainly complain but at this stage it won't help you with your primary issue. You could try speaking to the senior partner at the practice to see if he will get things moving and tell him that if he doesn't you'll make a formal complaint.
A new competent solicitor given all the papers should be able to move quickly, probably quicker than your existing one. Find a new solicitor who can deal with this case urgently. Then ring up your existing one and ask for the entire file to be transferred over PDQ, which they are obliged to do if you have paid for the work so far.
You can ask the estate agent to speak to the sellers to get them to hold off. Putting it back onto the market will delay matters and so long as your new one gets things moving a buyer with an active solicitor is better than waiting for a new offer etc, surveys and so on.
Good luck!
Also am not a conveyancing lawyer so if someone with much more experience than me in this area tells you something different follow their advice not mine!
£3k is a very toppy fee as well, for that I’d be expecting a premium slick service
Lobby shd get reading all Simon Walters' hits cos we're shortly returning to illegal donations to secretly buy the PM/Tory leader + the Cabinet Office/Geidt coverups, deserving of a separate police investigation #RegimeChange
Reposting cos this is really critical. Tory MPs have got to realise that draw-a-line-and-move-onism is impossible with Pig Dog, because both he will continue doing new stuff, and unknown old stuff will keep coming out. I forecast when he showed a bit of recovery over Christmas, that it would emerge that someone had been funding his living expenses with soft loans, and here we are.
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
You can certainly complain but at this stage it won't help you with your primary issue. You could try speaking to the senior partner at the practice to see if he will get things moving and tell him that if he doesn't you'll make a formal complaint.
A new competent solicitor given all the papers should be able to move quickly, probably quicker than your existing one. Find a new solicitor who can deal with this case urgently. Then ring up your existing one and ask for the entire file to be transferred over PDQ, which they are obliged to do if you have paid for the work so far.
You can ask the estate agent to speak to the sellers to get them to hold off. Putting it back onto the market will delay matters and so long as your new one gets things moving a buyer with an active solicitor is better than waiting for a new offer etc, surveys and so on.
Good luck!
Also am not a conveyancing lawyer so if someone with much more experience than me in this area tells you something different follow their advice not mine!
£3k is a very toppy fee as well, for that I’d be expecting a premium slick service
Absolutely. I'd be on the phone to the senior partner this morning talking to him with ice cold fury and making clear exactly what I expected from him and by when.
I've got a lot of time for Brandon but this is a remarkable line to take - whether the UK abides by its international legal commitments is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive??? I suspect the Scottish government will be quoting that back to the UK government at some point.....
I think the legal advice that @edwinpootsmla received needs to be made public. If it really is the case that devolved ministers aren't required to honour the UK's international commitments, can we all agree that the law should be changed to ensure they are?
Barwell tweeting rubbish there. If it was down to him we would still be in the EU. He and Theresa failed to get Brexit done and failed to beat Corbyn sad to say. Only Boris did.
Any Conservative and Unionist should warmly welcome Poots and the DUP's decision to remove the Irish border as I do. The EU always showed contempt from NI Unionists in the Brexit talks and they should not be surprised the DUP have responded at last.
Well done Brandon Lewis and Boris and Truss for backing the DUP on this and throwing out the Irish Sea border!
Of course stopping Brexit would have agreed with your political view that the UK would be better off in the EU.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
Your last sentence shows that the art of understatement is not dead.
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
In your dreams
He is toxic and his mps know it
Rishi auditions for the top job today in the HOC and a press conference at 5.00pm and the comparison is going to be stark
Time you moved on and accepted Boris shames his office and country
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
Sorry, but as a Millennial, this is nonsense. 13 years of ultra-low interest rates have hurt my generation very badly.
Now, raising rates is also going to hurt those who are on the ladder, but for those of us who haven't made it that far, it won't make any difference. As rates rise, prices will fall.
What really matters is that we don't screw over the next set of youngsters in the same way.
btw all this talk of Russia I have finally got round to watching Chernobyl. Two episodes in (no spoilers please yes I know what happened but not what actually happened...) and it is just as amazing as everyone has said.
In a way the Soviets' initial reaction chimes with Don't Look Up and many of the Covid incidents in flat our refusal to believe the "facts" when they are presented as it would be (politically, socially, economically, psychologically) inconvenient to do so.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
I agree. An enormous and prolonged energy crisis is likely as totally unrealistic policies crash into reality.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
Complaints about solicitors are now dealt with by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority. Unless an invoice for services has been rendered your £3000 should be being held on client account on account and you can ask for it back. If they refuse that is something the SRA will take seriously.
This is appalling client service. You are instructing the firm, not an individual within it, and if the firm can’t deal then they should pass and return your money. This is not any individual solicitor’s case. This is a duff outfit and I would find someone else immediately! Ask for your money back on the grounds that they are not performing services for you, complain to the senior partner (or equivalent), and say you will escalate to the SRA if they refuse.
I've got a lot of time for Brandon but this is a remarkable line to take - whether the UK abides by its international legal commitments is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive??? I suspect the Scottish government will be quoting that back to the UK government at some point.....
I think the legal advice that @edwinpootsmla received needs to be made public. If it really is the case that devolved ministers aren't required to honour the UK's international commitments, can we all agree that the law should be changed to ensure they are?
Barwell tweeting rubbish there. If it was down to him we would still be in the EU. He and Theresa failed to get Brexit done and failed to beat Corbyn sad to say. Only Boris did.
Any Conservative and Unionist should warmly welcome Poots and the DUP's decision to remove the Irish border as I do. The EU always showed contempt for NI Unionists in the Brexit talks and they should not be surprised the DUP have responded at last.
Well done Brandon Lewis and Boris and Truss for backing the DUP on this and throwing out the Irish Sea border!
The GFA requires Unionist and Nationalist consent. The future of the Union with Scotland however is reserved to Westminster under the Scotland Act 1998
Lobby shd get reading all Simon Walters' hits cos we're shortly returning to illegal donations to secretly buy the PM/Tory leader + the Cabinet Office/Geidt coverups, deserving of a separate police investigation #RegimeChange
Reposting cos this is really critical. Tory MPs have got to realise that draw-a-line-and-move-onism is impossible with Pig Dog, because both he will continue doing new stuff, and unknown old stuff will keep coming out. I forecast when he showed a bit of recovery over Christmas, that it would emerge that someone had been funding his living expenses with soft loans, and here we are.
It's incredible that a grown man on a decent income cannot arrange his financial affairs in such a way that he can live within his means. Even more incredible that such a person is allowed to run the country.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
It is an absolutely fucking outrageous and monumentally stupid thing to say. I spent time in NI during the troubles though I have done a little less recently. The idea that Stormont should be allowed to collapse to save a lame duck incompetent twat of a MP makes my fucking blood boil.
I don't think I have ever been so incensed by anything I have ever read on this forum. I think I had better go and lie down before I use the worst aspects of my Irish heritage to say something really very offensive to HYUFD.
💥57% already decided that PM broke rules 💥30% rate their anger at 10/10 💥68% say partygate is important issue... 💥BUT cost of living (92%), Covid recovery (87%), and Russian-Ukraine tension (74%) viewed as MORE important
The problem with such rankings of "importance" is that can mean many things.
To me,
1) Cost of living 2) Covid recovery 3) WWIII 4) BJ gone
is a reasonable listing in order of priority. That doesn't mean that I want 4) done *only after the first three* are sorted out. Multi-tasking and all that....
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
Yes all that fannying about and bean counting, we could have 10% of production from tidal by now. Also the solar subsidies were removed too quickly.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
It was unpunished because it wasn't noticed nor that noticeable.
Now however as it becomes obvious the Tories will be punished for it.
They better hope that Rolls Royce can pull off their SMR plans but even that only fixes things from 2030 onwards and not in the crunch years between now and especially 2025-30.
Received this from The New Statesman plugging their latest issue. Of course, you would never expect them, or Andrew Marr, to be warmly supportive of Boris but it does seem pretty fair comment. I like the analogy with The Untouchables...
"Good morning. The drip, drip of letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson continued yesterday, as a further three Conservative MPs declared publicly that the Prime Minister has lost their support. He was bullish at Prime Minister's Questions, and is determined to cling on. But is he running out of road?
That is the question addressed in this week’s New Statesman cover story by Andrew Marr, our incoming political editor. He discusses a man who will “use every tactic, clean and dirty, to cling on”, and a cabinet paralysed in support of him. “They are there because of Johnson and they know his vengeful instincts,” Marr writes. “I do not believe the Prime Minister’s favourite film is Jaws, as some say. It must be The Untouchables – recall the scene in which Robert De Niro lectures his “cabinet” on teamwork while swinging a baseball bat.”
But this is also a personal, reflective piece, in which Marr, now free to write without constraint, expresses his anger at how the Prime Minister broke the rules that he imposed on others: “I have found Johnson personally charming and amusing many times in the past. But at almost exactly the same time as he was hosting his parties in Downing Street, having a high old time lecturing the rest of us, I was burying my father.”
Sitting at the funeral of veteran Labour MP Jack Dromey, Marr "felt sad about that, and the more I thought about the parties, the angrier I felt myself becoming. That doesn’t much matter, except that so many millions have similar stories or worse ones."
He decries the “grubby low point” that British politics is now at – and he isn’t making a partisan point. “This is the Tories’ problem,” Marr writes. “It is patriotic, not partisan, to say it is now their job to clean it up. And fast.”
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
In your dreams
He is toxic and his mps know it
Rishi auditions for the top job today in the HOC and a press conference at 5.00pm and the comparison is going to be stark
Time you moved on and accepted Boris shames his office and country
The NI news gives a further boost to Truss not Sunak, as well as Boris.
It is Truss who has worked with the DUP to stand up to the EU on the Irish Sea border
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
Rubbish - why should 000s of renters struggling to save for a deposit pay for your cheap mortgage?
As someone who was getting whacked at 18% 30 years ago I should have little sympathy, but I have.
Current mortgagees were sold the lie that inflation and hence higher interest rates were a thing of the past, and recent history suggests this is the case.
I have been saying on here for years that Government fiscal policy, including leaving the EU and quantitative easing in particular was inflationary and rising interest rates would follow. The artist formerly known as @Philip_Thompson claimed I was wrong as were my 1980s economics text books.
I stated an increase in M3 was inflationary he suggested " that was then, this is now".
The series "The Decade the Rich Won" covers this quite well. I can see that reversing QE will be a pretty uncomfortable return to normality.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Only if I can bring the lads from the tank battalion with me. We're super close, do everything together.
Battalion? - my "crew" from the pub is an army. Literally. Makes travel a bit of a pain when there are 100K of you - try finding an AirBnB that size - but you can't leave mates behind, can you?
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
Another manifestation of the "we don't need to produce X as we can trade for it" mentality.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
It is an absolutely fucking outrageous and monumentally stupid thing to say. I spent time in NI during the troubles though I have done a little less recently. The idea that Stormont should be allowed to collapse to save a lame duck incompetent twat of a MP makes my fucking blood boil.
I don't think I have ever been so incensed by anything I have ever read on this forum. I think I had better go and lie down before I use the worst aspects of my Irish heritage to say something really very offensive to HYUFD.
I'm very sorry indeed to see that news. For a number of reasons.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta, the number of errors made was impressive. After finding the 3rd mistake, I binned the lawyer.
If it's any consolation, one of mine - from the panel of an Estate Agency chain - went bust.
I think we are back with the concept of a family solicitor, who are used regularly.
I go for local but several-branched ones, who will have specialists but not be regional ones who aspire to London rates.
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
Which is why what the PM did was so repellent.
But the Speaker ruled it in order...
I don't care what he said.
It was a repellent smear. One reason I wrote my header yesterday was to point out that it is the Tories' inactions and failures over the last 11 and a half which have denied justice to many victims of sexual violence, whether women or children.
I hold no brief for Labour and they have had their own faults in this regard too. But I will not see someone like Starmer, who tried to do a decent job as a public servant as DPP, smeared by someone who views public service as an excuse to help himself to the fruits of power without undertaking any of its obligations.
To imply what the PM did about Starmer under cover of Parliamentary privilege, given Boris's own public statements about wasting money on child abuse cases - also referenced in my header - was a new low, even for him.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
What it really does is muck around all the incentives to do "rational" things with money, in a way that worsens the housing situation.
My young lady and I (neither of us exactly old money, both more working class) presently have a similarly sized modest house each, both about 50% paid off. She's moving up to mine after we get married, which means her house is surplus to requirements.
The problem is that as hers is worth about twice what mine is (she's Bath/Bristol commuter belt, I'm in the frozen northern wastelands), so if we sell hers, we can pay my mortgage off (great), then we will end up with a pile of cash in the bank. What problem - I hear you ask? Well, my house is ideal for a couple, or possibly a couple with one small child. It wouldn't be great for a family with say a couple of teenagers, which could well be us in 15 years time.
But if we leave our pile of cash left over from her house as savings, and want to up-size in 5-10 years time, it won't be worth anything like it is now, thanks to inflation working its wicked way, and saving rates being zero.
So the logical options we have are to either sit on her house and rent it out - the rent should about cover the mortgage, and of course the house should keep up with price inflation, or sell mine as well, and upsize now. We'll probably do better in the long-term if we rent it out, but it mostly depends on how soon we think we might want to cash in and upsize.
Both options aren't great for everyone not on the housing ladder - we either have someone else paying rent rather than owning, or we end occuying a house bigger than we need, thus jacking up the price of housing....
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta, the number of errors made was impressive. After finding the 3rd mistake, I binned the lawyer.
If it's any consolation, one of mine - from the panel of an Estate Agency chain - went bust.
I think we are back with the concept of a family solicitor, who are used regularly.
I go for local but several-branched ones, who will have specialists but not be regional ones who aspire to London rates.
Indeed - a good lawyer is a great find. Like a good accountant.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the European Central Bank (ECB) led the way in raising interest rates to combat inflation.
It then reversed itself as Greece threw the whole euro area into paroxysm.
This time around, in spite of agitation from Germany among others, the ECB’s president Christine Lagarde is choosing to look through a 5.1 per cent rise in consumer prices in January, and is not planning to raise interest rates until quantitative easing grinds to a halt later in the year.
The attitude looks to be: Cost of living crisis – what crisis?
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
I believe he has a worse rating in NI than Scotland?
He did, certainly, in one poll recently. Minus 80 or something like that IIRC, compared to about -70 for Scotland? Obvious issue however is whether the bowler hat chaps think he is crap in the same way and for the same reasons as the Alliance middle of the roaders and those of Republican views. The Government is doing such an awful job of Brexit that it's quite plausible that they are picking from different parts of the turd buffet table.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
What happens if the DUP pull @paulgivan out of the executive as first minister? That will trigger resignation of deputy FM @moneillsf too. Under original rules there was a 7-day period to renominate the posts or trigger a full collapse. But this is changing to six weeks /1
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
In some ways thus just encapsulates what is wrong with the British economy. Lack of real long term investment, but instead a rather artificial competition by get rich quick middlemen who fold or disappear when their business model is stressed.
Take the NHS private providers as another example, but echoes across a lot of other sectors.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
What it really does is muck around all the incentives to do "rational" things with money, in a way that worsens the housing situation.
My young lady and I (neither of us exactly old money, both more working class) presently have a similarly sized modest house each, both about 50% paid off. She's moving up to mine after we get married, which means her house is surplus to requirements.
The problem is that as hers is worth about twice what mine is (she's Bath/Bristol commuter belt, I'm in the frozen northern wastelands), so if we sell hers, we can pay my mortgage off (great), then we will end up with a pile of cash in the bank. What problem - I hear you ask? Well, my house is ideal for a couple, or possibly a couple with one small child. It wouldn't be great for a family with say a couple of teenagers, which could well be us in 15 years time.
But if we leave our pile of cash left over from her house as savings, and want to up-size in 5-10 years time, it won't be worth anything like it is now, thanks to inflation working its wicked way, and saving rates being zero.
So the logical options we have are to either sit on her house and rent it out - the rent should about cover the mortgage, and of course the house should keep up with price inflation, or sell mine as well, and upsize now. We'll probably do better in the long-term if we rent it out, but it mostly depends on how soon we think we might want to cash in and upsize.
Both options aren't great for everyone not on the housing ladder - we either have someone else paying rent rather than owning, or we end occuying a house bigger than we need, thus jacking up the price of housing....
I'd suggest find a decent financial advisor who should be able to comfortably beat the rate of inflation with decent investments.
It’s pointless posting on here with HYUFD just disrupting proceedings with his trolling
No - do not let him get away with it
He is a disgrace to the conservative party an even suggested Boris supporters could storm the 1922
He absolutely does not represent the decent honest conservative who is appalled by his views. and certainly would see his vision of the party reduced to a permanent irrelevance
Comments
Walters on Christmas eve
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10342525/SIMON-WALTERS-Boris-doesnt-sort-administration-not-fight-election.html
Current mortgagees were sold the lie that inflation and hence higher interest rates were a thing of the past, and recent history suggests this is the case.
I have been saying on here for years that Government fiscal policy, including leaving the EU and quantitative easing in particular was inflationary and rising interest rates would follow. The artist formerly known as @Philip_Thompson claimed I was wrong as were my 1980s economics text books.
I stated an increase in M3 was inflationary he suggested " that was then, this is now".
It might just be an administratively convenient way of sending the money to those most in need without having to make changes to UC, legacy benefits, pensions, or create a new payment that needs to be claimed. We'll see.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60241608
In 30 years time when we look back at this period Bozo will be the reason why we have a united Ireland and a united Ireland will be the reason why Scotland left.
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Bozo can't win by paying the fine and hoping it goes away.
BoZo's actions defying SF and the EU and refusing an indyref2 will be remembered forever as to why NI and Scotland are still in the UK
💥57% already decided that PM broke rules
💥30% rate their anger at 10/10
💥68% say partygate is important issue...
💥BUT cost of living (92%), Covid recovery (87%), and Russian-Ukraine tension (74%) viewed as MORE important
FW: 28-30 Jan https://twitter.com/itvpeston/status/1489016664813457412
A new competent solicitor given all the papers should be able to move quickly, probably quicker than your existing one. Find a new solicitor who can deal with this case urgently. Then ring up your existing one and ask for the entire file to be transferred over PDQ, which they are obliged to do if you have paid for the work so far.
You can ask the estate agent to speak to the sellers to get them to hold off. Putting it back onto the market will delay matters and so long as your new one gets things moving a buyer with an active solicitor is better than waiting for a new offer etc, surveys and so on.
Good luck!
Also am not a conveyancing lawyer so if someone with much more experience than me in this area tells you something different follow their advice not mine!
https://twitter.com/EmporersNewC/status/1489172827005665281
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1489171038189592581
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1489164062885826560
Reposting cos this is really critical. Tory MPs have got to realise that draw-a-line-and-move-onism is impossible with Pig Dog, because both he will continue doing new stuff, and unknown old stuff will keep coming out. I forecast when he showed a bit of recovery over Christmas, that it would emerge that someone had been funding his living expenses with soft loans, and here we are.
Lord Dannatt: It pains me a lot.. but I don't think people abroad are taking the British govt seriously when it's lead like it is https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1489156810984546304/video/1
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/03/bt-enters-exclusive-talks-with-discovery-on-bt-sports
https://twitter.com/GuardianHeather/status/1489173512082411525
https://twitter.com/forwardnotback/status/1489172311995555843
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
He is toxic and his mps know it
Rishi auditions for the top job today in the HOC and a press conference at 5.00pm and the comparison is going to be stark
Time you moved on and accepted Boris shames his office and country
Now, raising rates is also going to hurt those who are on the ladder, but for those of us who haven't made it that far, it won't make any difference. As rates rise, prices will fall.
What really matters is that we don't screw over the next set of youngsters in the same way.
I do hope the reference wasn't missed in Moscow.
Who wouldn't want to make the effort to visit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sophia_Cathedral,_Kyiv
In a way the Soviets' initial reaction chimes with Don't Look Up and many of the Covid incidents in flat our refusal to believe the "facts" when they are presented as it would be (politically, socially, economically, psychologically) inconvenient to do so.
BT Sport customers would get access to Discovery’s sport and entertainment content, including the discovery+ app.
Hope that includes people who subscribe to BT Sport through Sky/Virgin, given how much of (in particular) the Olympics is now hidden on Discovery+.
This is appalling client service. You are instructing the firm, not an individual within it, and if the firm can’t deal then they should pass and return your money. This is not any individual solicitor’s case. This is a duff outfit and I would find someone else immediately! Ask for your money back on the grounds that they are not performing services for you, complain to the senior partner (or equivalent), and say you will escalate to the SRA if they refuse.
I understand the DUP intend to announce the resignation of Paul Givan as First Minister today .
The statement is planned to be released today .
It is not certain if Mr.Givan’s actual resignation will trigger today or within days .
https://twitter.com/StephenNolan/status/1489168441529487364?s=20&t=eGUeRvVYIzcHj2P1uJ1aQA
A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I don't think I have ever been so incensed by anything I have ever read on this forum. I think I had better go and lie down before I use the worst aspects of my Irish heritage to say something really very offensive to HYUFD.
To me,
1) Cost of living
2) Covid recovery
3) WWIII
4) BJ gone
is a reasonable listing in order of priority. That doesn't mean that I want 4) done *only after the first three* are sorted out. Multi-tasking and all that....
Now however as it becomes obvious the Tories will be punished for it.
They better hope that Rolls Royce can pull off their SMR plans but even that only fixes things from 2030 onwards and not in the crunch years between now and especially 2025-30.
"Good morning. The drip, drip of letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson continued yesterday, as a further three Conservative MPs declared publicly that the Prime Minister has lost their support. He was bullish at Prime Minister's Questions, and is determined to cling on. But is he running out of road?
That is the question addressed in this week’s New Statesman cover story by Andrew Marr, our incoming political editor. He discusses a man who will “use every tactic, clean and dirty, to cling on”, and a cabinet paralysed in support of him. “They are there because of Johnson and they know his vengeful instincts,” Marr writes. “I do not believe the Prime Minister’s favourite film is Jaws, as some say. It must be The Untouchables – recall the scene in which Robert De Niro lectures his “cabinet” on teamwork while swinging a baseball bat.”
But this is also a personal, reflective piece, in which Marr, now free to write without constraint, expresses his anger at how the Prime Minister broke the rules that he imposed on others: “I have found Johnson personally charming and amusing many times in the past. But at almost exactly the same time as he was hosting his parties in Downing Street, having a high old time lecturing the rest of us, I was burying my father.”
Sitting at the funeral of veteran Labour MP Jack Dromey, Marr "felt sad about that, and the more I thought about the parties, the angrier I felt myself becoming. That doesn’t much matter, except that so many millions have similar stories or worse ones."
He decries the “grubby low point” that British politics is now at – and he isn’t making a partisan point. “This is the Tories’ problem,” Marr writes. “It is patriotic, not partisan, to say it is now their job to clean it up. And fast.”
tia
It is Truss who has worked with the DUP to stand up to the EU on the Irish Sea border
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013xch
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
I think we are back with the concept of a family solicitor, who are used regularly.
I go for local but several-branched ones, who will have specialists but not be regional ones who aspire to London rates.
I'm not clear quite how far it is devolved - can it be replaced with a You could. Doesn't mean did.
It was a repellent smear. One reason I wrote my header yesterday was to point out that it is the Tories' inactions and failures over the last 11 and a half which have denied justice to many victims of sexual violence, whether women or children.
I hold no brief for Labour and they have had their own faults in this regard too. But I will not see someone like Starmer, who tried to do a decent job as a public servant as DPP, smeared by someone who views public service as an excuse to help himself to the fruits of power without undertaking any of its obligations.
To imply what the PM did about Starmer under cover of Parliamentary privilege, given Boris's own public statements about wasting money on child abuse cases - also referenced in my header - was a new low, even for him.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
My young lady and I (neither of us exactly old money, both more working class) presently have a similarly sized modest house each, both about 50% paid off.
She's moving up to mine after we get married, which means her house is surplus to requirements.
The problem is that as hers is worth about twice what mine is (she's Bath/Bristol commuter belt, I'm in the frozen northern wastelands), so if we sell hers, we can pay my mortgage off (great), then we will end up with a pile of cash in the bank. What problem - I hear you ask? Well, my house is ideal for a couple, or possibly a couple with one small child. It wouldn't be great for a family with say a couple of teenagers, which could well be us in 15 years time.
But if we leave our pile of cash left over from her house as savings, and want to up-size in 5-10 years time, it won't be worth anything like it is now, thanks to inflation working its wicked way, and saving rates being zero.
So the logical options we have are to either sit on her house and rent it out - the rent should about cover the mortgage, and of course the house should keep up with price inflation, or sell mine as well, and upsize now. We'll probably do better in the long-term if we rent it out, but it mostly depends on how soon we think we might want to cash in and upsize.
Both options aren't great for everyone not on the housing ladder - we either have someone else paying rent rather than owning, or we end occuying a house bigger than we need, thus jacking up the price of housing....
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the European Central Bank (ECB) led the way in raising interest rates to combat inflation.
It then reversed itself as Greece threw the whole euro area into paroxysm.
This time around, in spite of agitation from Germany among others, the ECB’s president Christine Lagarde is choosing to look through a 5.1 per cent rise in consumer prices in January, and is not planning to raise interest rates until quantitative easing grinds to a halt later in the year.
The attitude looks to be: Cost of living crisis – what crisis?
And how useful is it basing rebates in a crisis in 2022 on bands set based on House Values in 1991? (I think)
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
What happens if the DUP pull @paulgivan out of the executive as first minister? That will trigger resignation of deputy FM @moneillsf
too. Under original rules there was a 7-day period to renominate the posts or trigger a full collapse. But this is changing to six weeks /1
https://twitter.com/BBCJayneMcC/status/1489164617989427203?s=20&t=eGUeRvVYIzcHj2P1uJ1aQA
Says he is now getting behind Boris and his programme for delivery
https://twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant/status/1489178561944637454?s=20&t=OqJCcHMa3yUj9M33fYOBVA
The more important point is that even if he did, it probably doesn't make it into the top 1000 most risibly contemptible things he has done.
Take the NHS private providers as another example, but echoes across a lot of other sectors.
You’re a troll.
Might focus some minds.
He is a disgrace to the conservative party an even suggested Boris supporters could storm the 1922
He absolutely does not represent the decent honest conservative who is appalled by his views. and certainly would see his vision of the party reduced to a permanent irrelevance