Similar to what Norman Lamont said in the early 1990s
Recessions are deeply damaging, and their impact on tax receipts undermines the ability of Governments and Chancellors to balance the books. Jeremy Hunt is deeply toxic. To call him an idiot would be to pay him an undeserved compliment. Let's hope he has an even shorter lifespan in the job than Lamont had.
This is just silly.
UK underlying inflation is coming in higher than expected. Gilt rates are falling sharply in anticipation of further interest rate increases. This is driving the cost of government debt up and making the finances of the Treasury worse.
No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation (and thus, indirectly, interest rates and thus, indirectly, gilt rates) is the absolute priority of the government. It would be a dereliction of duty to say anything else.
“No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation”
Supporting the Tory recession to tame inflation is certainly not Reeves message this week - number one growth in G7 or bust is the Labour position.
Suddenly there’s clear blue water on exactly the policies Gove said wins or loses elections.
The Rachel Reeves policy seems designed to make the Truss policy and minibudget look good. Its a fantasy that allows Labour to shy away from difficult questions when policies such as removing non dom status (which may in fact reduce the tax take rather than increase it) start to get met with derisive laughter. Loads of growth, loads of new taxes to cover loads more spending. What could possibly go wrong?
Absolutely agree with you David. Reeves speech woefully missed exactly what the priorities are so came across as downright dangerous. Meanwhile the ridiculous ban nomdoms and the magic money tree this provides pays for everything is an insult to the intelligence of anyone over 5 years old. Non doms actually contribute in tax, banning non doms doesn’t bring in more money, the non doms take a step further away nationalising themselves elsewhere, so move to contributing nothing.
Is this is the best thinking that can come out of this Labour team hoping to be trusted with government?
You should be delighted with Reeves scaring off the non doms; you were waving your pompoms earlier about the curative benefits of a good spell of recession.
You are getting this all wrong Lucky - but knowing you as non aligned and very moral, not at all easily led or hoodwinked by herd movements, I’m sure I convince you there’s something uncanny going on, it’s not as it appears.
What is your view of price-gouging, aka excuseinflation?
I am not sure whose price-gouging you mean, but I think to some extent it's an understandable response by companies to economically uncertain times and absolutely zero confidence that the current Government has the capability or the inclination to deal with it. If it's diesel we're talking about, I think the Government is fine with it because they wanted to penalise diesel drivers anyway.
We're dealing with a situation where Western politicians, central bankers, and bureaucrats, inspired by the frankly batshit agenda of the World Economic Forum, are visiting policies on their respective countries that will cause the vast majority of people to get progressively poorer and less free. These aren't conspiracies, they're clearly published policy agendas, and they are taking place at some speed now. Low traffic zones, ever more punitive green taxes, investment into edible insects (I wish this was a joke), the constant way everything is a 'crisis' to get you to do something you would otherwise not do etc. Some Western Governments are worse than others - Germany's still seems to have some instinct for national economical survival - ours doesn't.
The issue with all this is that whilst the reach of Davos is impressive - everyone from Vladimir Putin to Justin Trudeau, it is wide but shallow. It has never encountered serious political or civil opposition, and when it does, the line will disintegrate, and being associated with the WEF will be about as socially acceptable as blackface. If I were a clever politician now, I'd get diplomatic Covid every time I was invited to one of their events.
I was quite enjoying this woke not woke stuff. I haven't quite got my head round it yet......
I went to the Cannes film festival on Wednesday and three girls were doing a synchronised walk down the Croisette topless. (It's tricky grabbing attention)
The question is what would the correct woke response be?
The question is, did you get inside any of the festival, if so what can you report?
A friend of mine, who wrote the plays I acted in, went last week, went down to walk about because he likes to think he’s in the trade, but a selfie with Harrison Ford and a viewing of directors cut of Basic Instinct is all he managed.
A selfie on the Red Carpet with Harrison Ford doesn't sound bad. Certainly beats one with this years favourite Ken Loach.
I'm hoping Jonathan Glazer does well. A very talented commercials directors and I'm told this one is really good.
PS Like to guess which is older the Cannes Film Festival or the Monaco grand Prix?
Clue. It surprised me.
Obviously the film festival is older, oldest in the world, no point even googling.
I loved Under The Skin and how it was made. Scarlet Johansson driving a white van around Glasgow like a fly on a fishing line, what’s not to like. Not sure about his 4th film. Everything to do with the Shoah I find difficult to watch, sad depressing and makes me angry, so won’t seek it out. Four features in 24 years is slow going isn’t it?
Ken Loach announced this is his last film, so I’m sure he’ll get a send off on his last lap of honour. More appreciated abroad than at home? I liked Land and Freedom, but every other Loach film I have seen I didn’t like at all, they are like books dense and slow in prose but superficial in premise. I know friends who went on a March and Loach was there, and he really wound them up being obnoxious about their politics.
I also suspect UK film industry are run by a luvvies club full of Loach acolytes, who all know each other, money given out to each other like a closed shop. Hopefully not as bad as the French film industry is at closing ranks
Similar to what Norman Lamont said in the early 1990s
Recessions are deeply damaging, and their impact on tax receipts undermines the ability of Governments and Chancellors to balance the books. Jeremy Hunt is deeply toxic. To call him an idiot would be to pay him an undeserved compliment. Let's hope he has an even shorter lifespan in the job than Lamont had.
This is just silly.
UK underlying inflation is coming in higher than expected. Gilt rates are falling sharply in anticipation of further interest rate increases. This is driving the cost of government debt up and making the finances of the Treasury worse.
No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation (and thus, indirectly, interest rates and thus, indirectly, gilt rates) is the absolute priority of the government. It would be a dereliction of duty to say anything else.
“No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation”
Supporting the Tory recession to tame inflation is certainly not Reeves message this week - number one growth in G7 or bust is the Labour position.
Suddenly there’s clear blue water on exactly the policies Gove said wins or loses elections.
In addition, the Bank of England owns about 34% (slowing going down) of Gilts, which are not index linked.
So just under 40% of the net Government exposure on gilt interest is on index linked Gilts.
Conventional gilts do not change their interest exposure (as interest rate and redemption price are fixed), so market interest rates changes only are relevant to the Government when they need to issue new gilts, either to replace old ones or to increase the stock. The UK tends to have a longer span of gilts ages than most other countries, so we are in a better position than most as we have fewer gilts which are redeemed each year.
However, the index linked gilts (RPI) have a large impact and the UK has a significantly higher proportion of these than other countries, due to our pension funds which like index linked gilts to manage their exposure, and also the indirect impact of the Bank of England quantative easing a decade or so ago.
The Bank of England is also in the process of selling its gilts, which will have the impact of reducing the stock of money and hence quantative restricting.
Great post. Thanks for sharing all these gilty secrets.
Gilts linked to inflation so painful extra payment when inflation goes up, not on a government, it’s pain on all of us really to find this extra payment.
But what else drives gilt cost upward? Correct me where wrong, things went up under Truss it’s the markets essentially saying to UK, we don’t think you are in control so we see you as a liability - the credit agency’s downgrading France very recently is saying, the chaos on your streets we don’t think you are in control, so we see you as a greater risk, and what’s happening to UK this week, it’s markets saying to us, we don’t feel you have control of inflation equal to the game you are talking?
Yes, market uncertainty about government's control of its finances will mean that it is more expensive for the government to borrow. So inflation problems, which would include the underlying inflation issues in this weeks inflation report, will tend to mean higher interest rate costs as the Bank of England will need to raise interest rates to keep inflation under control. This will cause gilt prices to fall in the secondary market so that a buyer will have an increased return on their gilt purchase inline with the new bank of england rates.
One of the Truss consequences was a perception of higher inflation as a result of more money circulating in the object of going for growth (cutting taxes, not promising spending cuts, energy price guarantee) whilst not fully supporting the bank of england with its interest rates increases as that would have the opposite impact - hence market uncertainty and higher interest rates.
But you are right that it is inflation which is the current problem. But the government would not like a recession just before the general election so it would be hoping that the Bank of England does not increase interest rates too much more.
Historically it was thought that an increase in interest rates only had an impact on inflation 2 years ahead, which suggests that inflation at the time of the general election is already baked into the economic system (subject to external shocks). I'm not sure whether that 2 year period is still relevant in today's economic relationships.
The one piece of info that we don't have is, how successful was his betting? My guess is, not very, but would still like to know.
It is fairly rare for consistently successful gamblers to seek treatment for this sad state of affairs.
I realise that my view on this will not be shared by many, but I dispute the existence of a "diagnosed gambling addiction". Many people cannot control their impulses, but to translate that into a medical diagnosis is mistaken: the medical ecology (research, tests, studies, treatments) is not really suitable for things like this. We need to stop treating maladaptive/self-destructive behavior as diseases.
Deep waters here.
There is a fight by pressure groups for X to be recognised as a medical condition of some sort. The reason is simple: once X is a medical condition then: It isn't your fault; Moral considerations are transferred to others and away from you; It isn't a crime and you can't be sent to prison for it; The taxpayer must pay to treat you; You mustn't be discriminated against on account of it; You get to start a worthless charity with employees and salaries; You appear on R4 Today.
More deep waters. For all I know bank robbers, rapists and paedophiles have as good a claim to be medicalised on account of their activities as fat people, gambling addicts, attention disorder people, narcissists, psychotics, autism sufferers, alcoholics etc.
There is no real test for these things except politics, popularity, pragmatism and power.
PS Obvs posting on PB deserves its own medical recognition.
Yes, and see my prev posts as to how diagnoses of autism should be limited to those that cannot realistically be expected to function. And you make a good point about testing which leads into my argument: the medical paradigm doesn't work in such cases. If we treat gambling addiction as a medical illness, then there will have to be researchers, differential diagnoses, studies, trials of treatments, measurements of success, accuracy of diagnoses, quality of life measurements, so on and so forth. It doesn't fit the paradigm.
Consider. What would the surgical or medical cure for gambling addiction be? Do we get to cut out pieces of brains? Aversion therapy? Conferences in a reasonably good conference centre, with orange juice in the breaks, posters and a quiz night and last-night banquet? Will there be carrot cake?
And all this because a rich man made daft decisions and a shrink wrote him a scrip.
Similar to what Norman Lamont said in the early 1990s
Recessions are deeply damaging, and their impact on tax receipts undermines the ability of Governments and Chancellors to balance the books. Jeremy Hunt is deeply toxic. To call him an idiot would be to pay him an undeserved compliment. Let's hope he has an even shorter lifespan in the job than Lamont had.
This is just silly.
UK underlying inflation is coming in higher than expected. Gilt rates are falling sharply in anticipation of further interest rate increases. This is driving the cost of government debt up and making the finances of the Treasury worse.
No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation (and thus, indirectly, interest rates and thus, indirectly, gilt rates) is the absolute priority of the government. It would be a dereliction of duty to say anything else.
“No Chancellor worth his salt is going to say anything other than bringing down inflation”
Supporting the Tory recession to tame inflation is certainly not Reeves message this week - number one growth in G7 or bust is the Labour position.
Suddenly there’s clear blue water on exactly the policies Gove said wins or loses elections.
The Rachel Reeves policy seems designed to make the Truss policy and minibudget look good. Its a fantasy that allows Labour to shy away from difficult questions when policies such as removing non dom status (which may in fact reduce the tax take rather than increase it) start to get met with derisive laughter. Loads of growth, loads of new taxes to cover loads more spending. What could possibly go wrong?
Absolutely agree with you David. Reeves speech woefully missed exactly what the priorities are so came across as downright dangerous. Meanwhile the ridiculous ban nomdoms and the magic money tree this provides pays for everything is an insult to the intelligence of anyone over 5 years old. Non doms actually contribute in tax, banning non doms doesn’t bring in more money, the non doms take a step further away nationalising themselves elsewhere, so move to contributing nothing.
Is this is the best thinking that can come out of this Labour team hoping to be trusted with government?
Winning Ind was incumbent Corbyn supporting councillor who left Lab due to SKS.
It’s exciting development, thanks for sharing 🙂
It probably leaves current scoreboard Starmer 6947, Corbyn’s Owls (aka friends of the green transgender running stats for lefties) 2.
Good start. Work in progress as they say.
Quick question - when it comes to the votes, rights for transgender, with who will you personally be caucusing?
Anyone but SKS and there were 2 in Liverpool last week and 2 elsewhere which i forget so now its
6944 to 5 not 6947 to 2!!
I am aware that at least 7 of the 40 Chesterfield Labour Group are also secret members of Corbyns Owls Grouping and 17 are SKS fans not sure about other 16
I thought owls were supposed to be clever, whereas Corbyn was about the thickest idiot ever to have led a mainstream party in this country. Corbyn's Ostriches would be a more appropriate description perhaps?
Owls have a reputation for being clever, but aren't really.
Comments
We're dealing with a situation where Western politicians, central bankers, and bureaucrats, inspired by the frankly batshit agenda of the World Economic Forum, are visiting policies on their respective countries that will cause the vast majority of people to get progressively poorer and less free. These aren't conspiracies, they're clearly published policy agendas, and they are taking place at some speed now. Low traffic zones, ever more punitive green taxes, investment into edible insects (I wish this was a joke), the constant way everything is a 'crisis' to get you to do something you would otherwise not do etc. Some Western Governments are worse than others - Germany's still seems to have some instinct for national economical survival - ours doesn't.
The issue with all this is that whilst the reach of Davos is impressive - everyone from Vladimir Putin to Justin Trudeau, it is wide but shallow. It has never encountered serious political or civil opposition, and when it does, the line will disintegrate, and being associated with the WEF will be about as socially acceptable as blackface. If I were a clever politician now, I'd get diplomatic Covid every time I was invited to one of their events.
I loved Under The Skin and how it was made. Scarlet Johansson driving a white van around Glasgow like a fly on a fishing line, what’s not to like. Not sure about his 4th film. Everything to do with the Shoah I find difficult to watch, sad depressing and makes me angry, so won’t seek it out. Four features in 24 years is slow going isn’t it?
Ken Loach announced this is his last film, so I’m sure he’ll get a send off on his last lap of honour. More appreciated abroad than at home? I liked Land and Freedom, but every other Loach film I have seen I didn’t like at all, they are like books dense and slow in prose but superficial in premise. I know friends who went on a March and Loach was there, and he really wound them up being obnoxious about their politics.
I also suspect UK film industry are run by a luvvies club full of Loach acolytes, who all know each other, money given out to each other like a closed shop. Hopefully not as bad as the French film industry is at closing ranks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/french-actor-adele-haenel-alleges-she-was-sexually-harassed-by-director 😠
nomnom