Comments on: Devaluation – not such an easy option for most of us.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:05:41 +0000

Allow me to ask – have you actually studied the OFSTED report? I only ask because, as a retired teacher, I have seen far too many Press Releases quoting "Excellent OFSTED reports". The dear old local newspaper prints them, also without having read them.
If you take time to read the whole thing, of course it says something like: "Although the maths results have improved minimally, the teachers ought to be taken out and horsewhipped because they have still been utterly incompetent".
What appears in the local press is: "OFSTED PRAISES MATHS RESULTS."
Maybe there are some good things in the report? The only people I know who have worked for OFSTED were excellent teachers. But that, of course, was in the 1990s.

By: Julie Morris

Julie Morris — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:30:55 +0000

Hi, I too am concerned about rip off Britain, but mainly with public services, particularly OFSTED, they have just compiled a damning report on my child's school. I can only say the school is fanatastic, they may not achieve the highest academic results, but turn out polite, caring, sharing and well mannered children. The teachers work really hard on the children's social skills, and basic reading, writing and sums. I would like to see an inspection on Ofsted, who are they?

I am also concerned at devaluation of the £ against the Euro, but believe that this is a government tactic to make us accept the euro as our currency in England, as soon as we do the euro will go down in value.

And the stealth taxes on so called 'global warming' are appalling, notice it is now climate change 'yes the climate changes and always has'. Funny how MPs aren't afraid and still fly their private planes, cars etc., AND PLEASE TELL ME HOW ANYONE CAN PAY FOR A CARBON FOOTPRINT!

By: Bazman

Bazman — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:39:44 +0000

What happened to the worthless Euro? A bit like the minimum wage. Huh? Idiots. Blame the BBC. Was the Mail Right? Get Some! I am well sick of you old right wing fools. 41 1/2 years old.

Reply: I am proud to have helped see off the Euro – that would have done even more damage to the UK economy.

By: Monoi

Monoi — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:39:16 +0000

Please stop trotting out the old "currency lower, exports up" canard.

As you say yourself, we are a trading nation, so we have to import to produce. It rather cancels out.

Germany's currency appreciated vs France and the UK as far as I can remember, yet they have the largest trade surplus in the world, ahead of China. The problem is rather more simple: produce crap (leyland anyone?) and you won't sell it, cheap or otherwise. It takes years to build a reputation, and that is worth more than any currency level anywhere.

Same with interest rates. Their effect on currency level is not all it is cracked up to be, as the low level of US rates vs UK demonstrates so well at the moment with the dollar appreciating.

A low pound makes us all poorer, that is the bottom line.

I cannot descibe the rage I feel when I see Brown or any of his bunch of showers, because they are the only culprit for the situation we are in.

Worryingly, as other commenters have poited out, the tories are nowhere to be seen.

I really do not give a flying f… about a social agenda as spouted by Cameron when I know I am worth 25% less today than I was 1 year ago, let alone 10 years ago.

By: APL

APL — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:03:46 +0000

JR: "The media are still too casual,"

MartinW: "This is exactly what we should be discussed in these stark terms on the BBC."

Mikestallard: "Yes, why isnâ€™t this discussed on the BBC?"

If the next Tory government is to have any chance of success, the BBC must be 'transformed' as one of the first acts of the incoming government. A first step might be to move to a voluntary subscription basis of funding of the corporation.

Given that the BBC archive has been bought and paid for by the long suffering licence payer, the archive should be stripped from the BBC and items in it made available to the the general media for a fee. The proceeds used to maintain the archive, something the BBC has signally failed to do.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:22:40 +0000

Yes, why isn't this discussed on the BBC? The answer, at least on Newsnight, is that they are now in Southern Russia.
I do not think they have, on the whole, got a clue about economics. Before the News, there was an hour long programme on China and its pandas. The beginning was a huge hymn to Mao for making the Chinese grow wheat instead of rice and orchards (without a word about the fact that he then gave it all away so that he could go nuclear.) their naughtiness seemed to be that they took trees down and farmed land which created a dust storm. The fact that millions of peasants died was not mentioned. Trees, I presume, are much more important than distant Chinese people. (Is that, actually, a case of Liberal racism by the BBC?)
Simon Heffer in the Mail today is half way to discussing the economic crisis although he is convinced that the real enemy is now runaway inflation as the "public sector" gets to grip with increasing their own salaries at the expense of the rest of us. (Milovan Djilas and "The New Class"?)
Another little straw in the wind, I thought, was OFSTED (What a Communist word that is!) ordering children of 4 to work harder and then that awful, ferocious little girl pretending to sing at the start of the Olympics.
Funny isn't it how all Socialism is the same in the end. The pigs eventually always move into the farmer's house……

By: Matthew Reynolds

Matthew Reynolds — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:54:05 +0000

Government spending growth must be set at a maximum of 1.5% less than average GDP growth every year in real terms untill the PSBR has been wiped out . Falling public borrowing and smaller government will stimulate private investment while bringing greater economic stability . It is wrong to pass on extra burdens to future generations for the sake of spending too much on government procurement , QUANGO’s , consultants ripping off Whitehall and excess numbers of civil servants that explain why departments of state cost too much to run . If someone like me on Â£12,000 or so a year has to tighten his financial belt due to soaring prices and a credit crunch why cannot the public sector wring out its pointless spending and get borrowing down paving the way for cuts in interest rates & inflation ?

Instead of loading money onto tax credits that cost a bomb to manage and cause distress & poverty by making the poverty trap worse to help with fuel costs why not just raise the basic personal allowance ?

Speeding up asset sales and selling off the post office , Channel 4 and the BBC (along with a little extra borrowing to be offset by stringent public spending cuts the following year ) could fund giving all taxpayers a once of refund for one year only of say Â£500 0r Â£600 from April 2009 ? The extra borrowing would only last a year and if spending reductions in 2009-10 where big enough it could be fiscally neutral in 2009-10 and then tighter from 2010-11 onwards as spending continued to be cut while no further tax cuts happened untill the PSBR was wiped out . That flat rate refund would mainly benefit the least well off as they would get the biggest boost in terms of the % of extra income gained ( Â£600 means more to a person on Â£10,000 p/a than one on Â£100,000 p/a ). As conditions could be worse in 2009 we need a plan to slash the PSBR and the size of government to secure lasting recovery while some short term stimulus to mitigate present day woes .

Forcing the Bank of England to slash RPI -x to 2% within two years should be the new MPC target with members on non -renewable ten year terms and appointed after approval following an inquiry via the Treasury select commitee . That would help economic stability as would giving back the Bank the powers it lost in 1997 .The aim being to streamline the system and stop future bank runs . Financial regulation ought to be reformed a la the USA so it is lighter and smarter thus allowing the mortgage market to recover while stopping feckless lending . Deregulating the construction industry could help slash building costs while thwarting scams – again regulation in a modern economy for obvious reasons needs to be lighter & smarter !

Voters are sick of high taxes & rising prices and they do not like the reckless waste of public funds and the financial mess up of Northern Rock . A Tory recovery plan designed to end this melt down is needed along with reforms to upgrade transport , energy & water provision so as to boost job creation at a time of rising unemployment while providing an infrastructure needed for a modern , prosperous economy when recovery starts . Social spending & wasteful training schemes do not work – Wisconsin style welfare reforms and tax credits being replaced with a bigger personal allowance might do the trick in terms of cutting economic inactivity and lowering jobless rates . The poorer the taxpayer the more likely they are to spend cash gained from tax cuts so my stimulus plan would help hard pressed household budgets and get the high street back on track at a time of economic distress as sales fall as the economy readjusts .

By: Keith McBurney

Keith McBurney — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:13:27 +0000

Glad you see and say it as it is John. When you feel the pinch, imagine the effect it's having on others much less well placed to see it through.
It's all so inept. The only thing left for the UK-wide political parties to deliver is us from them.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:13:00 +0000

Currency devaluations are no joke. My own wife saw a devaluation her country of birth between 1979 and 1980 of staggering proportions. Pre-revolutionary Iran saw the toman go from eight to the pound, to one thousand to the pound when the ayatollahs took over. It basically makes paupers out of everyone. And if you have booked a holiday this summer, you will have observed the extra costs.
As a trading economy, we import inflation to boot. There is only one positive light (not of Labour's doing, indeed they would like to do the opposite). The pound has sunk to reflect our weakened economic position. This is what floating currencies should do. If we were in the Euro we could not of course devalue relative to Europe thereby making the coming recession much the worse.

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:54:21 +0000

The amount of public resentment of Labour about the recession is surprising in light of the fact that there is no recession of the economy. The explanation is that there is a recession in what people take home since the government are taking more of it. This devaluation is bound to increase this effect. It also makes it more difficult for Labour to claim that rising prices are because of world conditions though I have no doubt they will continue to try to do so.