From Chancellor Darling onwards The Bank Ā has been granted a full indemnity by the Treasury for any losses on holding and selling bonds in their inflated bond portfolio. Successive Chancellors accepted Bank of England advice to keep on buying UK government bonds at ever sillier prices.
Today the Bank thinks that to get rid of the big inflation their policy of zero rates and bond buying has brought on requires them to sell all these bonds at big losses. Some will be sold in the markets, others await repayment when they mature. The losses on maturity will be less than taking market losses now. The ones they are keeping are said to lose us loads of money anyway just holding them, as the interest earned on them is now lower than the interest the Bank pays on commercial bank deposits with the Central Bank.
The OBR thinks the Bank will lose a total of Ā£133 bn over the next five years on its bonds. Taxpayers will be expected to pay this bill. why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it? Why did the media fail to report the huge Ā£11 bn spending priority for five months of Bank of England losses a few weeks ago? I will in future blogs set out how to reduce these big sums.
December 17, 2022
Good morning.
They are privatising the profits and socialising the debt, much like they did with Greece. And we will soon end up like Greece.
Which I think is the plan.
December 17, 2022
++++
Yes! Iāve thought the treatment similar to Greece for a while.
Including the weird placement of present incumbents.
The similar tax, tax, tax in every possible way.
With muttering about means testing old age pensions!
December 17, 2022
JR,
1.2 million visas issued last year. The majority issued for low wages as Johnson lowered the wages threshold to about Ā£20,000. Why is the govt importing people to earn Ā£20k when welfare claimants get much more!! Up to about three-four times more. So they are also eligible for universal credit as well?Only 2,768 golden visas issued- the ones we actually want. This is also utter financial stupidity. Then we have families of students- whether they work or not!
JR, tell me I am wrong.
It is clear to any reasonable person Bailey has consistently failed to deliver his principle priority, cut inflation. He did not try to stop its rise last September and Sunak agreed with him. He should sacked. Hunt says he agrees with Bailey!!
December 17, 2022
The minimum wage in the UK will be over Ā£20,000 for a 37.5 hour week from April.
I want to know how does a British person get a council house now? Especially in London. After discovering a failed asylum seeker got a council flat in central London for 8 years.
December 17, 2022
Unbelievable. Even FAILED asylum seekers get priority over legal citizens! How many Brits are waiting for a council flat in London and why was the failed asylum seeker not deported, even after 8 years???? Can this government get any worse? I keep thinking not, but then they prove me wrong yet again.
December 17, 2022
They haven’t yet taxed cars by road footprint. So many quid a square metre on the road, then a bit for elevation.
I’ll have to thaw out the Midget.
JF
December 17, 2022
JF – Pulp Fiction was quite a horrible film, wasn’t it ?
December 17, 2022
Weāre building another tower of babel, its going to come chasing down
December 17, 2022
Agreed. They look for ways to make us and our country poorer. They are succeeding, too, in every way possible.
December 17, 2022
All part of the great reset. Fleece the taxpayer to keep the idle and ever increasing gimmigrants.
Civil disorder may be the only solution.
We have a spendthrift pm and a Chicom chancellor.
What could possibly go wrong.
December 17, 2022
I just simply think both the Government, the Bank of England, and the Treasury are now totally out of control, and the majority of Mp’s (on all sides) either do not understand, and/or do not care whilst the taxpayer picks up the bill.
No one who works in any of these departments have any real skin in the game, they all still get a good salary, an excellent pension scheme, no matter how poor the decisions or the outcome.
The future for the majority looks dire, no point in saving if you are taxed on it’s income, whilst it’s value is eaten away by inflation, and then taxed when you die.
December 17, 2022
The cure is for their terms and conditions to ensure they have skin in the game. Anyone who votes for crushing losses has their assets seized to offset losses.
The fools will not apply for jobs, the brilliant will be offered excellent rewards (for taking the risk) and make good decisions.
December 17, 2022
Ian – When you bear in mind that we couldn’t leave the EU because of the latent threat of IRA (pro EU terrorist) violence. Disorder is the only thing they respect.
December 17, 2022
with the aim of proving that it is all because of Brexit and we must rejoin the EU.
December 17, 2022
Yes Mark. If the BoE makes a loss another party made a gain. Follow the money.
As I stated yesterday, we see GroupThink in action. Nobody (other than Sir J) wants to suggest a counter-approach as copying the herd is safe for careers.
December 17, 2022
Well Sir John,
As a child I learned that when I couldn’t find my ball I was looking in the wrong place.
Either you are not asking the right question or you are asking it in the wrong place.
Our political system is designed to abrogate responsibility.
Gleefully it was “gifted” to the EU; and most Members of Parliament didn’t want it back.
In the early days of Covid Ministers were rushing around pulling on levers that weren’t connected to anything.
No planning for a Pandemic, no PPE – the Minister responsible, Hunt, promoted (somehow) to Chancellor.
The Welfare State introduced the concept that ‘someone else will pay’ – a Ponzi scheme that’s coming to an end.
The self employed and small businesses know that if you don’t work you don’t eat.
Socialism destroys the incentive to work.
We need to set a limit on taxes, and thus State spending, and introduce performance linked pay.
But FIRST we need cheap energy, (small) nuclear reactors built near our heavy industry?
And to get the price down incentives to economise and bills linked directly to cost of production.
December 17, 2022
Certainly looks like bankrupting the country seems to be the plan!
Why would anyone or any organisation in their right mind want to do that to their own country?? Itās self harmā¦ Even assuming theyāre on board with globalisation, which probably they are, why the self harm? It really makes no sense!
December 17, 2022
Maybe the promise of greater riches from the planned state/corporate fusion fascism/communism?
While we freeze and starve and stay at home the 1% plan the escalation of their wealth. Many minions desperate to hang onto the coat tails of those at the top.
The metal and resources that go into our cars etc must be an affront to their greed!
December 17, 2022
Treacherous May and 277 other socialist Tories, still in parliament, wanted UK to be a vassal state of EU!
Snake Sunak visited N.Ireland and the ship yard yesterday. Another Tory con to deceive the public. The Ship building of our warships another disgusting example of EU compliance in our own country!! Not a word from MSM only happy photographs.
1. UK warships built in Spain and fitted out in N.Ireland. Jobs for EU.
2. N.Ireland annexed under EU control and abide by their tariffs, laws, regs and rules without a say, ie Vassal state.
3. All goods, tariffs, regs will be under EU rules for the building and fitting out of these warships!!
4. Snake Sunak, Hunt and Wallace sells out our country to build our warships under EU rules for benefit of EU industry and jobs. Crumbs for N.I for a Tory false press narrative. Giving away jobs to EU while forcing a recession here! Beyond disgusting.
Just get out.
December 17, 2022
Part of Rishi’s migrant plan is… waitfurit… an amnesty for those who enter by boat !
They are just shafting us at every turn.
December 17, 2022
NLA, thatās not a plan! Where did you read that? It will increase the numbers of those crossing what a stupid announcement if it is true. Rishi needs sacking if this is true.
December 17, 2022
Tracy
That may not be the written plan, but I guarantee that will happen.
How many hundreds of thousands are now awaiting a decision, some already for many years, You are simply not going to get through that list (with more coming over by the day) by employing just a few more staff, all at taxpayers increasing expense.
The only real way is to deport illegals as soon as they arrive, or better still, stop them arriving in the first place.
What other Country in the World operates such a stupid system as we do.
December 17, 2022
a-tracy : There’s a piece in the D. Mail 16 Dec – “PM’s asylum plan will see thousands of backlog cases approved in a massive box ticking exercise”
‘ A source’ says. Amnesty by any other name. Government of course denies, saying rigorous checks to be made on all claims.
December 17, 2022
Crime as ever, has soared under these Tories, and costs us conservatively upwards of 7% of gdp.
Sir John would rather talk about a small fraction of that figure for which he can blame someone else however.
Well, that’s unsurprising really.
December 17, 2022
Too many Labour police commissioners perhaps. And PC plods.
December 17, 2022
Oh and Labour Mayors in the City, isnāt Khan and Burnham responsible, so lets have the blame where the responsibility actually is, in our Labour controlled areas.
December 17, 2022
What PC Plod? – When not screen gazing they are touring in a Panda.
December 17, 2022
Sorry PC plods = politically correct police officers.
December 17, 2022
Labour got crime down by a third – they were tough on its causes, whereas the Tories multiply them.
December 17, 2022
They hid it, NLH.
However. I’m no defender of the present Tories. They just legalised cannabis with a nod and a wink… so happens graffiti, mugging and assaults on police comes with it in our previously peaceful area (Tory MP btw.)
December 17, 2022
NLH – where have the crimes tripled? Which areas, policing was devolved?
Ā«Ā The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 …
Salary: Ā£292,938 per annumĀ Ā»
One of each new mayors responsibilities is policing. Perhaps they are ignoring crime – Traditionally, mayors oversee a city’s main departments, including the police, fire, education, housing and transportation departments.
December 17, 2022
More people means more crime.
December 18, 2022
PeterXi
Thank you another deep contribution with little relevance to the debate
December 19, 2022
Hi eu billy
Another hilarious comment from you.
PS
A certain number of people in society will create crime.
Therefore generally speaking the greater the population in that nation the greater is the number of crimes recorded.
December 17, 2022
You’ve saved me from writing the same thing.
December 17, 2022
When the banks in Cyprus failed the EU invented a new way of bailing them it was called ‘bail in’ as opposed to bail out – this is where when they can’t get enough money from the bond holders and share holders etc to save the banks from going under they will then just confiscate whatever money is on deposit accounts- ie. they will rob people’s savings accounts to keep the banks afloat – and all approved by the EU – but don’t for a moment think that our lot wouldn’t do the same.
Question for Sir John – what is the point in being in politics if nobody is paying attention to you or listening to what you have to say? – you can’t be getting great job satisfaction for being stuck in a place like that? I’d be gone in the morning
December 17, 2022
Good Morning Sr J,
To answer your question, partially, does it matter if the BoE has a negative, net-worth balance sheet?
I don’t see that it does; unless it’s written in it’s constitution, it can continue doing it’s job creating and eliminating money and supervising the city’s institutions.
What’s wrong with the BoE is that it’s become a political instrument for somebody, but it doesn’t seem to being working for us.
December 17, 2022
Trying to grasp all of this ( which is pretty incomprehensible to me) I note that many of the commentators place the blame for āthe turmoilā entirely on Liz Trussās shoulders.
I imagine that such blame is entirely unjust and simply passing the buck for the establishmentās monetary idiocy?
PPE graduates Iimagine?l
Reply The losses all stem from buying Ā£875 bn of government bonds badly which all happened before this year
December 17, 2022
Truss and Kwasi were just convenient excuses for Sunak and Hunt as was Putinās evil war. Suank and the BoE caused the inflation with their money printing and with their big government tax, borrow, print and piss down the drain agenda. This with their net zero, rip off, insane, unreliable energy agenda placed on top as another burden just for good measure.
December 17, 2022
+many
December 17, 2022
Most people donāt understand any of it. Yesterday someone commenting on the Times said that the nurses demands should be by printing money.
December 17, 2022
“why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it? ”
This frightening remark by Sir John reflects very badly indeed on parliament. Mr Hunt may be a very experienced politician, but I wonder how much he knows about money? The Prime Minister, however, does know a lot about money (ex Goldman Sachs) so why is he not interested? I would love a proper Conservative opposition party! At the moment, I cannot even see one on the horizon.
December 17, 2022
Anselm, you’ve no doubt heard of the Reform Party. Its traditional conservative values and proposed good housekeeping are attracting Conservative Party members, amongst many others, disappointed at the removal of the democratically elected Liz Truss. https://www.reformparty.uk/
December 17, 2022
Problem is, Mary, our first past the post system of voting is designed to keep the Tory/Labour musical chairs act spinning, so our country gets ever poorer whoever is in power. UKIP got 4 million votes and only one seat as a result in a previous election, whereas for instance, Caroline Lucas got 33,000 votes for the Green Party and got the same – one seat. The whole thing is skewed to keep things as they are for the comfort of big party MPs. Reform don’t stand a chance. It’s a corrupt fix consolidated into our system.
December 17, 2022
To be a little more accurate, the Greens actually polled one million votes (a quarter of UKIPs).
December 17, 2022
This is what the two main parties want us to believe. We just have to get the voter herd so angry, annoyed, and disillusioned with the current crop of politicians that they change direction and look for a real alternative. The smaller parties, with similar views, need to join together to form one viable party. GBNews is doing an excellent job of enlightening the public on the mismanagement of our country.
December 17, 2022
You are surely right alone or not.
Why too did only a handful of MPs oppose the insane climate change act, the mad intermittent energy agenda, climate alarmism, why are only a handful of MPs pointing out that the vaccines and lockdown did far more harm than good, that HS2, test and trace, eat out to help outā¦ were an idiotic wastes of tax payers money that did more harm than good. That printing money debases the Ā£ and causes large inflation and Sunak and the BoE caused these, also that personal overdrafts fixed at circa 40% by the FCA are a rip off and incompetence.
Also that we should cull all the vast woke lunacy, diversity officers, net zero consultants and other waster jokers in government now.
Much talk about how the government cannot afford to pay the nurses and strikers but firstly they are paying them with Ā£s that are now worth less than perhaps 80p and secondly they will get about 50% of this increase back in income tax, NI, council tax, VAT, reduced benefitsā¦ also
December 17, 2022
Birmingham NHS is advertising for a ādirector of lived experienceā on a six figure salary I see. They advertised this the day the nurses went on strike. What other type of experience is there but a ālived oneā ? Junior doctors get about Ā£29k less the Ā£10k of interest on their student debt. This after ~ six year unpaid training and with circa Ā£150k of student debt typically. They they are treated very poorly by the dire NHS too. So about 50% of UK trained doctor choose not to work for the NHS or to leave the profession or work elsewhere. 25% leave in the first year.
December 17, 2022
Lifelogic. Yes a junior doctor’s existence is a bedsit one. There seems to be no way out of it before age 30 years and then not much to look forward to after that.
The profession is best left to the rich – who can afford to bankroll the student debt and buy a house ready for their doctor offspring to move into after training.
Most doctors are women. Those of the working class would be better advised ditching education, getting pregnant in their teens by a male anon and raising a child badly so that they can claim high rate dependency benefits for ADHD (fast passes in theme parks, the lot)…. and then tell their daughters to do the same.
There is a reason 250,000 young people have just declared that they have no intention to work, ever. Under the most extreme leftist regime we have ever had – getting more leftist by the day – I think they are right.
December 17, 2022
Actually NLA the smartest girls would have a baby, father anon, continue with their Doctor training on full benefits + childcare paid for, that would then pay UC to pay the rent on a nice place. VoilĆ .
December 17, 2022
Most “new” doctors are women which is another problem as you get rather fewer working hours per doctor trained (on average) from women. With career breaks and more part time work also they are even less likely to repay the student loans in full.
December 17, 2022
Juliet Samuel today in the Telegraph:-
Even Labour knows the NHS is failing. So why will no one admit we need a new model?
More money and staff have produced even worse outcomes than before. This is not a system capable of reforming itself
December 17, 2022
Staff shortages, couldnāt every single diversity officer have to spend a whole month on the nursing wards, on different shifts, working with the people they are trying to train to help to be more ādiverseā? We are told the NHS has more people from different cultures, countries than any other company that Iām aware of this Country. All hands on deck, get the aprons on and their comfy shoes, cancel all courses so that nurses arenāt off the wards learning to be nice to each other. They can see for themselves where the shortages actually are and what sort of attitudes exist in real life.
December 17, 2022
Comfy shoes ? A Crock on each foot… in more sense than one.
December 18, 2022
We are told 17,000+ beds were removed from the hospitals that exist right now in the UK and additional hospital space has also been built. Old six bedroom wards are now four bed, that reduces ward productivity. They magicād up many hundreds of beds and dividers for the nightingale hospitals where have they gone?
We are then told that the whole hospital blockages from A&E up are caused by bed-blockers whose families canāt look after them at home, they are otherwise fit enough to return home, and therefore donāt require grade 5 + higher nursing, identify what help they currently get on these wards they are languishing on now. Put the extra beds back on those wards (often removed because of the covid pandemic) and bring in all the managers every single one of them, plus volunteers (you have the list from the covid pandemic), there are also firms that make their staff available for a couple of days to a week, for a month to help care for them, in a private business when things go t**s up (professional term) you all get stuck in at the sharp end.
This government will spend Ā£5m per day on illegal none-British individuals in hotels, yet they wonāt spend one extra penny to sort this bed-blocking out, why canāt the so called bed-blockers go into that hotel in Cornwall that doesnāt want to take illegals but their staff could then care for people with some extra funding. It has to be better than turning away emergency patients needing treatment. If recuperation centres are required then thinking outside the restricted boxes need to be planned for. There is a problem of too much red tape, too many administrators saying no you canāt do that. We are told its an emergency as bad as covid was, in fact it could be argued with hindsight is worse as serious cases canāt be treated or even get accepted into hospital are they are full up.
December 18, 2022
a Tracy
Far too sensible and simple solution for your suggestion to ever come true.
Likewise the NHS we are informed already book private hospital beds and operation capacity, but then never use them, yet another huge waste of money.
Why are the simple solutions never acted upon John, is it due to internal politics within the hospitals which is the problem, I have heard many reports of such, even from a consultant direct a few years ago.
December 17, 2022
Admitting the religion is a total failure is end of career and respect, inviting a torrent of abuse.
So, the elephant now fills an aircraft hanger not a room.
December 17, 2022
How can it reform when know-nothing politicians are always interfering? I heard the other day there have been something like 38 reforms of the NHS by theses fools and look where we are. The NHS and Education needs to be taken away from these useless seat warmers who like to experiment with their crazy ideas on the population of this country. If they knew what they were doing it would have been solved decades ago, but things just get worse with every intervention.
December 17, 2022
Purposely debasing the currency ( more or less worldwide) in order to impose a new digital currency system?
The vast spending of printed money during the plandemic would have helped such a plan.
NHS paying Ā£150k pa for ālived experiencesā!!
December 17, 2022
They work for us, its time for change.
December 17, 2022
LL
On G B News they have lots of guest voices covering a variety of topics. A general observation of a variety of organisations, it has been noticed by these voices, is that people are too scared to speak up about wrong doings. The reason seems to be either fear of losing their jobs by being discredited or of losing their funding. This is an awful state of affairs, but it would seem most MPs are also fearful of speaking out. These socialists pushing their agendas behind the scenes are dreadful bullies. Even when hundreds of people get together, The Great Barrington Declaration and Thereās No Climate Emergency Declaration- they are discredited as fringe or of being misinformation.
The country needs to collectively push back against the bullying. Look how the NHS10K had an affect when vaccine mandates were being threatened- the government backed down!
December 17, 2022
Indeed read about the downing street Neil OāBrian and Michael (VAT on school fee) Gove evil agenda to discredit the sound and correct Barring Declaration scientists and others like the delightful Claire Craig and the Hart Group. OāBrian and Gove bringing their PPE and English degrees to the party.
December 17, 2022
We have to undergo workplace indoctrination for Woke and Greenism. It is not about educating us, it is about telling us that they are now in charge and we must obey.
December 17, 2022
I had a bloke smash his head badly (fatally) falling backwards whilst a little bit tipsy. I did first aid the best I could. (Pretty well in fact but only because I have a book on my Kindle.) BUT. Had they tried to come after me for incompetence I would have said that my Safety Day was taken up with too much Diversity. First Aid has been dropped for Diversity. That is how lethal it has become.
December 17, 2022
Is this another leg falling off the Modern Monetary Theory stool? I’m not convinced that the Bank should ever have been allowed to buy up bonds. It was as good a decision as allowing Thurrock Council to get into Green energy.
Where to now? Employ a bond expert and instruct him to unwind the bond holdings at maximum profit.
December 17, 2022
Are there bond experts?
If there are, why donāt we see them interviewed on tv news?
December 17, 2022
Why aren’t other MPs thinking about this?
Two reasons
1 The default position, I am certain, amongst both the public and politicians has become to guard oneself individually against the flakiness of tax rises, awful public service and so on rather than try to prevent them
2 Tories know it will all be handed on in 2 years and Labour either don’t understand it or more likely don’t care because it shoots the UK down the tubes to de facto bankruptcy or currency degradation more quickly.
December 17, 2022
So Sunk has said he supports Ukraine whilst starting to back down. We cannot believe anything this leftist technocrat says.
December 17, 2022
I’m happy for us to aid Ukraine. I’m not happy about Ukraine seemingly being unwilling to issue ‘war bonds’ to pay for the weaponry it needs, wants and ‘demands’ – like we had to in the two world wars that impoverished us while we were doing the right thing for humanity.
On a more Christian note, given that its Christmas, I can see how warm housing is an urgent need for the Ukrainians. I wonder how many ‘pre-fabs’ are on their way east. Ideally, their construction would be paid for by dipping into the frozen funds of the Russian kleptocracy.
December 17, 2022
S_W
Iām sorry to see that youāve fallen for the misinformation about the war in Ukraine!
Putin leads a deeply religious country where women donāt have male appendages and thereās no Wokery, if only the same were true here
Putin warned NATO what would happen if they continued expanding eastwards, as a military man I would expect you to know that?
And the war has been going on since 2014
December 17, 2022
If the West steals Russia’s money, on whatever pretext, other countries will think twice about entrusting their money to Western banks. I don’t think the banking cartel wants that to happen.
December 17, 2022
He isn’t starting to back down, SJS. He has said we should audit what we are sending, to make sure the money is well spent. That sounds like good practice to me, especially given the long-standing corruption for which that country is known, as you’ll see from the Transparency International corruptions perception index, online. The government was blamed for not monitoring where spending on PPE was going during Covid, so it should get credit for doing the right thing in this case.
December 17, 2022
+10
December 17, 2022
Perhaps the puerile fool should have taken more care rather than panicking to chuck cash at all and sundry in his panic 2 years ago. Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for him learning on the job.
December 17, 2022
Get current on Gettr or others. Note twitter disclosures regarding information suppression and state intelligence agencies.
Audits? Its news management- getting ahead of the curve on a certain country and corruption.
December 17, 2022
MPs, in the main are illiterate when it comes to financial affairs or are forced to keep quiet. Either way we are the ones to suffer, yet again
The Inland Revenue has lost up to Ā£9 billion in fraud as it switched staff to Covid support schemes,
Ministers refused to allow the Bulb administrators to hedge gas purchases, forcing it on the spot market losing up to Ā£5 billion to add to the original loss, totally due to the failure of Ofgem and Theresa Mays economically illiterate policy, all allegedly being passed on to us in higher bills.
Treasury losses on inefficient management of said Covid schemes up to Ā£9 billion.
Plus the BOEs losses. I guess MPs are hoping we we do not notice.
December 18, 2022
I’m not sure that sudden demand for large hedging volumes in a hedging market with few sellers wouldn’t have pushed prices much higher for everyone. The reality is that in the present market conditions the availability of hedges for purchase has fallen dramatically. Extreme market volatility means that hedging requires enormous sums in collateral to guard against non-performance if markets move a long way from the hedge price. Selling e.g. nuclear output on a forward basis at a lowish price and then finding that your plant must shut down because of maintenance means that a modest profit is turned into a massive loss for buying in replacement generation: it becomes a huge risk for the seller. Hedging at high prices has damaged suppliers over the summer, when a gas glut meant that prompt prices were much lower than the hedge. There have been warnings that some may be in difficulties.
The real mistake was imposing the cap in the first place when insufficient hedges were available to make it feasible. The second mistake was not taking early action to lower prices by maximising coal burn and not blowing up power stations, promoting gas production, cutting carbon taxes and renewables subsidies: still almost none of that has been done. Instead we have windfall taxes and consumer subsidies that make matters worse.
December 17, 2022
Why, with all the other policies and practices carried out in your party, and by your government that you oppose, and constantly fail to change, are you so rigidly loyal to the Conservative party, and not withstanding the damage it is regularly doing to our country?
December 17, 2022
Can I ask again, Sir John, about the people that actually run the BoE day-to-day and what sort of job they are doing? Here’s another Executive Director, Sarah Breeden, the Executive Director for Financial Stability Strategy and Risk and a member of the Financial Policy Committee (FPC). The BoE web site tells us: ‘The FPC is the United Kingdomās āmacroprudentialā authority. It is tasked by Parliament with guarding against the financial system damaging the wider economy. Sarah is responsible for the Bank of Englandās work to deliver that objective. Sarah also leads the Bank of Englandās work on climate change, domestically and internationally.’ Has it been explained to you in Parliament how ‘leading the BoE’s work on climate change’, as she apparently does, contributes to stopping the financial system from damaging the British economy? I do hope you’ve been told.
December 17, 2022
A hopeless task. They’ll affect the rate of climate change not a jot, even less than the inflation rate. At least the latter they should be in control of.
December 17, 2022
Good for you; keep it going
December 17, 2022
Why does the Bank expect its efforts to get a grip on the inflation it has fostered will be materially assisted by causing investors to buy the bonds it is selling, thus preventing that pool of investment funds being used in other ways? What inflation-inducing alternatives were investors going to opt for instead?
December 17, 2022
As for “why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it?”, I hesitate to test the moderation here to such an extreme extent by providing my answer.
December 17, 2022
Perhaps because if a group of like-minded Tory MPs started saying the same thing, they would be accused of extremist Right-wing behaviour, or of being proto-Fascists, which appears to be the norm nowadays regarding anyone who disagrees with Centre or Left politicians/media?
December 17, 2022
This is a shocking indictment of incompetence by successive Chancellors including Mr Sunak and the BofE. Too few MPās have the intellect and experience to understand these matters, they are far too busy engaging in groupthink, virtue signalling and political correctness to focus on these vital issues. Your valuable commentary highlights how badly served we have been by a succession of Prime Ministers who selected (rewarded) too many weak inexperienced colleagues as Ministers allowing high calibre and experienced colleagues to remain on the back benches. Here is the result! Itās a disgrace Sir John.
December 17, 2022
Well said Michael.
December 17, 2022
@Michael Saxton +1 Agreed. they know how to take our money but haven’t a clue how to account for its spend.
December 17, 2022
A growth plan would, ideally, not put interest rates up anywhere near the level they are now at. More than enough money is already being taken out of the economy by sky-high energy bills without piling on the agony with interest rate rises. Bailey’s own policy is just driving us into a recession which he himself predicts will be the longest we have seen !
The USA has very high inflation but that has been caused by Biden’s ludicrously large cash giveaways, of a level that even Starmer would not contemplate. The US is self-sufficient in energy so their energy bills and fuel have not risen anything like those in Europe. They needed interest rate rises, ( or fewer give aways), to get their inflation under control. we do not. The problem is the markets. They will depreciate the pound unless Bailey matches US treasury rates.
December 18, 2022
Better stewardship would have seen market interest rates normalised quite some years ago. Consequences would have been lower debts and much more affordable house prices, and a strong incentive for government to avoid profligate money wasting on negative value projects such as net zero (including exporting our industry to China), covid lockdowns and PPE and test and trace, and HS2. Concentration on value added using our own resources would have left us far less exposed to the current energy crisis, which in turn would leave the economy and exchange rate in a much stronger position.
December 17, 2022
If someone is losing money (that’s us taxpayers) then someone else is gaining.
When large sums of money are effectively being tranferred and there is a lack of accountability, accusations of collusion and corruption are bound to arise at some stage.
December 17, 2022
I agree Kenneth, who is gaining?
December 17, 2022
This seems to be about wealth transfer from us to the super-rich. It reminds me of Gordon Brown’s dodgy gold sell-off when he announced to the world, for some unexplained reason, the date he was going to dump the stuff on the market.
December 17, 2022
āā why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it?āā
You maybe alone in the HoC, you maybe alone in your Parliamentary Party ā¦but youāre not alone with your views with the great majority of conservative members or voters (now reform voters)
Youāre the only opposition to this governments economic plans ā¦whereās the loyal opposition and why arenāt they critical of the BoE plans
December 17, 2022
Glen, reform voters, Stretford reform vote 3.5%, Chester reform vote 2.7%, they are not credible.
Having said that if my MP continues to ignore JR, after he voted for Sunak! Then he wonāt be getting our vote. Iām sick of these pretend Tories voting Labour, might as well get Labour.
December 17, 2022
The point is, how many voters in Manchester or Chester do you think have even heard of Reform UK, or Reclaim, a-tracy? For a start, people who actually vote tend to come from an older demographic, and those are the people that still watch/listen to the BBC. They won’t have heard much about those parties from that quarter, certainly nothing objective.
I would also suspect, from my own experience, that Reform’s local organisation isn’t up to much.
December 17, 2022
Well… that’s the job of MPs such as Sir John to point out by resigning and signalling to the population that the situation is NOT NORMAL !!!
Otherwise… he’s part of the problem.. in fact a MAJOR part of the problem in creating the veneer of normality.
Reply I could only resign once and that would soon be forgotten. As an MP I can highlight problems to Parliament any time.
December 18, 2022
+1
December 18, 2022
SirJ you donāt need to resign, just cross the floor, the people and your constituency will follow you
December 17, 2022
I disagree with Tice putting 600 + people up, he should concentrate, he shouldnāt put people up against people like JR. He should build up like the SNP did. He should concentrate his resources into fewer winnable areas.
December 18, 2022
+1
December 18, 2022
NOTA won in Manchester by a long way. There are a lot of votes going spare for anyone who can put up a convincing programme. I don’t think that Reform have that: formally nationalising energy is not going to solve our problems. It’s virtually nationalised already, and that is the problem – government and bureaucrats decide, not markets and rational businesses. Much of the rest of their programme talks about tax cuts without explaining where they would cut spending. They could do with some lessons from our host.
December 17, 2022
@glen cullen +1
May I ask what ‘economic plans’? Tax and more tax is not an economy
December 17, 2022
Indeed…. and why isn’t parliament stamping its authority on these institutions and demanding better performance?
It would seem that either there is a lack of understanding of basic economics in the BoE, the Treasury and most definitely Parliament, or the tax payer is being deliberately shafted because of vested interests.
I am no longer able to give them the benefit of the doubt.
December 17, 2022
The mind boggles at the stupidity of the Bank!
December 17, 2022
I have the strong feeling that any MP with a bit of common sense and some expertise in a particular subject has no influence on the Government what so ever. The collection of main stream media, civil service, all the Of’s, QAGO’s (if that’s the spelling) and behind the scenes influences running the Country for the benefit of ideological thinking is why the Bank of England is going down the drain and taking the ordinary citizen with it. I point out that the Heads of these organisations are insulated from the pain of their self-interest and incompetence.
I won’t use the term poor as this really has lost it’s original and true meaning due to the liberal left’s use of it. The working class have got poorer over the past three decades and the managing class have got richer. No problem if everyone moves up the ladder. There will always be people better off than one’s self.
But if the majority fall back down the ladder, or even some fall off it, the Country is in a very bad way and this is the responsibility of Government ( Labour and Conservative jointly).
December 17, 2022
John M, I canāt agree with that at all. All my family and friends are working class, the majority of the āworkingā ones of us have all improved our lot since the 1980s. Most from leaving school at 16 and working, training whilst working, taking risks with our homes to raise money for businesses. I know builders, plumbers, electricians all doing well, no one gave us hand outs, inheritances, it was a struggle to even get loans. This latest Tory party though makes you wonder if it was worth all the effort as the pack of cards is starting to fall.
Actually some of the skiving ones, that havenāt done a stitch of work, have done rather well as well!
December 17, 2022
“Taxpayers will be expected to pay this bill. why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it?”
Because there are virtually no MPs with any financial knowledge or sense.
Idiots elected by idiots.
December 17, 2022
Without detail I believe most MPs are not economically literate ; the challenges that ought to be in the House are simply not there ; the same is true in the higher ranks of the Civil Service . The Country is in a mess and the whole system has to be reformed ; the sooner the better .
December 17, 2022
Your government is willing to lose Ā£133bn and underwrite this, we donāt even seen Sunak and Hunt properly interviewed anymore, Boris wouldnāt have got away with that, letās see them answer this questions.
When your government put up the NMW by 7% why didnāt you anticipate that everyone would require their pay differentials keeping up, I wrote about it repeatedly, the private sector is more in line with the NMW grading above that bottom lines needs to be kept in line, they donāt get half the perks and benefits of the public sector – so why didnāt you anticipate a 7% would be demanded from unions? Youāre putting it up again 10% in April 2023, the same will happen then, no-one will gain except the government in higher taxes and inflated away debts.
December 17, 2022
I see a number of people above have wised up to the remoaner plot behind all this.
If you realise that the BoE and govt could not possibly be this dense, then you look for reasons to do this deliberately. The only thing that adds up is the remoaners up to their usual shenanigans.
The timing of Bailey’s weird announcements when the Truss/Kwarteng Budget was being announced is a dead give-away. Until then they could just appear to be incompetents, claiming the usual excuses (“not us guv, Ukraine war, Brexit etc”) – realising that most people would forget that inflation was at 6% before the war.
But they were desperate when Truss was in power and that was all they could do – at the cost of showing their true motives in the process.
December 17, 2022
Oh and… why would they do this?
The EU Commission has a rule that only those who have held high ;political office in their own country can be appointed – a “jobs for the boys” scheme. The great unwashed of Britain took away their jobs for life on the great EU gravy train and they want them back.
And they are prepared to trash our economy to get them.
If the EU fails, then the UK must also fail or the already-weak case for rejoin evaporates entirely.
December 17, 2022
Indeed those Kinnocks-to-be need a queue to be in.
December 17, 2022
There is little journalism left in this country to report on the big issues impacting our economy. The MSM has been hijacked by a couple of insignificant royal nonentities who most of the public couldnāt give a jot about. It seems to me that this whinge-fest trivia is a smoke screen to avoid scrutiny of the fraud, incompetence, and mismanagement going on in our countryās institutions. Anyone trying to call it out is unfortunately a lone voice and is shouting into the wind.
December 17, 2022
as it only make believe the treasury can give bank 133 billion and then fine the bank 133 billion for getting it wrong to balance the books, how that.
December 17, 2022
The Banks need investigated it is obviously a problem that taxpayer should not fund the losses
December 17, 2022
It is hard to see the Bank of England as independent, when another institution, the Treasury (or the taxpayer) has given it an unlimited indemnity against losses it might incur from printing money, sorry, quantitative easing. The indemnity created moral hazard, allowing the bank to follow its QE policy without concern for the impact on the Bank. One wonders though, whether notwithstanding the indemnity, it has been the prospect of losses on its gilts holding, that has made the Bank so reluctant to raise interest rates. Is the Bank just confused about its role?
December 17, 2022
Hello Sir John,
Referring to a previous diary, here is the answer to your question. Andrew Bailey has failed in his job, as he failed in his previous one. Now he is costing taxpayers money again. So why has he not been fired, in the private sector, he would have been. That is why CEOs in the public sector are useless, they have no accountability & are allowed to perform to low standards. On inflation alone, Bailey should have been sacked, then add the losses, unnecessary losses, on bond sales & why is he still; there? As to why other MPs don’t share your concern, it also points to the low calibre of most MPs.
The most frustrating thing is that we are powerless to change things, why do we have a government that does the exact opposite to what people want?
December 17, 2022
To all the commentators here: you will only change other people’s behaviour if you first change your own.
If you stay loyal to a Pretend-Conservative Party when it is deliberately wrecking your standard of living you will get more of the same.
If you want change (ie reform) you have to first change your own voting behaviour. No vote is wasted. Seats may not be won, but seats will most definitely be lost ….. and they know it.
December 17, 2022
Yes we might well ask why no Conservative MP has actually resigned and fought a seat on their principles instead of implicitly backing a PM who lost the contest based on Conservative rules. Members have been ignored and should also resign.
December 17, 2022
and who would be blamed after the coming debacle of a massive hiding in the next GE?
December 17, 2022
Why arenāt you, Sir John, on the Treasury Select Committee to ask those very important questions?
December 17, 2022
Very good question
December 17, 2022
The problem seems to be that these central bankers, and the politicians and civil servants manning the Treasury have no concept of the value of money.
Even a mere Ā£11bn is Ā£220 for every person in the country, and as for Ā£133bn, that’s more than Ā£2,600 for each of us!
December 17, 2022
But they all seem to be happy to send Ā£23.8bn of English taxpayer’s money to the bottomless pit that is Scotland every year, not to mention the Ā£10bn for NI and Ā£13bn for Wales !
Why won’t English politicians get to grips with these three holes in the bottom of our metaphorical bucket ?
December 17, 2022
It can be likened to ’empire building’ – England holds the others into a Union that had a lot going for it from 1700, but in recent decades has become a weight bearing down on our neck. Not so different to the Commonwealth being ‘let go’ – time and a changing world move on.
December 17, 2022
BoE will be cutting rates early than they think, 0.5 soon.
December 17, 2022
āwhy am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it?ā Its to do with caring, understanding the job and serving your electorate. You also understand what is means for a Government to manage a Country and its structures.
The feeling is that there are a chunk of MPās, Civil Servants and those generally funded by the taxpayer have friends of friends and they see their lifestyle as an entitlement, that then just happens without any need to contribute.
What is difficult for some to see is as well meaning as it may sound at times, the independent Bank of England, the OBR and so on exist due to a management failure at the Treasury. That was brought about by desperation from successive Governments for their own management failures in they failed to recognise their job was running a Country. Even the ECHR is a failure of Government to recognise what a democracy is and the whole point of a Parliament.
I wish you well Sir John, but sincerely I donāt envy the task of even doing the basics when you are surrounded by ineptitude and the donāt care doctrine of this Government.
December 17, 2022
@Ian B
In a nutshell there is in matters of running the Country not a single inclination to account or take responsibility for anything. Everyone loves being funded by the taxpayer as it is protected from reality, there can always be another tax grab.
December 17, 2022
The BoE canāt control inflation, hasnāt a plan for interest rates, imposes restrictions on business and shareholders, it canāt decide whether its pro EU, WEF or Climate Change or if its pro UK Plc, and its all due to the governments & parliaments mad push for ānet-zeroā.
Canāt our illustrious MPs understand the cause and effect of net-zero against the cost of living, doesnāt the government wonder why the cost of manufacture, production, distribution, warehousing, energy and retail have all dramatically increased ā¦.or do they just blame everything on Putin
Until this government and its MPs realise that the problem is ānet-zeroā nothing is going to change anytime soon
December 17, 2022
I’m going to keep asking the same old boring question until I get an answer: “Why has the Governor of the BoE not been sacked?” It was his responsibility to ensure that inflation remained steady at 2%. When the Ukraine war started in February it was 5.5% and rising. Since then, Andrew Bailey has get away with the BIG LIE that the Ukraine War is responsible for UK inflation. Not so. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, nothing more. If imported energy prices hadn’t risen, other prices would have. Could it be that throughout 2021 he was receiving instructions from the then Chancellor, one Rishi Sunak, to keep monetary policy loose?
Has the Conservative Party lost all sense of self preservation? It has failed to sack the man responsible for inflation, taking the blame itself. It has ushered in unnecessary and unpopular tax increases rather than cutting public expenditure to make room for tax cuts. Labour’s lead in the YouGov polls is now 3% more than before the Autumn Statement and the result of the recent by-election is along similar lines.
December 18, 2022
Yet again: Why not?
December 17, 2022
Sir John,
You do not understand the policies of the Treasury and the BoE.
SimiIarly I do not understand the reason for the Net Zero Strategy, or the economy destroying method to reduce our CO2 emissions.
I believe the reason for both is because there is āsomethingā we have not been told.
Perhaps Mr. Sunak gave us a clue at COP26 when he said :
āSo our third action is to rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.ā
I believe the “something” is because they wish to impoverish us.
December 18, 2022
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws.”
December 18, 2022
After the BEAPFF was established it was agreed that instead of accumulating coupon income in the fund as a reserve against capital losses on redemption of the bonds it bought, any excess in coupon income over the cost of the loan from the BoE itself funding the purchases would be remitted to the Treasury in return for an indemnity on capital losses from sales or redemptions. Purchases all had a positive redemption yield (albeit often a rather small one, and perhaps some more recent ones were negative but we no longer see the data), which implies that the coupon income would have more than funded the capital losses had in not been appropriated by the Treasury. More recent purchases, including those made to replace redeemed issues as well as to increase the level of QE have been at coupon rates close to zero, enhancing the risk of capital loss as interest rates rise and of the underlying fund becoming unprofitable as the cost of its financing increases. However, the profit on the loan from the BoE to the fund increases with higher base rates. Perhaps the BoE should be invited to pay a corresponding dividend to the Treasury, or be faced with a windfall profits tax?
December 18, 2022
“why am I the only MP who thinks this is wrong, and the only one to raise it? Why did the media fail to report the huge Ā£11 bn spending priority for five months of Bank of England losses a few weeks ago?”
I suspect because you are the only one who understands the subject. That is why you should be Chancellor.