The apparent cost of UK debt interest has shot up in the last two years. Some of this is the result of the state continuing to borrow a lot more on top of a large established debt. Some of it is the extra cost of the new borrowing now interest rates have gone up. These issues need addressing by a mixture of more revenue from faster growth and less spending on various programmes as often outlined here.
There are however other large elements in the interest bubble that depend on the accounting conventions and the strange decisions made about bond purchases and sales by the Bank and Treasury. The index linked debt entails paying cash interest payments as with normal government bonds and these are properly annual expenditure. There is then the need to repay the inflated value of the bonds on redemption, where there is no cash outflow until the date of repayment. In practice the government just borrows the inflated value back again without ever having to pay out of running revenues. This should be a contingent capital liability.
The large amount of gilts held by the Bank of England are no longer a debt of the state to the private sector but a debt to itself. Here the government indemnifies the Bank against losses, so the Treasury is currently incurring losses it has to make good every time the Bank sells one of these bonds at a large loss in the market. These costs could be cut if the Bank stopped selling the bonds, waiting instead for their repayment when the losses would be smaller.
The Treasury also pays the Bank for running losses. The Bank pays out more interest to commercial banks on the deposits they hold with it, than it gets in interest on all the bonds it holds. It deliberately bought these bonds at very high prices offering very low income, making this problem worse. The OBR reckons every increase in the Bank’s bank rate increases government interest costs by ÂŁ10.8bn.
The European Central Bank, faced with similar problems of large losses on bond capital values sells fewer of them than the Bank of England. Facing running losses, the ECB has recently announced that from September commercial banks will not receive any interest on the reserve deposits they have to place with the ECB, eliminating much of the loss on holding low income yielding bonds.
The UK government needs to get Treasury and Bank here to review its current practice with a view to getting material reductions in the apparent costs of debt interest. That would give the Treasury more flexibility to set out a growth strategy to start growing the revenues faster. This is one occasion when copying an EU idea could help.
August 13, 2023
Good morning.
This and the additional taxes it has imposed on us. That and the hidden tax of inflation, which is used to reduce the value of not only the debt, but the value of our spending power.
I am no economic expert but the actions of both the government and the State organs such as the BoE seem rather self defeating if, one assumes, that their desire is to manage the economy sensibly.
August 13, 2023
Yes, the ‘additional taxes’ problem is not really acknowledged. Think of the large number of low paid salaried workers; their salaries have not kept pace with inflation and the untaxed element (ÂŁ12,500) not increased. They look at their take home pay and then look at what they can receive on benefits and hey, ‘why bother going to work when I’m no better off?’ A side hustle or cash in hand helps. This is a double cost for HMRC, no taxable salary and payment of unemployment benefit.
This Conservative government is going to bankrupt the nation if it keeps on like this.
PS, Seems Germany has said it’s not going to increase payment into the EU budget, it can’t afford to…
August 14, 2023
In which case a career in the Tory Party beckons.
August 13, 2023
Wasteful governments indebt themselves and leave others to pay for their incompetence. This one is near the worst.
August 13, 2023
Bloke
Indeed the more you borrow the more it costs, the greater the interest rates the more it costs.
The more you waste, the more you need to borrow, the more it costs.
Government in control of all of the above, so self harm inflicted, they have no excuses.
August 13, 2023
Former deputy governor Paul Tucker has proposed the same (or paying interest on only some reserves amount), noting (per Reuters) that careful study was needed into whether it would actually damage banks’ financial stability or reduce lending, rather than just lower profits and bonuses.
August 13, 2023
Set out a âgrowth strategyâ as opposed to the current Sunak/Hunt âgrowth strangulation strategyâ job exporting, invest anywhere else agenda?
Strangled by net zero, rip off intermittent energy agenda, the war on motorists, landlords, small businesses the self employed, restrictive planning, a state sector that is double the size it should be and delivers little of any value, tax level that are also double what they should be, Sunakâs QE, endless waste and lockdown caused inflation, rigged markets in healthcare, energy, transport, housing, education, banking, the woke lunacy, endless red tape, bonkers (anti) employment lawsâŠ
August 13, 2023
The WEF’s plans are all going so well ……. they consider it to be creative destruction.
For the vast majority, it’s just destruction but that’s the objective: you will own nothing and they really don’t care if you’re happy or not.
August 13, 2023
Must still vote for them, Labour would be even worse.
August 13, 2023
If they believe that we’ll always vote for them; they’ll never change
August 13, 2023
O/T
https://www.theccc.org.uk/
I ask all readers on this site to take a look at this website. The Climate Change Committee are a cross party army paid out of public funds (Taxpayers) that are marching through our institutions and planning everything to change our way of life, encouraged, created and agreed/supported by all of the current legacy uni-parties. From banning our cars to reducing our air travel by tax, to further taxing us to reduce our meat consumption, EPC mandates in rented properties etc etc (LifeLogics blood pressure will go through the roof!). There is a list of 300 time limited plans. Yes 300 actions, ways to legislate/regulate/mandate/encourage and cajole and stop our CO2 footprint and reduce our global warming gas emissions. However, I can’t see anywhere in this vast website with its plans and publications anywhere that proves that the plant food, CO2, is directly or indirectly responsible for……….anything other than keeping all living things alive on the planet through plants.
I could see no actions on China, India, USA or other huge emitters. Just self harm and virtue signalling for no purpose.
It’s time for the legacies to come clean and state their plans so we can choose to agree with them or banish them forever so that a sensible, science based, right of centre party can emerge to represent the English people, our livelihood’s and lifestyle..
We have never been so badly Governed.
August 14, 2023
Indeed best check my BP. It is already a bit too close to needing BP lowering drugs.
Plus many have sadly been coerced into taking the net harm vaccines that have caused all these heart and other health issues, though I seem to have escaped this fortunately so far. Still no government or criminal inquiry on these tens of thousands of excess deaths it seems many very sadly in the young and healthy (prior to the jabs that is).
August 13, 2023
And the latest tax from January on Domestic Boiler makers who will be fined if a certain % of their sales are not Heat Pumps.
Next will be the imposed installation of Smart Meters under the lie that they will save electricity.
And still it continues, drib by drab.
August 13, 2023
Your daily diatribes and rants become boring after the 1000th repetition. Do you have any positive suggestions, or just your constant fossil fuel lobby lies and bullshit?
August 13, 2023
Yes. Start fracking.
August 13, 2023
+1 Donna; Fracking, pump oil and gas from the N Sea, dismantle these abominable windmills, stop buying and selling energy to and from the Continent. Ban these idiot EVâs which are a con trick – should not be allowed to be called âcarsâ as they canât do what a car does.
Any government Department allowing anybody to die of or suffer fromhyperthermia must be made criminally liable!
August 14, 2023
+1
August 13, 2023
Stated that more than 1,700,000 wells have been delivered by fracking, with little or no harmful seismic results.
August 13, 2023
This government ordered all fracking shale gas stopped and drill holes sealed 4 days ago
August 13, 2023
Your daily description of any opinion which disagrees with yours as âfossil fuel lobby lies and bullshitâ also wears thin, in case you hadnât worked out.
August 13, 2023
LL,
We read today the Social Value Act 2012 introduced by Tories to make business adhere to their values costing the taxpayer an estimated ÂŁ392 billion in procurement costs!! Adam Institute releases another report showing this socialists outfit has cost business and the taxpayer a fortune for its bizarre compliance to their values like ESG! Same for EU tendering process. Utter madness. This is socialism on steroids against the wishes and knowledge of the public who voted for the Uni party.
Still Hunt thinks taxes will have to go up!! Bear in mind JR advocates how much has been wasted on bond selling etc etc.
JR, is Hunt and Sunak deliberately trying to destroy our economy?
August 13, 2023
Hope
It would seem so. They are in the vanguard to clear the path for their WEF masters.
Will they listen and do anything about the ASI report odds on they won’t.
Where for crying out loud can we not find politicians that actually put the taxpayers and country first?
You and your few colleagues must wonder how the hell we have got into this state?
August 14, 2023
‘Money’ Beatles. 1963
The best things in life are free
But you can keep them for the birds and bees
Now give me money, (That’s what I want)
That’s what I want
(That’s what I want)
That’s what I want, (That’s what I want), yeah
(That’s what I want)
You’re lovin’ gives me a thrill
But you’re lovin’ don’t pay my bills.
August 14, 2023
+1
August 13, 2023
Stop using government debt to fund current politicised public spending and yes much of the recent increases in the debt burden is spending filtered through a party political prism rather than any real, material need for such increases.
Political cowardice ie lockdowns, helicopter public giveaways, appeasing public sector unions, NZ environmental funding, nationalisation of rail to appease the RMT etc. All have achieved the square root of sweet jack but he, let’s keep those bad headlines off the front of the BBC site, Guardiand Mirror papers.
The Tory govt are now colluding to expand the size of the State. Massive rises in civil servants is a sign of a government who have given up the fight with the Left.
The Tories are handing cash to the Left who then build their power bases throughout the land. Stupid, idiotic and treacherous, utterly repulsive abdication to a destructive enemy who won’t take prisoners should these bastards get back in
August 13, 2023
++
We need truly right wing parties.
However, Labour and the Conservatives with the stupid connivance of the manipulated public managed to obliterate right wing thought from our politics.
Our right to vote as we wish was removed in the early 2000s ( and continues).
And since mind control has now become the order of the dayâŠhow can we ever regain it?
StillâŠjudging by local online social media the sheeple are totally happy with their multi-culti existence.
Will they even bother when we finally become a mirror image of SA?
August 13, 2023
I really do not think there is any difference whatsoever Dom. Seriously. They were openly happy to work with each other to act against the public vote to leave the EU. Starmer, Cooper, Benn etc all happy to act against democracy as were the alleged Tories working with them Clarke, Letwin, Wollaston, Soubry etc etc. some now made Lords!
Tories Increased civil servants by 100,000 at a cost of ÂŁ15.5 billion! Snake and Hunt stopped cuts to head count but increased taxes. Says it all.
August 13, 2023
Why should the BoE stop selling bonds at a loss which the Treasury (taxpayer) has to indemnify ? The BoE is independent (thanks to Gordon Brown) and has only one real target which is 2% inflation (it has another meaningless one about Net Zero). So where is its incentive NOT to sell bonds at a big loss if it thinks that will constrain the government fiscal policy and prevent inflationary tax cuts ? The arguments against it are political and so irrelevant to BoE.
There are three options: Remove BoE independence, give them targets in addition to inflation, or stop indemnifying the losses. Hunt will do none of these but will instead have a chat with Andrew Bailey to try to implement the first of those options while pretending not to.
August 13, 2023
The “state” has not borrowed anything. It is the Conservative government that has been in power the last 13 years that has borrowed recklessly while running the economy into the ditch
August 13, 2023
Lemming :
Itâs unfair to blame the Conservative Government. Theyâre not in charge.
It is the CCC/DESNZ, and finally the judges when the Government is taken to court, who are destroying our economy with Net Zero.
It is the Home Office and again the judiciary who are determining our illegal and legal immigration and asylum policies and destroying our culture and social cohesion with massive immigration.
It is the BoE and the Treasury who are making the âstrange decisionsâ that is causing our debt interest to mount up and bankrupt the country.
It is the Civil Service that is rapidly expanding itself, its costs and its wasteful spending whilst curbing free market enterprise and growth with nonsense and unnecessary legislation and restrictions.
August 13, 2023
Drivel. The governmnet does what it wants. Or not, in the case of the current one
August 13, 2023
The elected Government acts for the state while in office.
August 13, 2023
Lemming
A ditch???
More like a steep sided canyon
August 14, 2023
Boris Johnson said he would ârather be dead in a ditchâ than agree to extend Brexit.
Evocative words?
August 13, 2023
The only growth strategy the treasury has is immigration. Despite adding a million souls last year growth is virtually non existent.
Net zeros is another impediment to growth but we plough on regardless.
Never mind just over a year before Bliar takes over pulling Starmers strings to continue the road show.
August 13, 2023
…but they’re building more cycle lanes, LTNs, ULEZs, revamping military camps …they’re so busy ha ha
August 13, 2023
Based on the evidence of the past few years, when does Sir John think the Not-a-Conservative-Party might regain a reputation for sound economic management?
This year, next year, some time, or never?
I’m inclined to think it’s never.
August 13, 2023
For the first time in ages, I went to UK Column website.
There are some articles there which were written as far back as 2010. All that we see now has been gathering and growing for a long time. It’s actually quite depressing but enlightening at the same time. What I’ve read elsewhere tallies.
One thing I did notice, we all joke about B Gates popping up a lot – so does the UK Foreign Office.
August 13, 2023
Anathema I know to those who love the juggling tricks of the counting house but why doesnât the govt.
Just STOP BORROWING?
2008 was a great time to get the countryâs affairs in order but it was not doneâŠ
So just stop borrowing. It is an addiction, a very old one at thatâŠnot new and woke!
And anyway govt. never buys anything we wantâŠ.the borrowings are squandered on things that bring us misery.
August 13, 2023
Indeed. Just live within OUR means. Stop giving additional cost of living handouts to all and sundry at our expense. Stop giving welfare with no time limits so there are generations in our big Cities who have NEVER worked. Stop importing low paid minimum wage workers instead of making the 5 million on benefits do something for their handouts. Stop HS2, stop net zero, create a proper energy strategy to reduce energy costs for our people and its manufacturing. The list is long and you’ve had enough time to do most of them. Your party has just refused to do it, so it must go.
August 13, 2023
+++
Hear, hear!
August 13, 2023
Can you even think that – let alone say it?!
If it isnât already illegal to suggest the government stop borrowing, it soon will be.
FIVE GRAND a second!
August 13, 2023
+++
You are right. We must say all we can before the axe falls.
Good grief! Is it really that much?
They have expensive tastes at our expense.
August 13, 2023
Everhopeful
& STOP THE WASTE
August 13, 2023
+++
YES!
August 13, 2023
Govt. should learn/understand that lending is actually BUYING.
The lender buys obedience.
( Iâm sure the govt. knows that) but it borrows anyway so mad is it to put its awful plans into actionâŠ.
And then it exacts any outstanding cost from us in taxes.
August 13, 2023
I know little about the so called clever ways of manipulating money or debt, simply by calling it various different names.
Firstly I firmly believe that you should manage your expenditure to your expected income, and avoid any debt if at all possible because you then retain total control of your financial affairs.
If you have to borrow money, then you should at least know at the outset, how much, for what cost, and over what period, and then if you can re-pay it earlier, and it is financially sensible to do so, you do to regain control.
Once you start borrowing money, you do not have total control of your finances, because someone else then has part control of your affairs.
Not sure how I understand why the Government can borrow from itself or would want to, how exactly does that work, when the government has little money of its own, spends the taxpayers money, and also borrows in our name (without permission).
Surely if you are selling Bonds at a fixed rate, at an agreed maturity date, that should be the end of the trade until they mature, other than paying out the annual interest rate agreed should it not, why on earth would you want to sell or buy them back at a loss before the maturity date, and then have to borrow more money to cover the loss that you have needlessly made.
All seems like smoke and mirrors to me, either to cover up financial incompetence, or to hide the true state of the finances.
Money management should be a relatively simple affair as it involves simple mathematics, it only gets complicated when you are trying to hide the fact that the maths do not add up !
August 13, 2023
Interest rates, mortgage increases, rental vulnerability, wholesale waste on useless projects, energy unaffordability. micky mouse policies will see this Tory party into the wilderness….
Constant ‘beware the Ides of March’ has been lost on the successive Governments.
Wipe out all over the country.
August 13, 2023
We need to get unelected non-party technocrats here to run the country because it’s clear that the political class are at a loss to know what to do. Just being an elected MP might have been good enough for the 19th century but doesn’t cut it anymore.
August 14, 2023
Oh, what like, (re)join the EU ?
August 14, 2023
Mark B – Sorry mate no chance of that we have well burnt our bridges –
If you think there could be any possibility of convincing 27 countries and maybe soon to be 30 or more that we have fundementally changed and are about to become good Europeans – well no chance – so however we go from now we’ll be on the outside looking in whichever way we turn makes our job of trying to control things like the illegals all the more difficult – but hey! that’s what we voted for – that’s what we were advised to do by our betters – by the knowall’s including our host here
August 22, 2023
A rather limited answer. How comes that in a large number of countries people can be chosen as ministers by the winning party/coalition even if these individuals have never been elected as MPs. The level of understanding of what is possible in other countries by people like you, Mark_B, is close to zero. Why do you think that people that put themselves to be elected as MPs have the qualities required to run a department like Treasury, Home Office, Business, Science, Defence, ⊠when most of them have hardly been out of the PPE (then possibly PPS) line of work, or even worse are only chosen as âanti-wokeâ deputy because of the quality of their âworking personââs insults?
Maybe it could be time to start thinking that the present way of choosing MPs (potentially future ministers) together with the FPTP system of voting is far from being the best possible, given the rapidity of changes that âourâ world is witnessing.
But I do not expect much take from the usual contributors on this blog.
August 13, 2023
Mr Average Man tries to live within his means. His two great borrowings, assuming he can afford to borrow, are his home and his car. If he borrows excessively and cannot repay the loans he can lose both ccar and home. His control of his debt is as much if not more down to how government control the economy.
Government borrowing, socialists call it investment, though no income ever results from it, is as you demonstrate today one big ponzi scheme with little restraint. Employ as many scribes as possible laying down a bottomless salary and pension committment. Enter into insanely expensive capital projects with little or no return. Impoverish every other person on the 39 bus such that you convert them to being dependents. Invite vast numbers jnto the country to further challenge our broken public services. No worries government can just add to the Ponzi scheme to pay for it.
They say today that Rishi has 7 months to avoid electoral disaster. My judgement is that time has already run out, why prolong our agony.
August 14, 2023
Don’t worry, Rishi has pledged ÂŁ500 to an Indian company to build batteries made from Chinese materials. He is also going to spend ÂŁ22bn sucking out CO2 from the air to save the planet while those Chinese companies supplying the materials to the UK Taxpayer funded Indian company making batteries, belches out vast amounts of CO2 from all the coal fired power stations it is building.
August 13, 2023
The problem is really about high taxation. Many folk have retired early or have become economically inactive because the government takes so much in tax. They get taxed when they earn it (40% income tax + 13.5% NI = 53.5%), taxed when they spend it (20% VAT) and taxed if they save it (after ÂŁ1000 of non-ISA interest). About 500,000 folk are emigrating each year because they have had enough of it.
Sunak, who has printed more money than any UK Chancellor in history, is said to want a 2% cut in income tax as a sweetener before he is forced to call the next election. With the national debt at ÂŁ2.4 TRILLION or 105% of GDP and the bank rate at 5.25%, to do so risks causing another sterling crisis and undoubtedly yet higher interest rates, forced spending cuts and/or yet higher taxation.
We have to accept that borrowing more money to pay the ÂŁ90 billion annual interest on our debts is unsustainable and risks hyperinflation. What would be helpful is to find a way to replace the lost exports to the EU and elswhere, but sadly we have sold off any businesses that could export. We have nothing left to sell and thanks to the governments’ anti-green and anti-renewables agenda, we are shortly going to lose the car industry
13 years of right-wing Conservative governments have really f**ked this country up and it is little wonder that the electorate appears to have decided that it’s time for a change
August 13, 2023
â13 years of right-wing Conservative governments have really f**ked this country upâ
Well hardly 13 years of incompetent, green crap, big government con-socialism have done this, nothing remotely right wing about Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak⊠all green crap pushing, big state, tax, borrow, print and piss down the drain socialists to a man or woman!
August 13, 2023
13 years ….and whats been achieved
August 14, 2023
And yes of course it was all perfect when New Labour were in charge wasn’t it ?
Once again you are stuck in your alternative reality bubble. It is not about Left or Right anymore, it is about ‘us’ and ‘them’.
August 22, 2023
SG, +1
August 13, 2023
âThis should be a contingent capital liability.â indeed. But treasury civil servants donât understand accrual accounting.
August 13, 2023
Yes and yes – therefore not capable of undertaking the work required. They must be sacked.
August 13, 2023
Lynn Atkinson
Sackedâœâœ????????
Come on let’s get real. It never happens.
Elevation to the HoL more the likely.
Nobody is ever accountable.
August 13, 2023
TurboT – Spot on. Carrer politicians and an index liked pension regardless. You scratch my back and I’ ll scratch yours. “Jobs for the boys”.
August 13, 2023
I can’t get too concerned about handing over a large debt to the future owners of these islands, whether it is the globalist faction or the Islamist faction. Let’s view this as advance ‘reparations’ to the British people for the loss of the country that they built up over a thousand years. Taking into account the plans of the globalist faction to turn ordinary people into serfs who are fed insects and coerced into personal ‘vaccination’ when they are no longer of use, it is by no means clear that the Islamist option isn’t the best one for the British remnants.
August 13, 2023
Our economic management is in the wrong hands . When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing mayhem is the result . A total change is required to restore a straightforward control and only a basic knowledge of what is required is essential . The errors that have and continue to be made are evidence enough that the BoE are not capable enough . Bailey must be sacked and a new regime put in place for accuracy and effective control to exist .
August 14, 2023
I have said this before – The Chancellor must have FULL control and responsibility. Lord’s Howe and Lawson did and it worked well.
August 13, 2023
BofE say they will keep interest high until 2026. This will kill the Conservative election chances.
Far from being independent, The BoE are now running the political system in the UK.
Rishi doesnât really care and will be off to the US as soon as he loses.
Welcome to globalism.
August 13, 2023
The APPARENT cost?!
APPARENTLY, peopleâs mortgage payments have doubled.
Another rib tickler. Are you appearing in Edinburgh this week?
August 13, 2023
BoE interest rate 5.25%, Lloyds, et al in the high street offer 1.5%.
So me, as Mr Lloyd Bank, can take a clients ÂŁ10,000 and loan it to the Government or an institution for say, a return of 5%. I pay my client ÂŁ150 per year in interest and in return for re-investing that money, I receive ÂŁ500 per year from my debtor. A profit margin of 233%.
Is it no wonder the High Street banks are rolling in the profits and at OUR loss of earnings?
It was bank debt that initiated the problems in 2007 and it was us tax payers who bailed them out. It is now pay-back time for us creditors because we need the money, desperately.
August 14, 2023
But surely you have to be a special kind of idiot to keep money in a bank paying 1.5%.
August 14, 2023
You may forget, many of the elderly ‘investors’ are bereft of mobile phones and PCs and the knowledge that goes with them.
They have very little choice, especially when the High Street banks seemingly have formed a cartel where their deposit rates are similar and provide no competition. Consequently, the vulnerable cannot place their money in better alternatives and they are the ones who suffer the most. But what do the banks care?
August 22, 2023
Derek, if you are unable to figure out that some Building Societies presently give a 5+% interest on an unlimited deposit for a year thatâs your loss. I wonder how you are able to access Sir Johnâs blog and not be able to look at rates offered on various sites
BTW there is such a Building Society offering such rates that still has plenty of branches nation wide.
August 13, 2023
Will Hutton’s piece in the guardian today sums up the crisis in this country . The headlines go “Let’s stop kidding ourselves we’re rich nation and get real ……. the UK’s gone bust”.
The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years and this country has never been in a worst place . The country needs to get on a firm footing again . More Investment is needed and stop selling our assets to foreign companies who take the profits without inward investment .
Which party is best suited to do this? Well as you know The Conservatives have failed the country is the last 13 years, will Labour be any better? And should Labour be given a chance now ? I feel the solution maybe a cross party venture to come up with a workable plan to get this country back on its feet . Who will be brave enough to setup the cross party?
August 14, 2023
I do believe the country was in a worse state during the 70’s under a Labour government. Having lived during that period, when we became the notorious, “Sick man of Europe”, I know why we voted to join the EEC.
However, we were conned then by the disgraceful conservative, (libdem version) PM Heath who was awarded ÂŁ30K by Brussels for his efforts to get us under their thumbs.
We’re currently in a bad place but not as bad as those times. Yet! But reverting to the corrective policies and economic principles of the 80s will get us out of the mire. If only Downing Street could see that.
August 13, 2023
Sir John, you say “These costs could be cut if the Bank stopped selling the bonds, waiting instead for their repayment when the losses would be smaller.” Could you PLEASE explain to us WHY it is selling these bonds at a loss? I would appreciate being enlightened on this!
August 13, 2023
Can I suggest why contributors are expresssing so much disatisfaction in the way we are being governed. Simplistically we are told we can only have Weetabix for breakfast, but being human we like variety and feel we are capable of making our own breakfast decisions. We instinctively fight against imposition. Current government, and waiting in the wings government, is all about imposition. Be it the death of ICE vehicles, tax imposition dressed up as ULEZ, the end of oil and gas boilers, or the sense of guilt imposed by flying to the Costas for a break; these are all about regimentation. Real leadership ensures that the alternative to any of the above is better and more desirable, and is therefore the logical free choice of the majority. Nothing on offer at the moment is better and can only be the choice of the wealthy or the zealot. The art of leadership/government is taking the people with you, not driving them to a cliff edge.
Almost everything government has done over its life and to date has impoverished our industry and the majority in it. Government itself is impoverished to the point of giving us some of the very worst public services imaginable for a supposedly first world country, which from experience it most assuredly is not. The majority of people are themselves impoverished due to this failure. The answer in 2024 is none of the above if the current incumbents are the only names on the ballot sheet.
August 13, 2023
Home Office data as at 12th August
Illegal Criminal Immigrants â 509
Illegal Small Boats â 10
âŠand no one saw them leaving France
âŠgood luck at the next election
August 13, 2023
+++
My Dadâs birthday 12th August.
(Also the opening of now under-green-threat grouse shootingâŠ..The Glorious Twelfth)
He gave up 7 years of his life to fight for the wealth of the Wealthy Few.
What a betrayal.
No gratitude!
August 13, 2023
I hope you mean good luck to Sir John, and not that shower of Governments he thought he should support all those long painful years ago?
August 13, 2023
When is the Tory government going to announce immediate plans to create the technology – along with / jointly with Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and Demark – to shoot down hypersonic missiles and other dangerous futuristic and deadly weapons – from Russia, China and North Korea. We need to do this mainly for security rrasons but will also have positive knock-on effects for the economy as well. Priority. Forget HS2.
August 13, 2023
There is a point where debt causes vulnerability to the borrower . loss of power ensues , however without borrowing the lender loses out due to loss of interest payments. What happens to the manoeuvres in between is your expertise John , but appearance has it that greed is taking preference to long sightedness.
August 13, 2023
Interestingly South Africa has reached this crisis point – following Rhodesia. They have brought the problem forward by enacting an Appropriation Act which does not include compensation, but indemnifies the Govt against mortgage claims. So the Mortgage of the seized property remains with the ex-owner, who being bankrupted, canât pay. The result is that property loses its value as security for mortgages and the Banks fail.
Once the Banks have failed the Central Bank/Govt prints money to plug the gap leading to hyperinflation.
Then itâs all over, see Venezuela. We are on the same road but taking the scenic route. The Government must be controlled!
August 13, 2023
All we need to do is to get BBC to promote the Reform UK party. To which comment I need to add a little smiley face.
August 13, 2023
John Hatfield
Hell will freeze over first.
August 13, 2023
The. Borrowing is a mouse compared to the elephant of hidden pension debts
August 13, 2023
All dwarfed by ‘legal’ routes.
August 14, 2023
In a few short years weâll be up to 3 trillion in debt. I wonder what will happen when the boat people (once cash disappears and tax cannot be avoided) realise they have moved here to take on a share of massive debts. Maybe theyâll go home. Of course half a million people a year are saying âno thanksâ to paying the high taxes here and are moving abroad.
As the country empties there wonât be anyone left to pay back all the money. In 50 years time the powers that be will be begging people to âmove to the UK for your chance to help pay back our national debt. Out country needs you!â