Inflation rose sharply last month to 2.3%. 4 months into the new government and growth has tumbled from 0.5% to 0.1% a quarter. Inflation has risen from the target level of 2% they inherited.
Itās true it is still relatively early days for the government. They have used up Ā just 7% of their maximum stay pre election so far. The problem is they now need faster growth to make up for the loss to date, and lower inflation. The higher inflation should impede the Bank from cutting interest rates faster.
The inflation was primarily their decision to use the regulatory system to put up fuel bills a lot instead of changing the system or cutting fuel taxes. Indeed the government is wedded to dearer energy. It has increased the tax Ā on oil and gas, demanded we extract less to keep domestic gas prices up, and backed more renewables which need carbon taxes and subsidies to get them started. Far from cutting our bills by Ā£300 their policy means dearer energy .
Putting up public sector wages without productivity deals is also inflationary. I am all in favour of people being Ā better paid, Ā but Ā if you are to be paid more you need to help your employer work smarter and win more business. In the public sector you need to help drive other costs down.
Wes Streeting does Ā talk about NHS reform. He needs to get on with it. Yvette Cooper talks of stopping the boats to cut pressures on hotels and house rents, but so far has allowed numbers and bills to go up. Controlling inflation requires better control of government costs including the runaway nationalised trains and ultimate bad bond investor, the Bank of England.
November 21, 2024
They’ve raised the cost of our energy, the domestic energy cap is going to move up again shortly so we will get a direct visible hit on our pockets as the weather turns cold, and Christmas (with all its calls on household spending) is near. The government is going to be even less popular. The cries that it is all the Tories’ fault (partly true…Nut Zero) will fall on deaf ears.
What’s good is that more people will realise what a con Climate Change is, especially if Trump arrives safely in the Oval Office in January and again describes it all as a “hoax”. Already I hear more people here expressing doubt about the whole green scam.
If the US provides a leadership example of a nation prepared to fight for its own -rather than globalist – interests, that will make even more people here hanker after an alternative to our major Parties’ offerings and platitudes.
Reply This government has a huge majority. It could by now have repealed any law and changed any policy it inherited. I tried to get big changes in the last governmentās net zero policies and did help reverse the ban on getting out our own oil and gas. Labour reverted to the ban.
November 21, 2024
Nearly everything the Tories did for 14 years was a total tax borrow and piss down the drain disaster & yet Tedious Starmer, Moron Miliband & tax to death Reeves are far worse still. Inflation up investment down, rich and hard working people leaving and the Reeves budget has not even really hit inflation and the economy much yet. Miliband energy lunacy will get far worse too.
A top chap from GB energy interviewed on PM yesterday. What a load of meaningless waffle. What on earth is GBEnergy actually going to do – he certainly did not have a clue.
November 21, 2024
Perhaps they are giving hime a Sue Grey type job, which she found out did not really exist.
Just another layer of bureaucracy, is GB energy going to actually produce any new energy, or just purchase it on the open market like all the others.
Heard lots of thoughts and waffle, but nothing of any substance, or have I missed something.
November 21, 2024
No GB Energy won’t be producing any energy. It’s a new bureaucracy – all it will produce are rules and regulations …. and a huge Bill for taxpayers.
November 21, 2024
It will be the biggest most costly qaungo of all time
November 21, 2024
All is going to plan
Debauching the currency, pricing us out of using gas and electricity, inflation eroding our savings .
All out if the Marxist playbook.
Cooper will do nothing to stop th boats, Trump will expose the lie with revealing the green scam legislation and mass deportations.
Britain will become the poster boy on how politicians willingly destroyed a country.
We must all get behind the farmers and vote Reform at every opportunity.
It’s happening all over Europe.
November 21, 2024
Debauching the currency has nothing to do with Marxism-it has happened throughout the history of money.One of the reasons the western Roman Empire fell was the total debasement of its ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ coinage.The Chinese were the first to introduce paper money -and lost faith in it when it was debauched-returning to the silver standard.
It’s what fading/failing states/empires do when they cannot match income with expenditure.
November 21, 2024
I agree with that Ian!
by the way, well said last night on Reece Mogg Sir john.
November 21, 2024
R to R
This rabble of a government lack the intellect or business involvement to have any clue as to what to repeal or do. Their preference is to hang on the tail of an heretical religion, nett zero.
November 21, 2024
They only need the level of intellect necessary to follow Orders. Which is what they’re doing.
November 21, 2024
Yesterday peak electricity demand was 45gw heading into the orange zone
Luckily there was a decent wind so we were able to cope.
Today the wind is abating gas and nuclear are supplying 63% of demand.
Where does the idiot in government intend to replenish that 63%, when it’s gone
November 21, 2024
@Ian Wragg; “Where does the idiot in government intend to replenish that 63% [gas/nuclear], when itās gone”
It will be replaced with bought-in energy via the European-UK interconnects, in other words electricity generated by French nuclear, Norwegian Gas, German (brown) coal, most likely.
The Labour Party, especially their most europhile members, have called for a much close relationship with the EU…
November 21, 2024
The Norwegians only have hydro generation to all intents and purposes. There is a limited maximum that they can generate, and in any case they have to be careful not to run down the reservoirs too fast over the winter before the next snowmelt. They also have connections to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. They refused to proceed with a new interconnector to Scotland. They have already found ways to limit their exports when supply looks tight.
Ireland forbade exports, yet the new Greenlink interconnector is well positioned to snaffle power from Pembroke CCGT station which it links to. France and the EU have made clear that they view access to power supplies and markets is something they can leverage time and again to dictate UK policy and concessions e.g. on fishing, but add asylum seekers, defence and anything else that bothers them.
November 21, 2024
@Mark; I was being somewhat sarcastic in my comment, but thanks for the info!
So no Norwegian Gas, but that doesn’t exclude another nation burning imported gas, either via pipe or LNG, and then supplying the UK via the interconnects – not sure what is happening with regards the planning application but there has been talk of a new interconnect between Hampshire and French coasts.
November 21, 2024
Eurostat data apparently shows that Russia,through a combination of pipeline and LNG, once again became the EU’s biggest gas supplier in September -for the first time since spring 2022.
But the Sirius Report tweets out,19/11/24:
“Europe should be very concerned.The new Russia-China gas pipeline has completed the final commissioning stage of the 5,000km eastern route pipe.It will supply 38bn cubic metres of gas annually.”
November 21, 2024
Milliband – We can always buy energy from europe, no matter the expensive or cost
November 21, 2024
Good morning.
I have never believed the inflation figures. They do not reflect the bills and services I have to pay. For example, my mobile phone bill will rise by 30% next year.
But as far as National and Local Governments are concerned, the pips are not sqeeking enough !
November 21, 2024
How will your mobile phone bill rise by 30% next year? Will your usage stay the same?
November 21, 2024
It is very difficult to understand the Labour government’s energy policy. Having lied about reducing electricity bills by Ā£300 a year putting Miliband in charge has led immediately to higher energy prices – and for what? Industry closes down and will be driven abroad. “Green jobs” are created in China. Even though Labour recognise we still need oil and gas, they refuse to contemplate extracting from our own resources and prefer to import. They are increasingly relying om importation of electricity through the interconnectors with Europe without any guarantees that it will continue to flow when everyone is short of power. They will blight our countryside with solar farms, wind turbines and pylons to the detriment of food production.
They claim to be leading the world in decarbonisation, but no one is following. A rational mind would understand that, even if CO2 controlled the climate, reducing the UK’s 1% would make no difference.
It is a form of collective madness driven by a green religion.
And all
November 21, 2024
Carbon accounting is the fan behind which the UK dances in the net zero tease.
Carbon accounting schemes should be banned.
November 21, 2024
+1
November 21, 2024
Absolutely correct, they are stagnating the economy, increasing public sector costs and burdoning industry, while claiming it is a one time fix for a black hole that government bodies claim did not exist until Labour began spending. Their presence in power is wholley down to an economically timid, so called conservative government of previous years. One unprepared or inclined to unshackle us from the EU comfort blanket.
Here I offer some radical thinking. Increase the retirement pension to Ā£20,000 from the current average Ā£9500 then eliminate all the dependency payments and extra allowances along with the army of scribes that administer them. Lift the starting tax rate to around Ā£15,000 so that those at the lower end of earning a wage do not need subsidy, and a tranche of scribes can leave HMRC. Assess what that might do for economic activity. Then lift the burdons on start ups by removing IR35 and upping the VAT threshold to Ā£500,000. Reduce VAT overall to 15%, still a high figure for spending already taxed income.
Add Rasputin to Guy Fawkes for bonfire night, and drill baby drill for energy till it goes out of fashion. Better financial minds than mine need to be applied to the above principle, but you have the direction.
November 21, 2024
+1 Agricola. I’d reduce VAT to 10% then see whether receipts actually fell. With less incentive to evade the tax, and some savings being passed back to consumers thus encouraging more expenditure, who knows?
Also scrap tax returns for the self employed who earn less than your proposed Ā£15,000 income tax threshold. Currently you’re supposed to do a tax return if you earn over Ā£1000 from self employment in the year. That would save a few jobs in HMRC and encourage more people to take up legit self employment.
November 21, 2024
The ‘scribes’ seem almost to have vanished from the HMRC already.The personal counters(where you could actually speak to someone)disappeared a long time ago,my nearest tax office(Birmingham)closed completely a couple of years ago,for four telephone calls I made earlier this year I had to wait between 35 and 65 minutes for the call to be answered and I am still waiting for a reply to a letter I sent in June.
November 21, 2024
There is plenty to criticise this dogmatic administration for but holding them responsible for inflation rising at this time is not one of them. The gas and electricity prices going down is what saved the Conservatives from their own inflation nightmare (note could have massively reduced green levies to do more about that at the time) and Labour has been hit by gas and electricity prices going up again which has spiked inflation.
I would applaud Labour for removing the green levies to save us all money and stop it going into the pockets of the few, they could also remove the tie for renewable prices to gas and save us all a few quid. But let us not pretend that all parties bar reform support the levies and the price matching.
Labour is responsible for talking down the economy since they slid into power and the budget delivered by Rachel from the PPI claims team will not help growth. Their pay awards to public sector workers (and the consequences for final salary pension schemes) will stoke inflation in the future.
November 21, 2024
Renewables prices aren’t much tied to gas. All the production via CFDs costs whatever the index linked strike price is on each CFD. The average of those currently is over Ā£150/MWh. Small volumes on even more costly Feed in Tariffs also get inflation linked fixed prices. Almost all the rest is subsidised by ROCs which are worth almost Ā£100/MWh on average. All renewables also attract a bonus from REGO greenwash certificates, trading at Ā£10-15/MWh according to Drax recently.
Open market prices are now set by gas only about half the time at most. When supply is tight, prices are set by demand rationing, often reflecting the cost of securing supply via interconnectors at the expense of industry somewhere. When renewables are producing excess volumes they become the price setters, with the cost of curtailment set by the subsidies they forego. The greater the required curtailment the higher the cost to cover sufficient volume.
November 22, 2024
Thank you for the details Mark, useful to know.
The fact remains that renewables are supposed to be “free” so should be charged at a lower rate than gas or electricity generated from fossil fuels. That is how to convince the market they are worthwhile. As it stands we are being rinsed by subsidies and green levies.
November 21, 2024
It will get worse. The Reeves budget will drive up the costs of businesses, stunt growth and cash flows, reduce capital expenditures and raise the risk profile of investing in the UK. For most survival will be the name of the game. A few will seek escape to more business friendly climes. Others will shut up shop. Some will go bust. The UK can expect five years of net zero growth or worse.
November 21, 2024
Others will look at the obstacles to becoming an employer and keep their business small. The next generation of plumbers, electricians, builders etc won’t be trained.
November 21, 2024
Unprecedented numbers of traders using break clauses in leases and closing businesses down early. Government can forget income from business rates – the owners have to pay the business rates of unoccupied properties but they are taking to roofs off instead.
This is going to be one almighty crash.
November 21, 2024
Four months in and this is the worst start by any UK government in my lifetime. If only His Majesty’s official Opposition would do or say something ………….
November 21, 2024
@OA; Indeed, but what can His Majestyās official Opposition say or, more importantly. do. Such was their routing, at the hands of Reform (handing otherwise safe Tory seats to Labour or the LibDems), even if the Parliamentary Conservative Party find a way of working with the other large opposition parties such is the Labour majority all they can do is “say something”, Labour will still *do* as they please, especially once they have further neutered the HoLs.
November 21, 2024
It will be interesting to watch the trump admin which plans to move in diametrically the opposite direction to Labour in the U.K. come the next election perhaps Kemi should propose an Elon & Vivek style team to take down the UKās blob and cut out all the waste.
November 21, 2024
Is that any surprise given the inept policies of labour?
Tax rises have surely made basic living more expensive – the food shopping bill goes up every week on the back of expected food shortages and attacks on home farmed produce.
Do labour have any idea of how inflation could come down – no point in expecting the BoE to do anything useful about this – No doubt, like King Midas trying to demand the tide halts, they will legislate to demand that that inflation slows down. Something impossible given their economic ideology.
Or will they change the formula again to make it look like inflation is not a problem.
November 21, 2024
Do they even know what causes inflation? Some of them appear to think itās caused by greedy businesses, and when inflation falls itās due to businesses becoming less greedy. If they really believe that then we have an assortment of morons in charge.
November 21, 2024
Midas was gold, Canute the tide.
November 21, 2024
Bryan Harris – you would have thought they would have learnt from Hunt & Sunak, that when you cause a rise in costs you cause inflation. But then again learning from Hunt & Sunak, inflation drops exponentially if you do not add to cost in the run up to an election. No one every relates to the relative position, a 70 year high in tax and borrowing that then drop marginally is still greater spin than the abject failure the reality is. Starmer & Reeves are working to the Hunt & Sunak play-book just with more ideological zeal
November 21, 2024
The retail and hospitality sectors cannot afford the triple whammy in the Budget:
1. Increase in minimum wage
2. Increase in Employer NI
3. Halving the rate at which Employer NI kicks in, which makes part-time employment (which these sectors rely on) completely uneconomic – and that in turn will increase unemployment because many people who are working part-time in these sectors will not be able to work full-time for personal reasons and/or will not be able to transfer to other sectors.
They appear to be deliberately killing off the private businesses which managed to survive the Covid Tyranny.
Their economic policies are creating 1970s-style Stagflation; their proposed TU “reforms” will encourage 1970s-style union militancy; and Red Ed’s Net Zero lunacy will almost certainly result in blackouts.
Where are T Rex, Slade, Bowie etc when you need them?
November 21, 2024
Itās not just private business. The corporates are closing down too.
November 21, 2024
True but many of them have a bit more cushion than smaller, private businesses.
November 21, 2024
@Donna; “They appear to be deliberately killing off the private businesses which managed to survive the Covid Tyranny.”
What Tyranny was that, given many other countries had far stricter lock-downs etc but have largely returned to pre Covid levels of economic activity, along with pre Covid levels of employment.
“Where are T Rex, Slade, Bowie etc when you need them?”
All so very *pre* 1974, duh. š
But yes, we will be dusting off our ABBA, Blondie, Boom Town Rats, Brotherhood of man etc. albums soon, reminiscing about how life was oh so much better in the late 1970s, far less Woke, and the power-cuts were shorter too!
November 22, 2024
“You won’t fool the children of the revolution”
November 22, 2024
@Mitchel; Except Reform did exactly that on July 4th 2024, they fooled their “children of the revolutionā, thus we now have the most left-wing govt since 1945, perhaps ever… š”
November 23, 2024
Personally,I wasn’t thinking of Reform as ‘the children of the revolution’-quite the opposite-their leaders are charlatans.
November 21, 2024
A friend of mine who had solar panels installed on his roof back in the summer has gone very quiet when asked how happy he is with them now. The recent cloudy and still weather conditions seem to have caused many proponents of renewables to lose their voices. Thank goodness the government are reducing restrictions on noise from heat pumps as the constant loud buzzing may drown out the whining of the NZ propagandists!
November 21, 2024
How can railways not be a 7 day industry paying extra for weekend working. I spent a large ammount of my working life in hotel industry 7 dsys was the norm.
November 21, 2024
Every so often a comment just fails to appear after posting it – rather than showing the comments, it takes the view to the top of the page, and comments are nowhere to be seen.
Is there some sort of word search going on to prevent publishing or is the content checked for ideas as well.
It would be useful to know if such rules exist and what they are?
November 21, 2024
I find that if that happens, I can try a backarrow to get to the comment I had tried to submit and try submitting it again. If you get a message “Duplicate comment detected ” you can be sure it went through the first time. Comments you make that are shown as “Awaiting moderation” cease to be visible if you submit another comment. Only the most recent comment is shown. I guess sometimes the software glitches and thinks you have already submitted another comment.
November 22, 2024
@Mark Thanks – I’ve tried all that, even changed some of the words so it doesn’t register as a duplicate, but always the same result — flips to the start of the page with no sign of my comments even after a refresh.
November 21, 2024
A suggestion of stagflation – slow growth, rising prices and (not much mentioned but a potential big problem for Labour later in their reign) rising unemployment.
Agree on Streeting – he talks a good game but as I understand it NHS “reform” is now subject to a year-long consultation. This means it will never happen, the health unions and his own back-benchers will see to that, he should have had a plan worked out and ready to go on Day One.
November 21, 2024
Is anyone surprised?
Then add in, new figures from the Office for National Statistics show the government borrowed Ā£17.4 billion last month to pay for heightened spending. Ā£4 billion more than forecast and the second highest October figure since records started in 1993ā¦
Add in, the latest Labour contrived report, with support from Andrew Bailey that the UK must embedded more EU Laws, rules and regulations in the UK to become more aligned.
Central to the realignment is the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, Significantly, the bill enables such regulations to be adopted via statutory instruments rather than primary legislation, which significantly limits Parliamentās ability to scrutinise substantial regulatory changes.
So we know which way the UK is heading, dragged straight under the yoke of the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats that TwoTierKier loves, dismissing Parliament on the way
November 21, 2024
The defence Budget is slashed by Ā£500million. 2TK’s buddies Russia and China will never be a threat. Meanwhile the State keeps growing and spending on itself, no control on staffing, just growth, more and higher wages, more protected pensions and more of nothing being achieved. The NHS has grown exponentially yet the service has declined, there is no one managing just talking, more and more high paid administrators, less and less clinical staff. A massive MOD section of the Civil Service that is still growing while the front-line is being depreciated.
November 21, 2024
As ever and as expected, prior to the election, Labour are saying what they will do but never deliver.
I hope the Tory Party has learned the painful lesson meted out to them at the Election.
If they had done just some of the things joe/jane Public wanted them to do, in the past eight years they would still be in office.
Labour were always just a necessary punishment delivered by the electorate for their failure and lies.
Everyone knew Labour would be worse, but the lesson had to be delivered to the arrogant deaf political class in charge back then.
It is early days but so far everything is going exactly as predicted, right down to front bench cabinet ministers likely brief period in office. It will be remarkable if Reeves is still in place come Christmas.
As for Lammy?
November 21, 2024
From the MsM – “Reeves drives building projects to 12-year low with Budget raid”
November 21, 2024
Don’t you just ‘Love It’ “Royal Mail has warned it will have to raise prices after taking a Ā£120m hit from Rachel Reevesās Budget tax raid.”
November 21, 2024
As will nearly every other company in the UK if their customers will bear it. The others will just go bust!
November 21, 2024
I saw they were trying to get excuses in for why they will fail to meet Angela Rayner’s housebuilding target. It’s obvious they don’t understand the resource constraints, the effects of higher mortgage rates on affordability, the effects of higher costs on profitability and thus willingness to start new projects, and the undesirable nature of net zero compliant designs.
November 22, 2024
Houses with heat pumps seem to be almost unsaleable.
November 21, 2024
Inflation can be the cause of different problems, but they all relate to us having less money in our pockets.
We may think that our private pensions schemes are safe, secure and will be paid without doubt. Beware however that inflation will attack this in several ways.
Parent companies already have to subsidise private pension funds, and this will only get worse and more painful as inflation bites and companies struggle.
Not so long ago, before labour spitefully changed the tax rules, we had pension funds that were the envy of the world and very powerful investors, but not any more, many are running funds well below optimum.
Our chancellor already has been eyeing the funds as a form of investment, but she hasn’t said what else she will do to reduce their value. Labour cannot be trusted with our economy, nor our pensions. Their policies will see our futures destroyed in every possible way if we allow them to carry on.
November 21, 2024
Labour party! what a bunch of useless beings , not an ounce of intelligence between them.
Just as they allow the foreign lowlife of Ukraine to attack Russia with British made and supplied rocketsā they announce a very large cut in our Defence!
It almost a thought they are going to hand us over to Starmers commie mates!
November 21, 2024
@MFD – 2TK’s team as good mates and disciples of those with a Marxist bent see no threat from China or Russia so why would they keep to election promises of increase defence spending as a percentage of GDP. It is better to grow the State give more money to those that could support them with higher wages and better pensions
November 21, 2024
There is no threat from China or Russia-which state would be interested in taking over the UK-it’s just a heap of liabilities?They are both focussed on the Global South-that’s where the future lies.
Interesting optics at the weekend.The G20 family photo featured the BRICS as the centre front row(Erdogan-Modi-Lula-Ramaphosa-Xi Jinping),with Macron,Scholz and the new Japanese PM immediately behind them.Starmer was somewhere off to the right,and Ursula vdL and Charles Michel right at back to the left.Meloni and Trudeau weren’t there -apparently they didn’t want to be in the same photo as Sergei Lavrov and Joe Biden was missing-he wandered off into the Brazilian jungle after getting confused during his press conference and they couldn’t hold the photo up any longer!
Even better was Biden’s arrival in Lima for the APAC summit a few days before.Xi Jinping had received a red carpet welcome,flowers and a guard of honour;Biden got no red carpet,no flowers and a single greeter on the Tarmac.
The times they are a-changing!
November 21, 2024
The fall of the west is tragic. For 500 years we made the world a very much better place.
Putin is in for a geopolitical shock.
November 21, 2024
Compared to the last conservative government’s 11.3% inflation at its peak, an increase to 2.3% is not that serious. But it is a clear warning that the Labour government does not have a clue. They have no idea how the budget will affect inflation, and it will, and no idea how to have cheap, reliable energy while their pursuit of Net Zero will also cause inflation, and they have now upset the Farmers on whom we rely for about 65 to 70% of UK food supply.
We now know the Chancellor was economical with the truth on her CV, what a surprise. The budget told us she did not have a clue how to grow the economy.
Less than 6 months in, and they are a complete shambles. I thought Sunak and Hunt were bad, but this lot makes them look competent. Just a pity neither of them was a conservative. Vote Reform!
November 21, 2024
@Keith from Leeds – Yup, we cant let those that forced this situation on us off the hook, the previous faction of the Uniparty lifted tax and borrowing to the highest level seen in 70 odd years. Just because a more zealous faction of the same has been rewarded power with just around 1 in 5 of the electorate supporting them is all down to the failures of the previous incumbents. Now they continue to insult us by voting for continuity, the same guiding forces involved in failure therefore they are wanting more of the same failures. I don’t know about others, but I just hoped we could see a Conservative Party on the horizon.
November 21, 2024
None of the ‘hard’ decisions involve cutting immigration, public sector reform, public sector wage rises with efficiencies, getting our energy policy right.
‘Hard’ is all about hammering pensioners, farmers, private sector businesses and those with assets.
We’re going down. There’s no stopping it.
November 21, 2024
Trump rightly talking about proper missile defensive system for the USA – like the Israelis. Why aren’t Tories having more discussion like this for the UK when you have loons, in political sense, like Putin with hypersonic missiles and others with drones that can be devastating.
Also, creating this defensive tech would boost our tech industry in general – as well as not being a sitting duck.
November 21, 2024
Let’s have discussions about putting up a barrier against immigration. But what about a barrier against hostile modern weapons? For every 1000 times you hear about immigration you might hear something about putting up a barrier against hostile weapons. But what happens if we do get immigration right down (great) but we’re a sitting duck for some foreign, hostile loon, in a political sense, with hypersonic missiles and huge clusters of sophisticated drones aimed at the UK. Got to think big!
November 21, 2024
The Israeli system isn’t that effective-the Iranians showed that recently.That’s why they demanded the US send the THAAD system,(which non-partisan military analysts say isn’t any better).
Do keep up!
November 21, 2024
Iranās system isnāt that great either, as the Israelis recently demonstrated.
Basically defence is incredibly difficult.
November 21, 2024
Fair enough ..
One thing I like about Trump (a few things i like about him) is that he’s anti war and pro defence (wanting to build up strong tech defence system). Although I think he should take up a strong stance against Putin. Whether it’s right or wrong for Putin to take bits of Ukraine, appeasing him will only encourage him to be aggressive in others ways. Putin had so much opportunity to make Russia great by focusing on its economy but he’s blown his legacy by this disastrous war in Ukraine (and other things). Putin is great at tactics but useless at strategy / overall vision for Russia. And highly unpredictable and relatively dangerous to the West.
November 21, 2024
The new Jaguar logo doesn’t look great. But maybe they’re trying to redirect and rebrand Jaguar into producing luxurious (to a degree) and reliable (to a strong degree) cars but at reasonable price that far more people can afford compared to Jaguars in the past. If so, good thinking!
November 21, 2024
@Ed M – as an Indian Company, maybe they will follow suit as they do with their land Rover ‘mark’ and make the originals in India, the would still be RH Drive. After all the jaguar i-Pace is built by contract the manufacturer Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Their current best selling land Rover the Defender is made Slovakia along with the Discovery, while the others in the range also come from India, Brazil.
The much touted batteries from Somerset for the new electric fleet funded by the UK Taxpayer are in fact from what is loosely called a Chinese Partner. Taxpayer money leaving the Country once more.
It is not a UK Company, historical ties, and history no longer has meaning once the name and its earning leave the Country. Lotus went the same way, considered English, designed and built in China.
The UK or at least its Governments loves to export UK jobs, manufacturing and therefore its wealth. They punish UK enterprise and ingenuity forcing them to be sold abroad.
November 21, 2024
Well said. Something similar with that big UK IT company (ARM if I remember correctly – something like that) that was sold off to the Japanese (I think it was) under Theresa May.
The thrill of setting up a high quality British brand is NOT money. Money is great. But the real thrill is the adventure and exhilaration of setting up a quality brand that can be exported abtoad and that provides great, high quality jobs to people back home in the UK (the Brits are naturally hard working and loyal workers but they want quality, interesting, British brands to work hard for and be loyal to!).
November 22, 2024
@Ed M – ARM a massive World Player, needed by the whole of a modern world of mobile devices. I don’t know today’s figures but it used to be somewhere north of 95% of the world needed them. Its as if May and her crony council was to pre-occupied with cancelling by exporting UK Wealth and future so they could all preen their own self esteem. They refused their job, as those that followed have. The danger is these individuals are still there manipulating our future
November 21, 2024
Also, we need to imbue more of Quaker work ethic into our economy! My family had a bit of money. But the Catholics and Anglicans in my family spent most of it. Most of the little family money we have today comes from the Quakers in our family going back over time who worked hard creating some great brands and not spending all their money. God bless the Quakers (even though I’m half Catholic / half Anglican)!
November 21, 2024
What is clear from the chattering in the Media is that the Government this labour Government, with 2TierKier and Rachel Reeves, rather than engaged or just talk to people they have maliciously attacked with their ideological terrorism, they have upped the proper-gander via their mouth piece the BBC.
Rather than engage, show the proof behind their stance they appear to be repeating one lie after another to cover up the previous lie. They are using the BBC to play with words rather than fact. They are discrediting the Country and its People.
November 21, 2024
The BBC working to this agenda is trying to sway their followers off some of the Social Media Channels on to a new Left Wing agenda outlet. They fear āfree-speechā. The point of free-speech is that thoughts and feelings can come out and when there is disagreement another view is offered, preferable with āfactsā. The BBC as the mouth piece of the State fights that, it fights the truth when it doesnāt suit its agenda.
The āAgendaā is everything, the Country, the People and the truth mustnāt get in the way of the āAgendaā
November 21, 2024
OK, got it wrong. Research shows Jaguar trying to go even more upmarket. The opposite of what I thought. Might work. Good luck. But the UK still needs a company making relatively up-market cars that are reliable and affordable for many drivers not just a few like German cars.
November 21, 2024
Check out the new launch video ad from Jaguar ( itās all over Twitter). They are finished.
November 21, 2024
āFar from cutting our bills by Ā£300 their policy means dearer energyā Then in their extreme Marxist attack on the People of this Country at no time did they talk about all the tax, levies and subsidies that are being piled into their sponsors and foreign Governments. These are the additional amounts over and above the energy bill everyone in the UK is saddled with just to enjoy the most expensive energy out of our competing Nations.
In some instances, we are already paying 50% more and in the extremeās 400% more than in other Countries. So, for Ā£300 saving to have meaning it would have to be off the median cost for energy against those we compete with, not off an already over inflated cost.
Although this Labour Government being wagged by the Zealot RedEd and his sponsors, we mustnāt let is pass us by, this terrorism against the Country and its People was instigated by Mrs May and Parliament, continued and upped by Johnson and Sunak. The system, the structure is rotten, Parliamentarians are no longer serving those that empower and pay them, but conceivably personal ego and foreign master.
November 21, 2024
I haven’t as such moved to backing ‘Reform’, but no one can deny our structures and systems need a massive dose of ‘Reform’. 5 year terms in office without seeking any sort of confirmation from the electorate is a distortion to democracy. What other free sovereign state treats their people with that sort off contempt?
November 21, 2024
@ Ian B “What other free sovereign state treats their people with that sort off contempt?” – most of them.
As Churchill said to Roosevelt and Stalin (iirc at Yalta), he (and his government) was the only one of the three who could be dismissed in an instant on the motion of the people’s elected representatives.
November 21, 2024
@formula57 – that was then and it seems that’s is why it was changed to a forced 5 Years regardless of performance and the requirements of the Country and its People.
November 21, 2024
Inflation, taxes, immigration, energy costs and national debt all up. Growth and public sector productivity both down. For a majority in our Uniparty Parliament it is all going to plan. Theyāre determined to destroy the prosperity of the country using the false CAGW narrative and its Net Zero āsolutionā to sabotage our energy pretending that a unilateral commitment to reduce our CO2 emissions by 81% by 2035 will somehow save the planet from extinction.
It is not necessary to study the science to understand that climate alarmism is simply a modern doomsday cult. It is only necessary to check the facts on climate history and extreme weather to realise that CAGW caused by increasing atmospheric CO2 caused in turn by burning hydrocarbon fuels is complete nonsense.
November 21, 2024
PS :
The Government claims that offshore wind and solar renewables will make our energy āsecureā. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we read that āDamage to two undersea fibre-optic communication cables in the Baltic Seaāone between Lithuania and Sweden, and the other between Finland and Germanyāshould be regarded as sabotage, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday (19/11/2024)ā, together with the blowing up of Nord Stream 2, it is clear that our hundreds of thousands of Chinese supplied offshore wind turbines covering thousands of aquare kilometres of te North Sea, thousands of kilometres of undersea cabling and large areas of Chinese supplied solar panels are totally un-protectable by our depleted armed services.
November 21, 2024
A bad start, set to get worse, from the “economist by trade”.
As for “Yvette Cooper talks of stopping the boats…” let us recall that so did Pritti Patel, who was “absolutely determined” in that regard.
November 21, 2024
I like to use the other inflation gauge which is better at 3.3 per cent.
I cannot see how energy is adding inflation as it is cheaper this year than last year, I think you find that it household costs that are rising, mortgage, rents and property rates, along with things.
Reply Energy rises have just gone up 10%. The impact on the index comes from base effects as well.
November 21, 2024
…and yet the world price of crude oil is stable and/or lower and shale gas is very cheap …the only expensive energy is ‘renewable’
November 21, 2024
and coal is dirt cheap, thats why they’re using billions of tonnes of it in China, India and Russia
November 22, 2024
Though Russia’s coal consumption is slowly declining (4.12 exajoules in 2012,3.83 in 2023),as they close old coal power stations (when they come to the end of their effective economic life) and replace them with gas or nuclear.A trend which should continue.They are very happy to export as much as they can though.
November 21, 2024
The employer NI increases will cause private sector employers to reduce staff either by direct redundancies or by recruitment freezes and they may also increase automation and hence productivity. However in parts of the public sector where such moves would be positive they wonāt happen because the government is increasing budgets to cover the NI. GPs are due to get a bung for that purpose next year to preserve their massive salaries, pensions, and short working week – an area where AI could and should be used in parallel with the existing staff.
November 21, 2024
A real Government working for those that empowered and paid them would first manage themselves then the State. They would control what they spent of other Peopleās Money (it is never their money), ensuring a return a re-investable return.
They would create the framework where everyone could achieve their full potential, they wouldnāt entertain the provable failed dream that a government with no experience of achieving could do better than those with a proven track record of doing so. By releasing the millions of hard workers this country has, the government in return would receive taxes that are result of real earnings – a result of, not a punsihment. Tax just taken as now, is taken from the market, it is money removed from the economy which reduces the economy and increase costs.
A concept this Century our Political Numpties have failed to grasp as they have been obsessed with āselfā they keep proving they all induce failure.
As it is said by āJames Carvilleā and also proven time and time again āitās the economy stupidā. Money moving around the economy is money creating an economy, growing it making it a healthy economy. Money removed from the economy, is the āseed-cornā and life blood removed from the economy ā killing the economy.
November 21, 2024
Emergency address by Putin 1700 hrs GMT.
š·šŗā”ļøRussia considers itself entitled to use weapons against facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russian facilities, Putin said.
āIn the event of escalation, Russia will respond decisively and in kind,ā Putin said.
Basically we are at war with Russia.
November 21, 2024
āIndeed the government is wedded to dearer energy.ā
NESOās āClean power 2030ā report prepared for the SoS of DESNZ and the CEO of Mission Control has costed the dash to decarbonise our electricity by 2030 at āĀ£40bn or more annuallyā (P6 and elsewhere). This is very likely to be an āHS2ā type of estimate and NESO warn that if just one element of their recommendations fails to materialise then the decarbonisation venture will fail.
https://www.neso.energy/document/346651/download
November 21, 2024
Inflation in the UK has been largely contrived by the price of energy whether petrol at the pump or oil and gas charges at home or for businesses. The figment of inflation has encouraged wages demands to go through the roof compounding the problem. This is a set of problems Labour inherited from Rishi and was a cackhanded attempt to reflate the treasury post COVID. In reality growth is non existent. We have been enduring stagflation, and we now need to cut rates fast before we lose all impetus the workforce to turn up. Entrepreneur will be removed from the English lexicon unless we can reduce the cost of capital and reignite real growth in the UK. The disgraceful failure to reboot the British Business Bank, which needs root and branch reform after the COVID loans fiasco and the failure to channel sufficient tax payers dollars into UK companies also means that Labour have no real grasp of problem. Investment by UK public pension into private equity, infrastructure and UK equities needs to be mandated, as the pension fund managers have shown themselves to be entirely incompetent to the extent their ineptitude nearly trashed the economy not Liz Truss.
November 22, 2024
To stop inflation firms need to have faith in the Government of the day. I cannot see any faith with the Labour Government as it has started out. Needs to learn about the working people (and I mean the shop workers, farmers and their workers etc) who are at the mercy of governments and their planning which is not good at present. No one will spend money if they are worried about the bills coming in next year. It will be interesting to see how profits go this Christmas as I can see people staying at home and not spending. I am getting worried about holidays next year. If they penalise second home owners where will the cottages be for us to rent in the summer months?
November 22, 2024
Obvious inflationary pressures were already showing themselves before the BoE lowered interest rates earlier this month, as reported by leading financial journalists and economists. But the MPC does not do anything other than mild hindsight and even more casual foresight, so they just ticked the ‘lower rate’ box expected of them.
Read the minutes and weep – they were operating with August ‘predictions’ of one-year growth, apparently straight out of the Treasury Optimism Statistic Horizon (I’ll leave you to guess the acronym).
It was all just more sly smoke and mirrors from the usual quarter. Almost as if Bailey obligingly intended to lower Labour government borrowing rates and shaft middle-class savers, lower spending power, and keep mortgages high.
As the little girl said on passing a bowler-hatted City type in the street: ‘Mummy, what is that man for?