Was there anything sensible in the OBR forecast? They were probably right to push their growth forecast down to nearer the consensus at 1.1% for this year, and to increase their unemployment forecast to 5.3%. Most were assuming this from private sector forecasts anyway.
They forecast that inflation will be at the target level of 2% in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. That would be highly unusual. One of its foundations is their forecast that oil prices over those years will stay within a narrow range of around $62-68. That is also unlikely.
They assume that housebuilding will boom from the current 220,000 a year to hit 300,000 a year by 2029-30. So by the last year of this Parliament housebuilding will at last have reached the annual run rate the government promised, but will of course have fallen well short of the 1.5m target over the 5 years. There is no obvious reason to forecast such a big rise.
They think base rate will start to rise again from next year. They also expect the average government borrowing rate to hit a crippling 5.2% in 2029/30, up from 4.4% this year. This is not a background for more home purchase. It will confirm it has always been dearer for Reeves to borrow than the previous government.
They do make some plausible forecasts. They say the tax burden which was 38.8% of GDP in the last Conservative year will hit a terrifying 42.5% in 2029/30. That’s a 12% real increase in tax bills.
They expect gas production in the UK to halve (2030/31 on 2024/5) as a result of the manic close down our industry policy. They expect welfare spending to surge by £75 bn or 24%.
They estimate Bank of England losses to be paid for by taxpayers at £89 bn between 2025/6 and 2029/30! Still they do nothing to reduce them.
March 5, 2026
Indeed surely correct and all hugely depressing. This on top of Starmer, Lammy’s and it seem mainly Miliband’s destruction of the USA special relationship. I assume he is a bit upset by Trump pointing out how insane his 4 times the price Net Zero energy policy is!
A Heath excellent to day. Kemi says Starmer defence forces “are catching arrows rather than dealing with the archers” but we did not even catch the arrows did we?
Three more years of this lunacy probably under Rayner, Streeting, Miliband or Mamood in order of the betting odds!
March 5, 2026
Reported in the Telegraph today:-
“Ed Miliband led Cabinet opposition to US military action in Iran and the use of Britain’s bases.
In a meeting on Friday ahead of the strikes, Mr Miliband, Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are understood to have strongly opposed British support for pre-emptive military action, which they believed would be illegal.“
So Starmer went along with this destroyed the USA/UK relationship and put their forces at extra risk only to change his mind a few hours later. The man is pathetic and hugely dangerous to the UK.
March 5, 2026
@Lifelogic – then again as part of the Cabinets collective responsibility they didn’t have to go along with his destruction. He was it seems pushing to send more of the UK taxpayer earnings to his like minded buddies in China to ramp up buying their equipment.
March 5, 2026
@LL. We don’t need a close relationship with a maverick, belligerent, predatory USA.
The world has changed. The USSR and cold war are long gone. Russia is looking East for trade and prosperity, and only reacts to western threats when aggravated by us. Corporatism, corruption and cronyism rules in the US. We are a resource to be milked and a useful geopolitical tool (UN Security Council vote, MI6 for hire, guaranteed support in any military venture, soft power organisation support etc).
We would be better distancing ourselves, in particular by creating our own nuclear deterrent. Currently we rely on US made tridents, that have to be serviced in the US and leased from the US. This would be a first step towards independence. Currently we are virtually vassals, hence Starmer’s U -turn.
March 6, 2026
Annualized, UK speech prosecutions are running at about 17x those of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev.
The USSR had 4x the population, so more like 68x the prosecutions/person per year in the U.K.
THAT IS HOW MUCH THE WORLD HAS CHANGED!
March 5, 2026
The Telegraph also supported the US/UK’s DAFT and costly wars in Afghan and Iran 2 (I was massively against these wars for the same reasons during and when they were over – although I’m no pacifist – in the fact, I think the proper ‘right-wing’ thing to do was to oppose these daft wars).
If Trump doesn’t have a clear vision and action plan for this war, then this war too is daft. Surely, the only reason to justify it is to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons (and the CIA will have far more info on this that we simply don’t have)? Where both force and diplomacy is used / can be used. Haven’t seen any/much diplomacy yet (and this isn’t like WW2 where Nazi Germany – the aggressor – was far more relatively powerful than Iran against USA today). Unless this is Trump wimping out to the hawkish, regime-changing Israeli government?
March 5, 2026
I too was against those wars.
March 5, 2026
Witkoff reported that the Ayatollah and friends told him they had enough purified uranium for 11 nuclear bombs.
They said they would not ‘give away at the negotiating table what could not be taken during the 12 day war.’
Ergo there was no option.
ps nobody puts civilian materials under a mountain.
March 5, 2026
Hi. I was called left-wing for opposing those wars. F.U. I was thinking to those who implied that to me. I was the right-winger – they were the left-wingers. Because a true right-winger wouldn’t want to impose billions of pounds of unnecessary costs on British tax payer which the wars cost. And a right-winger with a heart and love of the military wouldn’t want our military dying and being maimed in an unnecessary war. Which ended up, also, just stirring up a hornet’s nest of geopolitical issues that lasted years.
March 5, 2026
Ed M,
I agree though I would probably use a stronger adjective than ‘daft’.
The stated aims and justification mask the real purpose of the war.
It is too early to see the full effect (with censorship in both Iran and Israel; and USA being economical with the truth). We can see what happened in other Gulf states and Cyprus though.
Troops on the ground are being hinted at now. Could be a catastrophe for both the Middle East and America and neighbouring countries plus Britain flooded with refugees.
March 6, 2026
Trump has set out his ‘vision’ actually objectives because rational people have detailed objectives and know how they will achieve them.
What is not to understand?
Can’t you read?
Your confusion is equalled only by that in Nr 10, and in my view the6 need to be sectioned.
March 5, 2026
Also, to what degree is modern Israel based on religion as opposed to secular tribalism?
Don’t forget, that humility was key to Moses’ leadership. He was described as the most HUMBLE man on earth! (See Numbers 12:3). And there are some Jewish Orthodox such as Neturei Karta who are passionately opposed to the state of Israel which they see as secular not religious (I support Zionism and the state of Israel – but only moderate Zionism).
So if Israel is based on secular tribalism and pride then it is doomed (from the the inside out).
But if is based on the kind of humility of Moses that we find in the Bible then things are quite different (and we see the same pattern whether it is within Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Persian Zoroastrianism, and the world of the Ancient Greeks and their Greek heroes and stories etc). Humility always wins through in the end! But pride / hubris, on the other hand – falls crashing, like Icarus crashing into the sea.
March 5, 2026
You can’t be a ‘moderate Zionist’. Either you believe the Jews are entitled to their ancient homeland which has never been without a Jewish presence, or not.
March 5, 2026
No. Rubbish Lynn. You are crippled here by the error of dualistic thinking.
Moderate means not falling into fanaticism to defend your position. As fanaticism creates instability in what you want to defend and ends up destroying it.
Also, what do you mean by Jews? Some Orthodox Jews believe Judaism is a religion not
a nation – and actually oppose – and vehemently so – the state of Israel. Other Orthodox and religious Jews believe Judaism is both a religion and a nation. And secular Jews (both agnostics and atheists) believe Judaism is a nation not a religion. Then you get religious Jews who think being a Jew is something you inherit from your mother and is racial. And other religious Jews who think anyone of any race can become a Jew. And then you get Christian Jews who see themselves as Jews but followers of Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus). And then you get secular Jews who see Jewish as being racial and tribal and can be fanatical about it from one degree to another. And other Jews who don’t want to be hard-labelled with Jewishness. And some who oppose Israel. Others who support it moderately. So please explain what you mean otherwise you’re just stumbling into crass, slogan-like thinking.
Where as I don’t want to pigeon-hole people but believe in the state of Israel but not fanatically so but moderately so like many ‘Jews’ (I’m not Jewish(
March 6, 2026
Belief does not come into it. The Jews are an ethnic nation, ancient. Their religion is the basis of ours and Jesus was a Jew. Many of their practises remain sophisticated, for instance there is no cervical cancer amounts the Jews because of circumcision. The Bible is their story, it is the history of the Jews. It is based in their ancient homeland. How can you deny it? How can you be a ‘moderate Zionist’?
You cause me to think that the British no longer deserve to survive. You heap humiliation on the achievements of our famous ancestors. No sequential thinking, no knowledge and no inquisitive mind displayed week after week on subject after subject.
March 6, 2026
Lynn, ‘week after week on subject after subject’ – there are loads of other interesting comments you can focus on. Ignore mine. And if not enough interesting comments here then you have the hold internet to read. And failing that literally millions and millions of books written in English to read from. You pick on me, cause you’re bored. Trying to humiliate and emasculate me. Yuck.
March 5, 2026
Allister Heath’s previous article yesterday? was very good too.
“Vast forces are mobilising to stop Britain’s only real chance of survival
The plot to topple the next Right-wing government has already begun”
March 5, 2026
LL,
I was wondering when you would reference Mr. Heath again.
Have you read this nonsense from him today:-
“ America and Israel are waging a moral and just war to punish an evil, millenarianist, Iranian Islamist regime that kills and maims, and yet Britain is a no-show, pathetically asserting the war violates “international law”, sabotaging Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s heroic efforts at every opportunity.”
Anyone with an ounce of commonsense will recognise this as propaganda when they see it.
March 5, 2026
I hate dictatorships, Fascism, Communism and now – WOKE! But I don’t see Iranian leadership as a particular threat to the UK at all. Except possibly when it comes to nuclear weapons. And/or stirring up a hornet’s nest as the US/UK did a fantastic job in doing in Afghanistan and Iraq 2 and other parts of the world (which cost us the lives of over 500 British military, more seriously maimed, and billions of pounds to the taxpayer to pay for these daft wars as well as increased immigration from these countries). With a well-educated, charming and urbane middle-class as well and harmless, charming working class and peasant farmers etc. I think the ruling elite is more interested in the status quo and enjoying a comfortable life than causing trouble with us in the UK. But then you get mindless propagandists who say otherwise (and who do NOT represent the right or Conservatives at all except vested interested of a tiny minority of people)!
Reply Iran and her satellites have been murdering many including UK citizens in terrorist attacks in the Middle East and UK. They are currently hitting our overseas bases with missiles. Do try and understand this is a murderous and dangerous regime.
March 5, 2026
Indeed this murderous and dangerous regime is intent on world domination and it’s followers are calling to ‘internationalise the intifada’ – that means k1ll you in your own country.
March 5, 2026
Hello sir. I’m careful in what I say as I know the CIA and MI5 know loads more than me and yes Iran is a threat in particular Nuclear weapons. But we have to be careful about language at least. Remember Blair and his language that turned the tide in the UK joining his daft and costly wars in Afghan and Iraq 2.
March 5, 2026
Reply to reply: ‘Iran murdering UK citizens’. Would you able to name any of them, please? Mr Google was unable to find any when I asked him.
Reply Iran finances, trains and supports terrorist groups who have killed or attempted to kill UK people. See articles on Islamist terrorism.
March 5, 2026
Mr Heath is spot on in this quote.
Obviously my concept of a modicum of common sense and yours are not aligned.
I would say anyone who disagrees with this sentiment is full on nuts.
March 5, 2026
So do nothing then Peter.
Leave the regime to carry on abusing its own people, subjucating women, impoverishing its citizens and being the world’s biggest financial supporter of terrorist groups.
Is death to America, death to Israel and death to every Jewish person something you feel comfortable with?
March 5, 2026
Before any of these eye watering rises in tax and borrowing, the Bond vigilantes will call a halt.
There is no way they can sustain a tax burden of 42% plus borrowing significant amounts as well.
The sooner the whole house of cards collapses the better.
As for having no warships at 24 hour availability it’s a disgrace. How much lower can we sink.
March 5, 2026
Yet again a war in the middle east has exposed us to unwelcome volatility in the price of fossil fuels. The IRGC has now closed the Straits of Hormuz and has struck loaded oil tankers with drones. A tanker is reported to be on fire off Kuwait this morning.
Of course, as is customary here, the forecourts have immediately ramped up the price of unleaded by 8p a litre
UK natural gas futures jumped more than 40% on Monday. This unwelcome increase in the price of gas is going to have a dramatic effect on the spot UK electricity price, unless you have a fix from your supplier
Once more, the wisdom of replacing CCGT generation of electricity by renewable resources is apparent.
March 5, 2026
Far more sensible to exploit our oil, gas, shale and coal reserves … in the North Sea and onland.
March 5, 2026
Well said.
March 5, 2026
The wise move would be to produce our own oil and gas from the North Sea and onshore via fracking.
March 5, 2026
Well said
March 5, 2026
Yes, another bump in the road but Net-Zero is still complete nonsense SG. Meanwhile, in the real world I have just ordered a new (ICE) car – whilst I still can and the “Pound in my Pocket” is still worth something. Petrol will go up a bit but then the lights will start going out soon too – when the gas fired backup to your windmills is shut down.
March 5, 2026
Volatility of prices with a chance of a reduction at some point rather than the guaranteed over payments to renewables in order to get buy in?
March 5, 2026
“Once more, the wisdom of replacing CCGT generation of electricity by renewable resources is apparent.”
No really apparent to people who actually understand these things. Also no such thing as “renewable energy” see the second law of thermodynamics and anyway you will still need coal, oil nuclear or wood to burn as back up (making these less efficient in the process). Also load of fosil fuels needed to install and maintain and cable up wind and solar anyway.
See for example Kathryn Porter videos and podcasts and the Eigen Values DavidTurvey.substack for some energy, economic and engineering reality!
Renewables are they long lasting perhaps but not renewable? Wind, wave and Solar come from the sun’s nuclear fusion radiated energy, geothermal from nuclear decays withing the Earth, tidal comes from the earth’s rotational energy.
March 5, 2026
“They do make some plausible forecasts. They say the tax burden which was 38.8% of GDP in the last Conservative year will hit a terrifying 42.5% in 2029/30. That’s a 12% real increase in tax bills.”
This is what they refer to as we are “bringing the cost of living down”. They spend/waste and even do net harm by spending even more than this extremly badly.
It take quite alot to have the highest tax rates since the war combined with the budget deficit with some of the worst public services for a developed nation plus rather poor defence systems too.
March 5, 2026
More like the folly of not constructing nuclear power stations in good time to provide baseload, and not building energy storage for the renewables.
March 5, 2026
No SG. It highlights the gross stupidity of shutting down the North Sea and not investing in nuclear years ago.
It exposes the sheer incompetence or maybe mendacity of the ruling class.
March 5, 2026
SG: “Once more, the wisdom of replacing CCGT generation of electricity by renewable resources is apparent.”
Nonsense. The war in the ME shows we should not be closing down our North Sea oil and gas and neither our onshore coal and gas extraction. We should in addition be building a fleet of nuclear power plants and strengthening our armed services to provide military cover for vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Renewables are parasitic energy that cannot exist without fossil fuels which are used in their manufacture, maintenance and as backup for their chaotic intermittency as well as providing grid stability. The CfD weighted average by installed capacity of offshore wind is £149/MWhr. The price of gas generation is around £40/MWhr when carbon taxes are excluded. So the price of gas fuel can rise by several times before its price for generating electricity matches offshore wind. The current low prices for renewables are only because we are importing them from coal-fired China who also ignore all the environmental costs in their production. Even the concrete used for fixed offshore wind is now shipped from China in diesel ships. The ERoEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested) for solar panels is so low they cannot reproduce themselves in China, let alone in the UK. Only Communists would approve of Ed Miliband’s energy policy which is destroying our economy and national security. It is time Ed Miliband published the contents of the deal he made with China in March last year.
March 5, 2026
Great comment (although I’m a tad more sympathetic towards renewables – for one, our high tech industry could be making billions from green and related tech and exporting abroad – so good for the economy and jobs – but agreed, not any cost)
March 6, 2026
Explain how? if you know how to make billions out of nothing, do it, then we will listen.
March 5, 2026
@SG. Are sun and wind totally reliable? Not when it’s dark, cloudy, calm or too stormy. Is it economically viable to build renewables infrastructure? No, hence massive taxpayer subsidies to renewables suppliers.
Petrocarbon price shocks come and go; renewables’ unreliability is a constant.
March 5, 2026
The EU begging for Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline.
They had announced that they could live without oil – what went wrong?
March 5, 2026
The bigger the government the smaller the citizen. Is that the policy?
March 5, 2026
Well Mr Gold yet again Milibands mad energy policy and ban in drilling, fracking gives us energy cost of 4 times those of the USA.
Circa 90% of our total energy (including transport and heating) comes from oil, coal, wood, natural gas… only about 30% of just “electricity” comes from wind (about 6% of our total energy). Solar is about 6% of electricity or 1.2% of our total energy. Not only this but as these are intermittent the fosil fuel sources work significantly less efficiently as forced to provide back up. Also the intermittents need far more expensive cabling (used at about 20% of capacity most of the time so 80% of the capital largely wasted) and they lose more in transmission.
Solar particularly bad in the UK as mainly delivered in the warmer months during the day when little demand for electricity virtually none in winter or nights. The 7.2% of our energy that comes from Solar and Wind (actually less after you allow for backup and connection costs & energy thus wasted) is largely irrelevant.
We could have “on demand” coal produced electricity at current coal prices for about 3-4p per KWH. We could frack or drill natural gas in the UK and have electricity and heating from that for not much more.
But dream on if you wish too. Note too that moving gas around the world is expensive and energy wasteful so locally drilled or fracked gas is far better and cheaper too.
March 5, 2026
Coal is a horrible fuel. Do we want to inflict acid rain on Norway once again?
Fine in moderation, so use it for the winter hearth. CCGT power generation is much more efficient.
March 5, 2026
Natural Gas is preferable I agree especially if produced locally and not shipped around as chilled liquids on diesel ships & at vast expense. German electricity is about 25% coal, Poland’s is about 55% of their electricity. Miliband’s burning of wood (young coal) at Drax not remotely sensible but they like to pretend!
March 5, 2026
China’s electricity is 60%+ from coal! Even so called “renewables” use loads of fossil fuels!
March 5, 2026
Germany is using a load of coal and their coal is that nasty dirty grey stuff.
Write to Merz and tell him he has to save the world.
March 5, 2026
Lifelogic, I agree with so much you say BUT a tonne of money to be made from green tech and related tech. Also, there is some genuine consumer demand for green tech. Such as in cities were people don’t want noisy and smokey cars. Who would have the gas guzzlers of the USA – so much part of US culture such as cowboys and guns – would go out of fashion in a big way. Also, tech is advancing fast in so many ways – not just green tech – but makes advances in green tech that much more likely.
March 6, 2026
Nobody is forced to buy any car. If people buy a ‘gas guzzler’ it’s because they want to, they are not bribed or threatened as they are with EVs.
In Ireland the Middle class are called ‘the horseless class’, because the rich and the poor have horses. So many of us watch the cowboy and Indian films to spot the actor horses used in many films. I have names for them.
March 6, 2026
Lynn, I agree with you about EVs.
March 6, 2026
Ed M – ‘a tonne of money to be made from green tech and related tech’ you have missed the bit were it is all offshored and not allowed to be produced in the UK. For the moment Miliband’s preferred supplier is China. The massive UK State funded battery facility in Somerset for JLR is just an assemble plant for Chinese Business and the transfer of tech as would be required in the opposite direction is not up for grabs
Hence @Original Richard “It is time Ed Miliband published the contents of the deal he made with China in March last year.” why is a servant of the public hiding his agreement with a foreign power?
March 5, 2026
Government that governs least governs best.
There is a reason why cliches become cliches.
March 5, 2026
True. But you always need some government involvement such as US government assisting in the development of Silicon Valley. So soft government as opposed to bossy government or no government at all. Not forgetting there is bureaucracy and corruption too in private enterprise such as monopolies of utilities and bankers playing fast and lose and having to be bailed out by government for fear of losing investment and economy going into meltdown.
March 6, 2026
Is the US government assisting Musk or is Musk assisting the US government?
You are an instinctive Socialist.
March 6, 2026
(po-faced in your comments – not saying you’re like that in general – don’t know you)
March 6, 2026
Lynn,
My brother-in-law is far more right-wing than you. He thinks Reform Party are wets. He also understands me a lot better than you! We both agreed that there are two ways of thinking in Conservatism overall (and overall – in general including outside politics) and that is to compare thinking to the Chinese Confucianism on the one hand and Taoism on the other.
Taoist thinkers (which I am by instinct) are typically creative / intuitive / like to challenge common-held assumptions to see if there is a greater truth behind / chaotic thinkers (‘chaotic’ in the the philosophical sense of the word). Taoist thinking is vital in politics. And being an entrepreneur. And in culture and civilisation in general. But it has to be tempered by Confucian thinking as well (something I struggle with but I enjoy the challenge of)!
My brother-in-law agreed that I was a Taoist-like thinker not a socialist-like thinker. But you don’t get that. You’re embedded in a Confucian way of thinking and think that anyone who doesn’t think like that is therefore a socialist! How wrong you are.
March 6, 2026
And you’re also scared of me because what I say challenges your way of thinking. But that’s your problem not mine. Your aggression is a sign of how you’re projecting your insecurity of this onto me. Not having a go at you. Just defending myself whilst also challenging you in the process. And everyone should LOVE being challenged (in a positive way – as I do – but not aggressively) whether in politics, personal relationships, business, the arts, philosophy – and life in general. All the best. With tough love.
March 5, 2026
Project “Destroy the UK’s viability as an independent, Sovereign, nation” is coming along very nicely for the International Marxists.
I guess the only possible positive is that the OBR’s predictions are NEVER correct. Unfortunately, on this occasion I think they’re probably far too optimistic.
March 5, 2026
It is worth remembering the OBR is simply an expensive Mystic Meg organisation. It employs thousands of institutionalised analysts providing the chancellor with best guesses of future fiscal outcomes based on past decisions/events and current policies being progressed.
They are not very good at their predictions for various reasons one of which is ‘events dear boy events’,
When Reeves stood up on Tuesday to give her statement the details (what few there were) was alredy overtaken by events over the previous weekend. She shoils have simply advised the Parliament the situation is so impacted by those events her forecast was now needing to be reviewed and a new statement would be made two weeks hence.
The fact she chose to ignore the Middle East conflict with Iran demonstrated even she knew the statement was worth nothing in the first place.
March 5, 2026
The OBR should be judged solely by the accuracy of their forecasts. If they prove to be consistently inaccurate they should first have their pay rises and bonuses eliminated and if it continues they should be closed down.
Of course they won’t predict inflation will be anything other than 2% a few years into the future as to do otherwise would conflict with their mates in the BoE who say that is going to be achieved.
March 5, 2026
Does the OBR read the news? There is no way any economic growth and control of inflation will be possible for the foreseeable future, now that Israel-America have launched this insane war. If they had announced they were delaying their forecast for a while, to let things settle down, that would have been one OBR announcement I would have agreed with.
March 5, 2026
OBR forecasting is akin to climate alarmist computer modelling. The outputs depend on the value judgements of the forecasters and modellers, and offer a convenient shield for declinist Conservative and Labour governments to hide behind
March 5, 2026
Indeed how can you predict the climate when you do not even know many of the inputs like solar activity, vocanos, changes in farming, wars, polulations, genentic variations in plants etc, meteor impacts, new technology dicoveries… and even if you did have all this we have the butterfly effect, a core concept of chaos theory coined by meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s, suggests that small, initial differences in a complex system—like a butterfly flapping its wings—can trigger massive, unpredictable, and far-reaching consequences, such as a tornado elsewhere.
Or to put it another way a tiny bit of dust landing on a snooker ball might change the whole outcome snooker match competely.
March 5, 2026
The world has done not too badly considering billions now on it but that population now stabilising / decreasing. I’m cautiously optimistic about future but I think we need our fingers in all pies: more fracking, more nuclear stations, go easy on Net Zero but still lots of money to be made by British high-tech entrepreneurs in high-tech and related tech and where we slowly wean ourselves off being dependant on rogue fossil-fuel producing countries around the world.
March 5, 2026
MPC crap in , crap out summarises all these government think tanks etc. Especially the Met Office.
March 5, 2026
lets just become a state of the USA, its probably for the best.
March 13, 2026
Only while we have Trump.
March 5, 2026
I learned a long time ago how easy it is to make your spreadsheets tell you what you (or the Bank) want to hear. The people at the OBR must know many of their assumptions are fairy tales but I assume they have to take the Government’s word for it.
Fortunately, we don’t. They are going to hit the Debt Wall full-on before too long, so don’t wait to run for shelter…
March 5, 2026
It should be recognised that since its inception the OBR has been constantly wrong in all its predictions.
It has never improved or added too what was always done by the Treasury – a job for the boys Quango at everyone else’s cost
March 5, 2026
Sums up the thinking – “Labour has told employers not to use the words “competitive” and “ambitious” in job adverts because they are too masculine.” – Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister who unveiled the guidelines on Wednesday.
Collective Socialist /Marxism in action, competition is bad, State run is good. More soften up the great destruction followed by great betrayal. Not quite 2 years in, with 3 years to go to complete the ‘Plan’
March 5, 2026
The OBR’s product is the joke that infests Parliament and its leadership.
Allister Heath As the liberal order dies, Starmer’s Britain is doubling down on its stupidity. The PM is unable to respond to the implosion of the global status quo other than by incanting Leftist platitudes
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2026/03/04/starmer-britain-humiliated-shackled-bankrupt-liberal-order/
We have another 3+ years of this humiliation. Parliament refuses its, job, duty and not just the Navy but the Nation sinks.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/05/donald-trump-calls-starmer-a-loser/
The Country, it People are being painted with the brush of stupidity, for allowing this out and out malicious destruction
March 5, 2026
The ugly bit missing from the OBR’s clairvoyance. Yet they like the rest of us know it is there
Rachel Reeves’s plan to raise the minimum wage for young people will push up the cost of hiring them by almost £7,000.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that employers faced a 40pc real increase in costs under Labour’s proposals to scrap the youth rate of the minimum wage.
March 5, 2026
Benefits is the Marxist prescribed future for the young school leaver, how else will State Control endure
March 6, 2026
“You must pay apprentices for their time at college, as this is considered part of their paid working hours. Time spent training or studying (at least 20% of their hours) is included in the minimum wage. As of April 2026, the apprentice rate is £8.00 per hour, though 18-20 year olds may be entitled to £10.85 per hour depending on the apprenticeship stage” Total People. Age 18+ Rates: If the apprentice is 18 or over and has completed the first year of their apprenticeship, they are entitled to the National Minimum Wage for their age, which is £10.85 for 18-20 year olds.
March 5, 2026
I think, by now, everyone knows the OBR is a complete waste of time and money. Their forecasts are a joke, and they are always wrong, even when forecasting growth a few months ahead. Based on the Spring Statement It seems we have a Chancellor who is in dreamland and has no understanding of the real world. In the real world, anyone as incompetent as Reeves would have been sacked.
But we also have a PM who is in dreamland. Seeing the US military build-up, yet doing nothing to protect the UK base in Cyprus. You would think the attack on Iran would have woken them up to the nonsense of Net Zero.
It seems their goal is to destroy the UK economy.
Incompetence, ignorance and stupidity seem to be their guiding lights!
March 6, 2026
Trump has a low opinion of Starmer.
Wait until he sees Angela!
March 5, 2026
Is there not an argument to monitor the forecasts of the various business that make them (banks etc…) and determine over a period of a few years which tend to be the most accurate to the actual outcome. Then just use them (with a process of continual monitoring) rather than the OBR.
March 5, 2026
the big complaint from Norman Lamont in his autobiography was that his advisors gave him completely inaccurate figures when he was chancellor.
so nothing has changed since then.
March 6, 2026
After year 1 when that happened, what did he do to try to get better figures I wonder? Who did he hold to account. If my accounts team gave me inaccurate figures after the first year I’d be taking action.
March 5, 2026
275 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK 4th March 2026 ….all looking to get £40k
March 6, 2026
There are massive gains this government have obtained from the rising basic State Pension age the obr says £10 billion from the SPA increasing from 67 relative to it staying at 66 (plus of course the extra six years on top from women not specified) + £10.5bn expected by 2029-30. Plus the extra NI contributions from these non-retirees (an extra 8 years from women and their employers). We are told the triple lock is expected to cost an extra £15 billion by 2029, but we are also told that all new immigrants aren’t costing the state anything and are working and contributing, millions of extra people in paying NI and tax, so why are we falling short? Life expectancy has stalled for a decade or more. I wonder how much extra tax is coming from pensions?
How much extra NI pa. for people now working on from 60 and 65. If average pay is £35,000 pa Employees NI £1750 est Employer + £3000 so £4,175 pa per person around 800,000 people affected!
March 8, 2026
The triple lock does little more than preserve the link between the old age pension and average earnings and should be retained. It is rare to have years in which the increase in the pension exceeds
1) the inflation rate
and
2) the rise in average incomes.
I submit that the lowest pension in the industrialised world, except for one or two countries, is nothing to boast about. It is a retrograde step that the tax threshold is being frozen for about a decade, 2019-29. Alll it does is bring low-income working individuals and most pensioners back into the tax system again.
March 13, 2026
What can we do? Nothing. It will require a mammoth effort to persuade Starmer’s Gang to allow a general election in 2029. Starmer’s Gang is a doormat for Islamist entry and infiltration into Britain and its institutions – including Parliament and the Civil Service. Riddled with Fabians its entire agenda is based on hatred of Britain and its Christian foundations and the belief that nation states should be replaced by a global socialist order. Its hatred is shared by the Islamists as the sole basis of their unholy alliance. Democracy’s openness and weaknesses are exploited and abused to the maximum to this end. The anti-democratic structure of the EU is an attractive stepping stone towards this same end of a global socialist order. The economy is secondary to this higher level battle in which kulaks must be stripped of their property, corporations must become instruments of the state, education must be subordinated to ideology, criticism must be suppressed, the nation state must be dismantled, civic protections against the state such as trial by jury, must be removed, the native population must be overwhelmed and crushed by illegal mass immigration, British culture must be suppressed by privileged treatment of antithetical cultures in policing, justice, welfare, housing.
We have no way of forcing Starmer’s Gang to face the electorate in a general election. For them, the automatic dissolution of parliament in 2029 while the government remains in office is an open goal, an opportunity for dictatorship – either communist/socialist or Islamic. It is possible that Iran’s 1979 becomes Britain’s 2029. We are utterly powerless.
Reply There will be a General election before July 2029