Yesterday the thirty year borrowing rate surged to 5.6%. Its one day spike worst level under Truss was just 4.8%, so Reeves has pushed it up by 17% on a rate she said had crashed the economy.
The ten year rate hit 4.6% compared to the 4.38% highest one day spike under Truss.
The latest borrowing figures showed another surge in last month’s borrowing. Debt interest charges are over £100 bn a year and growing. The debt is high and growing too fast.
The Chancellor needs to take urgent action to control spending. Forget giving billions to Mauritius over the years ahead. Veto all new charges to be imposed by the EU for re set. Tell the DWP to be firmer in evaluating new claims for benefits and to issue fewer sicknotes for life. Reinstate the two child cap. Raise the future pension age for state pension. Cut the absurdly high Bank of England, railway and steel losses.
The Chancellor now has a spendthrift reputation in the markets. The UK is being charged higher rates than most Advanced countries as a risk premium or extra levy because the government is not trusted to run the finances prudently. It is no good the Chancellor constantly claiming prudence and doing the opposite. The markets have formed a bad view and are making the UK pay a lot extra as a result.
The OBR does not provide discipline over the deficit as its control relates to the distant fifth year of its forecast. It is a rolling target so Year 5 never comes!
March 21, 2026
Exactly.
The doomloop spins ever more quickly as this appalling government (and the dire list of potential post May Starmer replacements Rayner favourite then Streeting and Miliband) keep further damaging the economy and confidence every single day.
They have no chance of power after the next election and so will surely take a scorched earth policy for the next three years they have already started it seems.
March 21, 2026
Again, I cannot see Reeves or the government changing course.
They will continue to be spendthrift.
March 21, 2026
Spendthrift, doom-loop, scorched earth, net zero vandals – 3+ more years!
March 21, 2026
The good news is is there is so much fat that could so easily be cut. Net zero, benefits for the feckless, Chagos, bloated government, taking real advantage of Brexit, cutting immigration, drill baby drill and frack amd mine and the win, win of bonfires of red tape, easy hire and fire and lower tax rates actually giving more revenue.
The bad news is their agenda is the complete reverse of all these!
March 21, 2026
Yup, we’re in the realm of socialist dogma trumps economic common-sense. Starmer/Reeves are not in control anyway, the cadre’s on the benches appear to hold the power and they want the ‘state to provide’, damn the markets.
Trump is moving Marines and close air support aircraft into theatre, (no boots on the ground my a..e!) so unless there’s a capitulation from the IRGC, or Trump gets too many irate calls from the banks, then we’re going to be in this ‘interesting times’ for a while yet. Costs to rise, and the conflict draws in more participants.
March 21, 2026
@Peter
It seems that Labour has realised that it might be economically incompetent and is indeed looking to make changes.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/20/ministers-blueprint-economic-overhaul-fears-cost-of-living-hand-election-far-right
….but which of those changes will be primarily politically motivated before they are economically motivated ?
March 21, 2026
Then there will be an almighty crash.
March 21, 2026
@Lifelogic – I thought you were talking ‘May’ as in the one that kicked the current direction of destruction off. But know you mean this other up and coming May, where we all must be careful what we wish for.
Labour has already factored in losing seats if not all of them. But they are only councillors not those involved in the secure Westminster bubble. Their leader that has the undying majority support in Parliament has recently underlined to this cabal of MPs and his Union sponsors that he is moving things with more urgency back to the ‘Plan’. They (Labour MPs) know there is no creditable alternative to 2TK. So we have to suck up and hope there is something to reclaim after another 3 years of this 5 year ludicrous term of attrition without seeking confirmation of direction
March 21, 2026
Things are certainly not good but debt rocketeted under Sunak as Chancellor and PM – only need to look at a 10 year GILT chart. Labour are indeed hapless and have confounded any problems but they were left a difficult fiscal premise..
March 21, 2026
Indeed they were.
Do you think they have made the situation better or worse?
March 21, 2026
I listened to a bit of radio 4 news yesterday too suddenly they seem very excited about all the damage that will be done to the UK by high oils and gas prices, high fertiliser costs, plastics, interest rates, farming problems… now that they can blame these high prices on Trump they seem keen on lower energy costs.
I would remind them that energy costs in the UK are circa four times those in the US due mainly to insane net zero and mad energy policies from the last 20+ years of UK governments and May and Miliband in particular, the fracking, mining and drilling bans and vast over taxation and market rigging – all of which the BBC is a huge supporter of and propagandiser for!
March 21, 2026
Yes, everything can now be blamed on Iran (and Trump) – so we will now get endless “Fourteen years of Tory Rule and the Gulf War…” everytime a Labour Minister or MP opens their mouth.
Nothing to do with us Guv!
March 21, 2026
@Lifelogic & @IanT
… and I doubt that we have run out of scape-goats yet. Another day another tomorrow and the excuses are as numerous as the ‘U’ turns. Not one once of those in this free-loading, Parliament with its chosen government thinks that managing has anything to do with them.
Today’s World event, is no different to yesterday or even tomorrows. They keep inventing themselves which is why we pay and empower a Parliament to keep us ahead of the game. This time we have found ‘muppets’ that all need removing
March 21, 2026
I wonder why the Bank of England isn’t conspiring to bring this Government down, the way it did Truss?
Let me guess ….
“Andrew Bailey, the current Governor of the Bank of England (since March 2020), chaired the Left-leaning Cambridge Fabian Society while a student at Queens’ College, Cambridge.”
Well bless my soul. Who could possibly have suspected that?
Two-Tier, Reeves, Mad Red Ed and Bailey, all Fabians who are jointly creating the mother of all economic crashes.
March 21, 2026
The good thing is that as they have bended together the disaster can ONLY be laid at their door.
The Iran fracas has not had the same effect on other countries.
March 21, 2026
Donna:
Agreed. They’re pursuing a scorched earth policy for socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor.
March 21, 2026
Gridwatch 7am – Energy supply:
Gas: 36%
Inter-connectors: 30%
Nuclear: 16%
Biomass (trees): 12%
Wind: 6%
Solar: 0%
https://gridwatch.co.uk/
And the conclusion for the Eco nutters in the Establishment: We obviously need to import and massively subsidise far more windmills and solar panels.
No wonder the country’s effectively bankrupt.
March 21, 2026
Indeed bonkers. For bio think young coal about 2 times less efficient than old coal and far more environmentally damaging too. Loads of fossil fuels used to harvest, transport, dry…
March 21, 2026
On BBC 1 just now was a chap (who would make an excellent grim reaper for a movie. It seems he is Bill Esterson MP, Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee. He was wittering on about Solar cells and home batteries and charging them up at low rates and using it at high.
He read maths at Leeds and then become an accountant so one might have thought he would have been good at working out finance costs, depreciation etc. When you do this with the energy losses in charge discharge cycles, finance costs and depreciation per charge discharge cycle make this rather a mugs game. As to solar you get the energy during the day in summer and largely we need it in the dark cold winters. Storing for 6 months is a total non starter!
But dream on mate! A battery to hold £1 of electricity will likely cost you £1000 all in and might only do 1000 cycles (thus storing and releasing only about £1000 of electricity) before it is virtuallyworthless. Plus you loose circa 25% in the charge discharge process, the loss of interest on the capital or borrowing costs, depreciation… it very rarely makes any sense at all. Plus you have the extra fire risk and insurance issues…
March 21, 2026
Battery plus all the electronics (inverters and AC/DC converters) needed!
March 21, 2026
I did some calculations fairly recently, and came to the same conclusion that the economics do not make it worthwhile. The only reason to have solar panels and battery back up is where the grid becomes so unreliable it’s the only way to guarantee getting power. If your system is so good you can go off grid you can save some more on not paying all those standing charges.
March 21, 2026
LL:
Correct. The International Energy Agency rates the UK/Ireland as the worst place in the world for solar power for not only is their output pathetic but we don’t get it when we need it. Bill Esterson and Ed Miliband brag about how cheaply we can buy solar panels completely ignoring that they are made in China using coal-fired power and also ignoring all the environmental damage caused in the mining of the minerals required and in their production. They also of course omit all the wider costs of intermittency such as grid upgrades, grid stability and grid-scale storage. It’s like calculating your daily commute by car taking into account just the fuel consumed and forgetting about depreciation, maintenance, insurance and VED.
March 21, 2026
The markets are doing what markets will always eventually do, they are pricing in risk. The mark to market principle of valuing has started to impact the UKs asset worth/future security risk to investors,
Reeves has failed to convince even the most optimistic investor the UK is a safe long term bet. When her colleague Ed Miliband continues to destroy industry and her boss continues to flip flop about, who believes in Britain? With no sign of any strategy to return the UK to its rightful place as a key member of NATO and a key nation in world affairs, London is no longer seen as the seat of stability it once was.
Once the market becomes spooked, there is a very short period before money loses its value. The experience of the German currency crisis a hundred years ago looms large and is real.
Go long on barrows.
March 21, 2026
Perhaps a good time to invest in second hand government bonds. When they mature, you don’t pay tax on your capital gain, and if the government defaults you can claim it against your tax demand.
March 21, 2026
Truss got labelled a heretic and removed before her policies could take effect. Labour still blame her for certain aspects of our gloomy prospects, but labour have been 100 times worse….. Why haven’t the market forces got rid of this government in the unholy way that Truss was removed?
Truss would have achieved a lot better results than the amateurs now sitting in government.
There is only one direction this government is taking us and it’s not towards a land of milk and honey – they have failed to learn from history – they really should be forced to read The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith to get an idea of what they should be doing.
March 21, 2026
The Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng was just to reduce taxes in the hope it might stimulate the economy. What was needed alongside was a reduction in spending. Without that, there was no confidence in the policy.
Not good enough.
March 21, 2026
Apparently the Adam Smith Institute has produced a comic book version of the Wealth of Nations.
I wonder who they had in mind when they did that?
March 21, 2026
When you say ‘Reinstate the two child cap’ don’t you think Jacob Rees-Mogg should have set an example and used some form of contraception.
Reply The two child cap is about benefits, not about having children. Anyone can have more children and should be able to do so ,but if you want a lot then you should pay for them yourself as Jacob Rees Mogg does.
March 21, 2026
Same old circle Labour drive up debt then who comes next has to bring in austerity
March 21, 2026
Do l hear the galloping hooves of the IMF not fat over the horizon?
March 21, 2026
The difference is Truss did the damage all by herself whereas Reeves has done it by not foreseeing such a thing as a Middle East war might happen – she failed to pay attention to the signs and scouts motto. On the other hand we know the coffers were already empty – a
lot of big projects should have been scrapped or at least postponed
Reply Untrue. Bank bond sales and LDI for Truss. Reeves big increases in spending and borrowing are undermining her.
March 21, 2026
Bella, the bit you have been disingenuous about, is that the hit on the country was enacted by those in fear of their jobs before Truss announced anything. The BoE has since confirmed that the action was taken the day before
March 21, 2026
The future looks bleak at the moment. The high cost of energy, coupled with the introduction of more AI, is going to increase unemployment drastically. The job losses will cause a domino effect across all sectors. This Government needs to take drastic action before it’s too late. Drill our own gas and oil. Deport all foreign nationals not in meaningful employment. Cut wasteful Government spending. Get a grip on the spiralling welfare bill. Currently, they are caught in the headlights, unable to govern and trying to please their own backbenchers and sponsors. The sooner they are brought down, like Truss was, the better. The only thing that has a chance to save us is a Reform government.
March 21, 2026
Good morning, Lord Redwood
You missed one important thing. This parliament will see that as a minor rise in the borrowing rate of just 0.8%, for a PPE graduate, its peanuts, its a shrug of the shoulder event. They don’t see that as costs rising by close on a fifth or that meaning earnings will have to increase by close on a fifth to stand still and pay the debt burden.
March 21, 2026
In today’s world market reaction is never about reality, its run by ‘market makers’ they all create a situation were every one else pays so they can earn. Although it does create a different reality, they earn on the way up in equal amounts to earnings on the way down. The worse thing for market makers personally is ‘in action’.
With in that what people have allowed to be glossed over, the last Labour Government with Gordon Brown as chancellor created on hell of a mess, a financial meltdown, a economic crisis. It created debt for all of us, and the bit missed is that we are still paying those debts off and will be for a good few years yet. Close on 20 years on a new generation at play and Labours Gordon Brown has the country entrapped in his wishful thinking.
March 21, 2026
“It is no good the Chancellor constantly claiming prudence and doing the opposite.”
It’s BECAUSE our Fabian PM, Chancellor and BoE Governor know what they should be doing to get us out of the hole they’ve dug that they’re doing the opposite. Socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. The same applies to our energy. The SoS for DESNZ knows full well his policies are making our energy expensive and insecure. Professor Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, who wrote in 2017 the government’s “Cost of Energy Review”, ends his 24/02/2026 podcast #83 entitled “The Energy Security Gap” thus: “The reason why there are so many opportunities to improve our energy security is because it is very hard to conceive of any energy policy which could be making us LESS energy secure and LESS helpful as a policy towards the defence of the realm, the primary requirement of any government before anything else is considered.”
https://dieterhelm.co.uk/publications/podcast-83-the-energy-security-gap/
March 21, 2026
Live News – the Telegraph
“Iran fired two ballistic missiles at Britain’s Diego Garcia RAF base in the Chagos Islands, US officials have said.
Neither of the two missiles hit their targets, with one believed to have been intercepted by a US warship and the other having failed in flight on Friday morning.”
And still the UK Parliament and there leader 2TK wont step up an protect UK interests and lives