The Bank of England lets its Magic Money tree wilt

Great news. The Bank of England has reviewed its money policy over lockdown and the period 2020 to 2022. It has concluded it worked well against a very difficult background. It thinks it can repeat its successful Quantitative easing operations in the future. Meanwhile  it’s best to sell lots of bonds and lose lots of money. They think

1.The big inflation had nothing to do with the creation of £450 bn to buy bonds at very high prices and the suppression of interest rates. It was the Ukraine war that gave us inflation. It is irrelevant that Japan, Switzerland and China who all import a lot of energy did not have the same high inflation.

They think

2 It is crucial that the Monetary Policy Committee does not consider the quantity of money. It is right to ignore it and not to monitor it or report on it.

They think

3. The big sell off in government bonds under Liz Truss had  nothing  to do with the Bank’s decision to sell £80 bn of bonds or with the decision to increase interest rates .

They think

4.The current recession is necessary to  complete  the task of bringing inflation down. Later this year it will be necessary to  lower rates  to provide stimulus to get some growth back, but there is no need to hurry.

 

So there we have it. A Bank whose main task is to keep inflation to 2% is blameless when it goes  to 11%. A money policy committee is right to ignore money and believe they can print as much as they like without causing inflation. A Bank can sell lots of bonds at huge losses and send the bill to the taxpayer but that has no bearing on recession or government finances. April 1 is a great day to remind people of these findings.

94 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    April 1, 2024

    Indeed but Sunak as Chancellor was clearly happy with all this economic vandalism as he took inflation from 1% to 11%.

    Lockdowns a huge error, net harm vaccines another huge error, net zero a huge error, the vast government waste and covid support a huge error in the main, HS2 a huge error, saying vaccines are un-equivocally safe a lie or gross ignorance…so what has he got right? Not growth, not the NHS, not immigration levels, not tax levels, not borrowings…

    1. Everhopeful
      April 1, 2024

      +++
      Presumably orders are being followed and better things/careers have been put in place for when this silly little island has been kicked back into subservience.
      Rewards for some. All going according to plan!

      1. Sharon
        April 1, 2024

        LL

        I was just thinking similar thoughts . Either the B of E staff are utterly incompetent and deluded; OR they are liars, working to deliberately destroy our economy!

        1. Hope
          April 1, 2024

          The govt. has the right and authority to intervene and stop the incredible losses and debasement of our currency. The Tory Chancellors Sunak and Hunt could intervene at any time and CHOOSE not to alternatively are too incompetent to understand what is going on like JR. Either way it shows what a complete waste of time the Tory MPs are or they would have forced change, if the BOE did not accept bring it back under govt./chancellor control!

          14 years ago we were told by chancellor Osborne there would be no more funny money and that there would be a balanced structural deficit by 2015, 2017,2019 2021 then abandoned. At the first couple of failures it was falsely claimed it was meant deficit to GDP- this was never originally stated but a sham to hide repeated failures.

          JR is right, but it boring theme that his party/govt. after such a long period of time have done nothing. Zero zilch.

          We had Carney making up rules that he would follow to take action to change interest rates and the like, targets reached and each time he changed the goal posts and Osborne did…..nothing.

          Take BOE back under control of govt and accept responsibility for the economy. Scrap ONS and OBR as well, they are only an expensive deflection from responsibility.

          1. Lifelogic
            April 1, 2024

            Circa 16 years ago we were promised by Osborne he would increase the IHT THRESHOLD to £1 m each it still remains at £325K with a main house exception of £175K but only for some. This £325K is now worth more like £200K in real terms and has been frozen by Hunt and Sunak (for the foreseeable future) it seems. We were also promised by Cast Iron Cameron (Now Lord Cameron of Greensill Libya) a referendum on the Lisburn Treaty, that he was “low tax a heart, Eurosceptic Conservative” and that he would stay on and deliver Brexit referendum outcome either way.

            Who would trust any promises made this time by Sunak?

        2. Donna
          April 1, 2024

          I think it’s deliberate. But they’re being allowed to do it by Sunak and Hunt.

          1. Hope
            April 1, 2024

            LL,
            Blaire and Brown promised a referendum on the Lisburn Treaty and reneged with slimy Brown slipping off at night to sign behind closed doors. Uni Party has same aims and policies, there are only token differences because the EU governed, directed and controlled policy. Uni Party only has to mange paper clips. They need ousting and now have shown incapable or unwilling to govern our country as an independent sovereign nation.

            You might recall Cameron asked Brown to come back and negotiate with SNP before last Scottish referendum!! Brown for goodness sake! Cameron hired many former Labour ministers instead of conservatives, why?

    2. Lifelogic
      April 1, 2024

      So yet more tax grabs. Council tax is to double for 80 per cent of second homes. What are the council doing for this they take little rubbish away, provided not schools… So you get a discount if you live alone but pay double if largely empty! A 5.7% increase for the rest. Also from 6th April you personal allowances all of them are down 5% in real terms another tax grab. Yet Sunak and Hunt still lie they have cut taxes!

      Then you have that other charge for nothing circa £1 a day for electricity and gas £360 PA. An appalling poll tax for nothing supplied, this especially for the poor. You cannot economise on standing charges very easily.

      1. Lifelogic
        April 1, 2024

        Yet despite all this vastly high and still increasing taxes we have “250 needless deaths each week due to agonising waits in A&E” or for an ambulance waht was the figure before Covid I wonder 150 perhaps? Post vaccine excess deaths have regularly been 10%+ up too. Which is circa 1,100 a week. So what is causing the other 850+ deaths.

        After all Sunak assures us and the house that the Covid vaccines are “unequivocally safe” so I assume he knows these excess deaths are caused by other things such as other NHS negligence, suicides, delayed cancer treatments… Strange though that countries and regions with lower vaccine take up like East European and African countries have far lower excess deaths. But doubtless Sunak has an explanation for this as he seems to think he is good at maths. Perhaps he or his experts could enlighten us on their thinking here? But no I suppose he will concentrate on making 30 year olds buy cigarettes for 29 year old’s and forcing maths up to 18 onto people with zero interest in it.

      2. Donna
        April 1, 2024

        + 1

      3. A-tracy
        April 1, 2024

        Where do you get 5% from? The inflation rate Feb 24 is 3.5%, the predicted rate for April 2024 is ?

        The standing charges are ridiculously high but the political cap on power bills was felt essential and someone has to pay this mass distribution is the easiest, it is a shame for people that have two forms of energy but only use one i.e. electricity but still have to pay for the gas line. Ofgem “ The charge covers the cost to maintain the energy supply network, take meter readings, and support government social schemes, for example helping people that cannot afford energy, and environmental schemes. Some suppliers do not include a standing charge in their tariffs.”

        It will be interesting if Starmer carries on with the cigarette policy and forcing maths up to 18, if he does we know its a Europe wide or WEF push.

        1. Lifelogic
          April 1, 2024

          5.7% is the average council tax increase it seems when I Googled it.

      4. hefner
        April 1, 2024

        I hope you realise the 3.5% in Feb’24 covers March’23-Feb’24 and therefore does not say anything about what had happened before. Whatever the inflation rate produced in the coming months, the fact is that food prices had increased by roughly 26% from March’18 to March’23 (ons.gov.uk 23/05/2023 ‘Food and energy price inflation, UK, 2023’). And that a decreasing rate of inflation does not erase whatever has happened before.

        1. a-tracy
          April 1, 2024

          Actually the food inflation caused me and my family to shop a lot smarter and use our freezers more. We had a new German supermarket open up in town and the economies we made actually did not increase our bills. Waitrose also introduced an essentials range which I can recommend. We also stopped buying the branded products that were inflating away and sought out alternatives.

  2. Lifelogic
    April 1, 2024

    The BoE, just in saying such stupid things surely further weakens the £, damages the economy and further pushes up borrowing rates.

    Why are the BoE and this government led so appallingly? Tobias Elwood was calling for party unity again. What is the point of party unity behind the circa 100% wrong policies pushed by Sunak?

    1. Everhopeful
      April 1, 2024

      It might be Government by algorithm?
      For some bizarre reason the govt. seems to put total faith in all its modelling…no matter how often it is misled by computers.
      Slaughtered cattle, the weather, the plague, inflation and the economy….how much more does it want to get wrong?

    2. Donna
      April 1, 2024

      I didn’t notice LibCON Tobias Elwood calling for unity when Johnson was being defenestrated or when his elected replacement, Liz Truss was being dispensed with. He obviously doesn’t understand that creating unity is a two-way process.

      He IS, however, at serious risk of losing his Bournemouth seat which is entirely deserved. Bournemouth, which used to be a genteel seaside town is now turning into a dump where violence is common. Nothing to do with the massive influx of migrants (legal and illegal), of course.

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        The EU one nation Tories are content for all prominent leavers to be rid from cabinet and party but are up in arms if their pro EU usurper is criticised or threatened to be dispensed with. He was rejected by his membership, but as is the EU way the EU one nation Tories were not going to accept that, Truss ousted for sounding like a Tory and wanting divergence from EU. This could not be allowed after getting rid of Johnson with help of civil service and blob. The groomed backstabbing Usurper installed for lock step and prevent any divergence from EU. U fortunately the public will not accept him. For them it does not matter because Starmer will carry on where they left off. They conspired with Labour and EU a few years ago to overturn the public mandate to leave the EU and are content to continue to do so again, even if it means opposition because their aims are being achieved.

      2. Berkshire Alan
        April 1, 2024

        Donna
        Many people who live in or near Bournemouth have given us the same information recently, It would seem that it is no longer the nice place to live that it was in past times. Sandbanks still expensive, although more developed than it was.

      3. Lifelogic
        April 1, 2024

        Indeed Blackpool now and many other places haver very similar problems. It now has the lowest life expectancy in the England. Since Covid, the Covid vaccines, economic decline and NHS negligence and delays have lowered life expectancy so significantly over the past few years can we assume they will be lowering the state pension age or at least increasing the payments to reflect these pension savings.

        Or will this be another back door tax grab?

    3. Lifelogic
      April 1, 2024

      Esther McVey says the government will not cede any sovereignty to the World Health Organisation.

      Did Ted Heat not say something like this? Does anyone believe her or this Government?

      Does

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        Oh please, what a waste of money her ministerial post is. JR regularly talks about productivity he needs to look at cabinet posts and depts first.

    4. A-tracy
      April 1, 2024

      Tobias Elwood is only interested in Unity if the party is doing his tranche of the parties bidding.

  3. Ian wragg
    April 1, 2024

    The BoE is staffed by raving leftards who are in thrall to the EU.
    The needs of Britain come a long way down their priority list. Pretty much the same with immigration, that takes priority over the wishes of the taxpayer.
    Fishys boat strategy is working, arrivals up 25% on last year and still the economy sinks.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 1, 2024

      +1

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        BOE independence acts as a fire wall to protect govt. BoE is acting on the govt wishes to make sure UK is in lock step with EU and to prevent UK being more competitive than EU otherwise Brexit would be seen to be a success.

        Labour and Tory party need to be obliterated. There policies are one and the same.

        1. Lifelogic
          April 1, 2024

          +1

  4. agricola
    April 1, 2024

    Reducing the thinking to that of a normal intelligent family unit, would they, with the onset of a West testing major war, not pause their financial plans and think through the consequences. At a national level they might have realise that Japan, China and Switzerland were already geared to high energy prices, having none of their own, but the UK had its own fuel, which for doctrinaire reasons it was busy blocking. The hike was therefore a shock to the UK system, forced to use fuel at Putin created prices. For some insane reason even their deliberately depleated own fuel had to be bought at Putin created prices.

    I very much doubt that that same family would have rushed out to borrow large sums of money when interest rates were likely to become volatile. Knowing the way our banking system conducts itself they are best avoided at any time.
    Nor would they sell of the family silver, like a bunch of headless chickens.

    That same family realised that the reaction to Liz Truss was a ganging of vested interests, Treasury, OBR, senior civil service , using their numpty friends at the BoE to organise a political coupe. The results of which have ensured continuing political and financial uncertainty, leaving said family to pick up the pieces.

    Said family are being put through hell in many cases to continue a political system based on financial incompetence. They know it and are gearing themselves to wreck havoc on the perpetrators. Many of whom realise their fate and are fast jumping ship. The biggest challenge of any incoming government will be to deal with that traiterous corrupt anti democratic blob. I only see one reforming party who recognises the problem, the incumbents are more of the same.

    Reply UK home produced energy always charged at world prices. Bank printed far too much money

    1. Peter Wood
      April 1, 2024

      PERHAPS the leaders of Switzerland, China, Japan had entered into long term, fixed rate, supply contracts for fuel…. Now there’s an idea; perhaps our good leaders could look into, a little bit of common sense.
      The rising costs of defence, domestic infrastructure, energy, not to mention mad Net Zero are going to cripple this little island if we don’t start managing like a tight household budget. We have to look at expenses and stop the overpaying and hubristic virtue-spending. Spending ministers need to be reigned in!

    2. agricola
      April 1, 2024

      Reply to reply
      Yes we are all too aware that your government force us to pay world prices for our own fuel. I maintain that it was done to appease the EU who did not want a Singapore off their coast. Can we have your explanation as to why we are forced to pay world prices for our own fuel. America does not, why do we.

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        A,
        Spot on. The fact remains labour and Tory MPs conspired with each other and the EU to further their aims of acting in lock step. It is beyond belief the same MPs who in 2019 acted like traitors are not going to continue their aims, they are still in parliament! Clarke and Soubry expressed their support for Labour! Cameron openly appointed former Labour ministers to govt. advising roles instead of conservative ones.

        The fix is in, they all know what they want to be managers of UK under EU rule. The rogue parliament is back in full swing under the Uni Party.

  5. Sakara Gold
    April 1, 2024

    Soaring food and energy bills were the main causes of the UK’s recent high inflation.

    Oil and gas were in greater demand after the Covid pandemic and the energy companies were keen to recover lost profits as people had to stay at home during the lockdowns. Prices surged again when Russia invaded Ukraine, cutting global energy supplies. The high fuel prices affected food distribution costs

    The Ukraine conflict also reduced the amount of grain for sale, pushing up food prices. Rising UK grocery costs were the major driver. Higher prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages resulted in the largest upward contribution to the higher inflation rates recorded

    UK inflation soared to 11.1% in October 2022, the highest rate for 40 years. The rate has fallen significantly since then, but lower inflation doesn’t mean prices are falling – just that they are rising less quickly. Most things still cost more than they did before.

    One reason that inflation has remained high in the UK is that worker shortages after Brexit have made it more expensive to find and keep staff.

    Reply So why did the world’s second and third largest economies not get high inflation when they paid the same inflated energy and food prices for imports

    1. Lifelogic
      April 1, 2024

      The inflation was currency debasement by Sunak as a tax borrow and waste Chancellor and the BoE. Look at inflation as measured in gold, or Swiss Francs. China sensibly imports loads of cheap coal. The UK pisses money down the drain on net zero and on importing wood (young coal) due to the mad net zero religion.

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        Australia makes £30 billion a year selling coal mainly to China! It also sells iron ore to China to make…. The UK buys the same goods back from hostile China an enemy to our country. UK needs to ween itself from Chinese goods before it is too late.

        China has the aim of world dominance. Tory govt has furthered their aims over 14 years, Cameron was open about the golden Chinese era. Dopey idiot.

    2. William Long
      April 1, 2024

      Soaring food and energy bills are a symptom of inflation, not a cause. The cause, perhaps put over simplistically, as too much money chasing too little food and energy.

  6. Everhopeful
    April 1, 2024

    OT …but…
    I think I have suddenly realised about the water …
    The Left is vigorously campaigning ( aka lying) to get water nationalised?
    Hence all the insinuations re E. coli etc.

    1. hefner
      April 1, 2024

      EH, You should go and have a swim in the Thames.

  7. BOF
    April 1, 2024

    To Japan, Switzerland and China should you not add Russia?

    Russia was supposed to be brought to its knees with crippling sanctions. Instead it appears to be doing well with a strong ruble, a strong economy and low inflation. Another country that did not grossly inflate its money supply.

  8. Javelin
    April 1, 2024

    Most of the political problems you talk about comes down to problems with the regulators and the watchdogs.

    So the question is whilst “left” and “right” and “liberal” and “conservative” theory are everybody’s favourite talking point WHY does nobody have a THEORY of regulators and watchdogs?

    Nobody discusses them.

    The reason is that coming up with a design is hard and has so far been as hoc. Look at Thatcherism it simply unleashed the markets but in a crude way and did not change the regulation else where which led to a decline in services.

    But a good design for regulators and watchdogs is what let’s the supply of stuff to markets, science, justice, government and families evolve in small increments.

    In other words to design a right wing system you need to design regulators and watchdogs, but nobody ever does.

    Reply I talk a lot about the disastrous regulators. Competition and choice are the best regulators of price and conduct

    1. Hope
      April 1, 2024

      No JR.

      It is clear to everyone that your left wing party has not changed S.172 Company Act or the ESG rot which inspectorate bodies use to force left wing cultural Marxism on public services. Selection procedures in every public sector body and judiciary needs radical change. Your own party has a quota system of selection!! Get real. Worse your party introduced the Sex and Relationship Act on children of tender years knowing the extreme left wing bias in education that your party has never addressed. Your party has encouraged and championed LGBT and trans rot above and beyond any reasonable tolerant in society. We now have the police using more time on hate crime, which are not actual crimes, than substantive offences like burglary, assault etc. the police do not even know the law. They keep talking about context in failing to take action, it is not a matter for them to interpret what is threatening insulting or malicious it is for a court to decide! Then this might be due to direct entry for left wing manager roles where these people do not have the experience or knowledge to….police. Your govt did this as well.

      Reply I am not a member of the government and am pressing for changes to policy

      1. Timaction
        April 1, 2024

        JR if you can’t change this left wing dogma in our health, emergency services, quangos, Councils etc how on earth can we? We need more open Government and Referenda on the important issues to keep the Uni Party in line with public opinion. Immigration with set annual limits, welfare with limits, abandonment of woke and non Equality laws. The Tory’s know what the right of centre voters want but refuse to act and are cowards or deliberately disingenuous. We therefore need Reform.

    2. Original Richard
      April 1, 2024

      Javelin : “Most of the political problems you talk about comes down to problems with the regulators and the watchdogs.”

      Robert Conquest’s 2nd and 3rd laws of politics :

      – “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”

      – “The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it led by a cabal of its enemies.”

  9. Donna
    April 1, 2024

    What a jolly prank the BofE is playing against the British people: and all sanctioned and supported by the Prime Minister and Chancellor who were appointed by the Parliamentary Not-a-Conservative-Party. And no negative consequences for them whatsoever as they carry on destroying the lives and hopes of the people who have to pay for their economy-wrecking policies.

    The WEF must be delighted with the performance of their puppets. But not delighted enough to want to risk another “Conservative” Government, so by forcing a recession on the run-up to the election, they’re making absolutely sure they’ll get Gordon Brown Mark II in Rachel Reeves.

    But then Sunak and Hunt are just letting them do it, so they obviously do as well.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 1, 2024

      +1

      1. Hope
        April 1, 2024

        Donna,
        What action did Sunak take to ensure stability before the leadership contest between him and Truss? What action did he take after becoming PM because the ever so clever chap would have known what BOE was up to in losing so much money and risk UK economy. Any decent leader would have summoned Bailey to his office to explain why he had his P45 in his hand along with his left wing committee. Therefore we must conclude Sunak was content with Bailey losing so much of our taxes or he is totally clueless as he was with the school boy errors frauds costing the taxpayer £12 billion causing Lord Agnew to resign.

  10. Richard1
    April 1, 2024

    You have mentioned the BoE’s conduct on monetary interventions often enough and I imagine you have had an opportunity to raise this question directly with the chancellor. So we can only presume they disagree and accept the BoE line. This issue isn’t being raised in the media.

    We must also presume Truss didn’t understand this issue either otherwise she’d have seen she was about to fall flat on her face following her budget due to BoE actions.

  11. Sharon
    April 1, 2024

    A while ago, I read that since the banking crisis of 2008, it’s been difficult to control the global financial economy. It was thought that one way of doing that would be to have digital currencies that would be much easier to control.

    However, many people don’t want that because they prefer to manage their own monies and don’t want to controlled by the country’s central bank. One way of forcing the issue, would be to manage individual countries into financial decline, then introduce the idea of a digital currency, ‘to save the country from further decline?’

    We know that Sunak has employed a team to work on a digital currency- could this be to where we are being gently pushed?

    Reply We already rely on digital money. Your and my income sits as a digital entry in a bank account, to be spent digitally by credit or debit card or direct debit.

    1. Bloke
      April 1, 2024

      Any money that adds up or deducts is digital. People can authorise transactions with paper tokens, metal coins, cowry shells, plastic, mice clicks, emails or much else. The ugliest payments are those governments impose against people’s will, wasted on waste.

    2. Donna
      April 1, 2024

      Reply to reply. We might rely on a digital form of money, but that’s not quite the same thing as a digital currency – particularly if they have removed the ability to use cash, which is their goal.

      Then it’s just a very short step to compulsory Digital ID and the Chinese-style Social Credit system which is their ultimate goal: monitoring and control of every individual.

    3. The Prangwizard
      April 1, 2024

      Reply to reply.
      I try to promote cash. I draw it at the Post Office counter then spend it in the shop that the PO is part of.

      Everyone should do something like this.

  12. Nigl
    April 1, 2024

    If this is true, why isn’t your Chancellor pushing back?

    Reply No idea why not. I have explained it.

    1. miami.mode
      April 1, 2024

      JR’s right. You can’t put it where it won’t go.

    2. Hope
      April 1, 2024

      Therefore you must accept you have no voice in your party. Why continue to,waste,your time when you might be more effective elsewhere.

  13. margaret
    April 1, 2024

    As with everything, once you sell : it’s gone , what can be done with the money gathered out of sale is the key .Is is chasing bad after bad ? or is something middle term constructive going to flourish out of the sale ?

    In this country, in every aspect, we cannot keep selling off, breaking down or wiping traditional services off the map . There is only one thing which keeps countries alive , either for the good or the bad , and that is collective power. That power and will to power in a constructive civilised mode.

  14. Bloke
    April 1, 2024

    A proper quality Government and its Cabinet would have foreseen and prevented the maverick BoE going awry, but remains wrong itself. Insert a proper leader as No 1 instead of the existing squatter at No 10. Delaying remedy just adds even more waste.

  15. RDM
    April 1, 2024

    Well Put, there really is nothing else to add, accept that, for the sack of the British Economy, you can’t let this lesson not be learnt!

    The British People need to know that there is an alternative Truth out there, if they are willing to listen!

    The Establishment (the HoL, Political Party’s, BOE, Treasury, Civil Services, aka Rejoiners) are already guiding the Narrative, and the least you can do is too be loud, clear, and to the point!

    The way I read it, as a none Politician, is the effects of the Economic Structure, Behaviour, Environment or Political responses (a fiduciary system) all come within a Monetary Framework ( loosely, M x V = P x Q}), all are embedded within a Money Supply, however well measured or constructed (USA M2 not the same as UK M2), but it needs close attention!

    I really can’t understand why else the Rejoiners think so differently, accept too re-join?

    They seem happy to Bankrupt this country, or laden it with so much debt, that it can’t do any thing else, except rejoin?

    Keep the message out there JR!

    BR

    RDM.

  16. Bryan Harris
    April 1, 2024

    When is Parliament going to act?

    Why hasn’t the Bank been heavily grilled, to find out the true purposes of those that are ruining our economy?

    It seems that the Bank is in league with the Chancellor to create a similar effect.

  17. DOM
    April 1, 2024

    We know what the problem is but no Tory MP is prepared to say so in public. National interest comes last in the now woke Tory party

    1. Original Richard
      April 1, 2024

      Woke is simply the fifth column Marxists/communists at work to destroy the West’s wealth, social cohesion and ultimately security. Woke will invent and promote any policy which weakens and wrecks our nation. Attacking our history, implementing diversity to replace meritocracy, abolishing free speech, causing racist, religious and gender/sex divisions and ruining our education/culture, judicial system, economy and military capability are all tools they use.

      The reason why so much woke is hypocritical and impractical economy destroying nonsense is because the only coherent thread running through it all is the wrecking of the West using the tactics of Net Zero and mass immigration whilst organising protests, strikes, lock-ins, lock-outs, harassment and disruptive demonstrations for any reason they can find.

      1. anon
        April 1, 2024

        Elite capture or Elite Merger. The uni party majority have no allegiance to the British public.

        Post democratic age they say.

        Did we really make it past naked feudalism to threadbare glove form?

        Who is really gaining from the never ending wars, destructive policies enforced without any approved referenda or mandates.

        Reform will have a challenge to arrest the 5th column hold on our collective institutions.

        The conservative party should do the only honourable thing left for them and stand down all candidates.

  18. Mickey Taking
    April 1, 2024

    Sunak confirms he has stopped the boats, we’ve got better paid jobs (min wage), waiting lists for NHS reduced, inflation halved, and debt fell!
    I must go check the calendar!

    1. Bloke
      April 1, 2024

      ‘First Lord of the Treasury’ appears on his post box. This errant coxswain couldn’t stop a boat or piece of driftwood, even if he was on it as First Lord of the Admiralty.

    2. Berkshire Alan
      April 1, 2024

      MT
      You beat me to it !

      Net Zero policy also proving a massive success, with a huge take up of heat pumps and electric vehicles just over the horizon.

    3. Christine
      April 1, 2024

      Every day is an April Fool’s joke with this government.

    4. Jim+Whitehead
      April 1, 2024

      MT, ++++. Woke festivals last for more than just one day. They last and last and morph and twist into further iterations to give the illusion of success and pervading dominance of the propaganda supercharged foolish and failing ideas

    5. Diane
      April 1, 2024

      MT – Stopped the boats, like he.. he has. Yesterday, Easter Sunday March 31st: 442 further arrivals in 9 boats. 349 in 7 boats the day before. That makes a total for March alone 3.180. Where exactly are they all now ?

      1. Timaction
        April 1, 2024

        In a 4* Hotel near you to never be deported and then family invites at ours the 46% expense. Meanwhile English people and our miltary personnel on housing waiting lists go to the back of the queue. 50% of social housing in London is occupied by people who weren’t born here. Where do the needy English people go…….the back of the queue under the Uni Party. Refuse to repeal ECHR or turn the boats around. The only solution. Forget Red herring Rwanda!

      2. glen cullen
        April 1, 2024

        A total of 791 migrants made the journey on 30 and 31 March, according to the Home Office. The government’s figures indicate that 349 crossed on Saturday, with a further 442 spotted on Sunday.
        We’re going to need a bigger Rwanda

  19. Original Richard
    April 1, 2024

    To quote Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

    So the wrecking of our finances can only be deliberate as is the wrecking of the economy with unilateral Net Zero and our social cohesion and security with mass immigration, both legal and illegal.

    To quote Einstein : “Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”

    So any vote for any of the existing Parliamentary parties is the very definition of insanity for those voters who wish to end the current BOE financial policies and the policies of mass immigration and Net Zero, as their vote will always be seen by these parties as a mandate to continue with these policies.

    1. Ian B
      April 1, 2024

      @Original Richard +1 agreed but just as with Sir John you are talking to the wall

  20. William Long
    April 1, 2024

    If the review was carried out by the Bank itself, can we be surprised that it approved its own actions? To be credible, any reviewing needs to be done by an outside and detached body. Why is the Treasury Select Committee not on the case? Or perhaps it is, and has been brainwashed by the Bank?

  21. Kenneth
    April 1, 2024

    And April 1st is a good day to remind everyone that a proper Conservative government would never have allowed this to happen.

    1. Ian B
      April 1, 2024

      @Kenneth +1 – the trouble is it went AWOL when the Socialist took over and now they juts don’t care it will sink into oblivion aided by them all

      1. Original Richard
        April 1, 2024

        Ian B :

        Correct. A majority of Conservative MPs will be pefectly happy to see a Labour adinistration and thus a continuation of mass immigration (legal and illegal) and Net Zero. They’ve done their best to hold the line againts the wishes of a majority of voters and are now happy to hand over the reins to Labour.

        It’s perfectly clear they simply don’t care what happens to the UK.

  22. Berkshire Alan
    April 1, 2024

    Bank of England seem to be a Law unto themselves .

  23. Javelin
    April 1, 2024

    According to the BBC it had a total income of £5.73bn in 2023. According to statistica.com the total advertising revenue including subscriptions for private sector TV was £5.38bn.

    So you could get rid of the BBC fee and pay for the entire private sector and get rid of adverts.

    “In 2022, television advertising revenue including broadcaster video on demand (BVOD) was worth approximately 5.38 billion British pounds in the United Kingdom (UK).”- statistica.com

    “ The BBC’s total income from the licence fee was £3.74bn in 2023, when it accounted for about 65% of the BBC’s total income of £5.73bn.” – BBC

  24. Bert+Young
    April 1, 2024

    We all know ( except 10 Downing St ) that the BoE has the wrong team at its helm ; it is like the ship that has recently done huge damage in Baltimore . When any system fails to work heads should roll .

    1. Original Richard
      April 1, 2024

      B+Y :

      What makes you think that “10 Downing Street” does not realise that the “BoE has the wrog team at its helm”?

  25. Ralph Corderoy
    April 1, 2024

    The Bank of England’s task is to deploy its weight to help stabilise the worldwide fiat-money system under the direction of the Bank of International Settlements, the BIS. This makes sense of its actions. The US Federal Reserve can’t do too many contradictory things at once plus each central bank’s manipulations have different size effects. Sometimes a small cog is directed, sometimes a medium-size one. It is central planning and has produced a long cycle of crisis fixed by bailout which causes a bigger crisis needing a bigger bailout. But not ad infinitum.

    1. Original Richard
      April 1, 2024

      RC :

      Not forgetting that PM Sunak when Chancellor said at COP26 :
      “So our third action is to rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.”

      And Mark Carney, former Governor of the BoE, who is now working for Bloomberg, is the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.

      The UK is being scammed.

  26. The Prangwizard
    April 1, 2024

    The tragedy which is our society and economy is, no matter what disasters and even crimes are brought about by the elites and the establishment, NO-ONE IS PUNISHED, THEY STAY IN POST. This is helped because almost no individuals particularly MPs dare or wish to demand their punishment. They just set up an inquiry which gets nowhere and takes years. Suffering goes on.

    We must remove them ourselves somehow.

    Reply A lot of MPs have been forced out of Parliament since 2019 for bad conduct. Some bad conduct was admitted, some proven and some denied. 2 Prime Ministers have been forced into resignation.

    1. Margaret
      April 1, 2024

      For many years the moves by the liars is twist matters around,steal legitimacy and back those morons up.It is not about honesty but rather one sect insidiously gaining power.We in this country are at a crucial stage in our evolution and we cannot check every little switch which happens in daily life, but from the smallest lie, with the intention of gaining power, switching will ruin us and leave us in a third world state.
      Please do not encourage private self centered betrayal of the country any more.

  27. Iain gill
    April 1, 2024

    They love open doors immigration too.

    The ruling class are determined to destroy what is left of this country.

  28. Keith from Leeds
    April 1, 2024

    You talk about the effect but ignore the cause. Sunak and Hunt must be happy with Bailey because they have not sacked him.
    Sack Bailey, sack the Monetary Policy Committee, close down the OBR, and sack Hunt and Sunak, as they are both intellectually weak.
    The fact is Conservative MPs are tolerating mediocrity, so that is what we get.

  29. Ian B
    April 1, 2024

    Jeremy Hunt who says he is the Chancellor for this Conservative Government has been grabbing money from us all much of it through sleight of hand. As per his job description he then gets to control what is spent (or is it as his track record shows just gives away) and is required to get a return for us all, so as he is the one dedicated to bailing out the BoE for all their mistakes, he is along with this Government should be the ones on the chopping block for what seems like a trend in throwing ‘our’ money away when it comes to bailing our repeatedly the BoE.
    Its probably why this Conservative Government made a big deal about giving our pensioners who contributed for 30 years a big uplift to a primly sum of £8,814 a year (£169.50 per week), then through fiscal drag pulled nearly all of it back. This from a man that says £100,000 per annum is not a lot of money. The Chancellor certainly knows how to take money out of the economy, but he doesn’t know how to make it work for the economy therefore us all.
    The BoE should be back as part of the Treasury or it should be truly independent, like many issues this is another Conservative Government fudge relying on smoke and mirrors to hide incompetence.

  30. Ian B
    April 1, 2024

    From the Telegraph

    “Sir Iain, a former Tory leader, said voters had good reasons to be “angry, annoyed and fed up” with his party over legal and illegal immigration and a record post-war tax burden.”

    ‘His comments came after a Survation poll of 15,029 people suggested the Tories will win 98 seats to Labour’s 468, giving Sir Keir Starmer’s party a majority of 286 seats and raising fresh questions about the future of Rishi Sunak’s leadership.’ – What leadership? A lot of taxpayer funded entities have taken a leaf out of style an mirror his attitude to those that pay his and their wages.

    Just think a 80 seat majority trashed and that was before we got to April 1st

    1. Ian B
      April 1, 2024

      Would any of the other tribes be any better – of course not they just wouldn’t be this lot living a lie about being Conservative, working for every one, seeking a UK existence, democracy, freedoms, a future

    2. glen cullen
      April 1, 2024

      All self inflicted

  31. Lynn Atkinson
    April 1, 2024

    Would it not be a relief if the BOE/Treasury were Fools only in April? But is a year round achievement. In fact it’s criminal negligence because the FACT of monetarism was PROVEN by the Thatcher interlude.
    These obdurate people refuse to learn. They must be parted from their sinecure and thrust into the real world to see if the Laws of Economics can penetrate their thick heads.
    I’m right out of giggles at this point.

  32. glen cullen
    April 1, 2024

    ”Reform pledges net zero referendum in fresh challenge to Sunak
    Promise is latest move by party to outflank Conservatives on the Right and attract disaffected Tory voters”
    Tories – Your move

  33. Derek
    April 1, 2024

    And Mr Bailey is still the Governor? Mr Hunt, why?

  34. Mike Wilson
    April 1, 2024

    Another day, another sound thrashing of the Conservative Government by its supporters. It’s interesting to observe.

    I wonder if there is an equivalent Labour site.

    1. glen cullen
      April 1, 2024

      Open & honest debate is indeed a rare thing these days

  35. Original Richard
    April 2, 2024

    “It is irrelevant that Japan, Switzerland and China who all import a lot of energy did not have the same high inflation.”

    It needs to be remembered that the following figures apply to these countries for electricity generated by renewables :

    UK : 40%
    Japan : 15%
    Swizerland : Less than 1%. In fact 90% is hydro and nuclear, an excellent combination.
    China : 15%

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