The Governor of the Bank should have apologised for the high inflation of recent years when he spoke at the Mansion House.
The Bank has one overriding duty,to keep inflation to around 2% per annum. It allowed inflation to hit 11%. It consistently told us inflation would not rise anything like that amount. Being unable to forecast inflation meant the Bank could not follow a good policy on interest rate levels or size of its bond portfolio.
The Bank spent 2021 creating more Central Bank money and keeping interest rates very low. It then was surprised when this produced the predictable inflation. It lurched in 2022 to hiking interest rates and selling many of the bonds it had bought at ridiculously high prices at the much lower prices it was creating.
The Bank claimed the inflation was caused by the Ukraine war which it could not predict,seeking to sidestep all responsibility for the bad forecasts and bad inflation outcome. This excuse does not work. U.K. inflation hit 6% or three times target before Russia invaded. The Swiss, Japanese and Chinese Central Banks which did not create so much extra money and buy more bonds presided over inflation which stayed around 2% despite the oil price surge that did follow war time decisions. The Fed and ECB made similar mistakes to the Bank of England and also ended up with higher inflation and wrong forecasts.
The Bank needs urgently to review its past errors. It should stop selling bonds at huge losses,a policy no other Central Bank is following. It is burdening taxpayers and intruding on fiscal policy.
November 17, 2024
Indeed but Sunak was Chancellor under Boris at the time and their idiotic net lockdowns, covid support, net harm Covid Vaccines (see the excess death and timings of them), QE and vast borrowing and waste agenda was as much to blame as the incompetent BoE (HS2, duff degrees, Covid lunacy, PPE fraud, “vaccines”. Plus the government is in charge of the BoE in reality but chose to go along with their currency debasing agenda.
It seems plenty of people told the daft as a brush Sunak not to throw the towel in early. We could be having the election now. So why did the dope do it. Why too did he tell the house the Covid Vaccines were unequivocally safe and why has he still not corrected this?
November 17, 2024
Top advisor Isak Levido according to the Sunday Times. Surely anyone with even half a brain would have advised Sunak to go for Nov. and to actually act on the migrants (and ditch of postpone for ever NET Zero). Was Sunak the only one who thought going early and standing in the rain with Labour supporter playing music the the background was a good plan? Why oh why, oh why, you stupid dope Sunak.
November 17, 2024
But why would you have wanted Sunak to continue as PM ? You think his policies would have been materially different to Labour’s ? You seriously think he was prepared to take on the ECHR over Rwanda ? And we know now that in private to Jenrick he was saying mass (legal) immigration was a deliberate policy to boost the economy (Liz Truss believed this too actually) ? 4-5 years of Labour will be a useful corrective.
November 17, 2024
Had Sunak either been replaced with say Kemi or even stayed on, at the very least we would have had more time to prepare for the Starmer disaster and had they done a deal with Farage the landslide would certainly have been at least hugely reduced.
November 17, 2024
+1
November 17, 2024
Stupid dope Sunak was complicit as one of the “grown-ups” in the ousting and spreading of bad mouthing of Truss. He shouldn’t have done that. The “grown-ups” turned out to be shildren.
November 17, 2024
Good morning.
Sorry but I wish to go off topic.
I have just watched, Harry’s Farm on YT. He claims that the Treasury have got its figure wrong over IHT for farmers. With such bad information being given to the government, whether it comes from the Treasury, the BoE, OBR etc how can any government hope to run the country.
It is high time that CS’s are made to pay for their errors. They are costing us too much.
November 17, 2024
Taking 20% off the capital value of a farm off a family every generation will be close to taking all the post tax income from the farm off them for the 25-35 years generation. With income tax, vat, NI and IHT every 20 odd years they will effectively taking almost the whole farm returns off you. This as returns in farming can be rather low relative to capital deployed but it can be similar for some businesses too.
November 17, 2024
This is a deliberate attempt to close down farms, providing us with less real food, so that the false meat ‘Plant’ products are our only choice. Farmland could then be repurposed to hold windmills and solar panels.
November 17, 2024
Solar panel in the UK give you some intermittent energy but mainly middle of the day and in the warmer months. So when least needed and the cost of storage is prohibitive so rarely worth the cost!
November 17, 2024
That won’t stop them from destroying farmland for a hoax
November 17, 2024
Labour won’t get re-elected.
November 17, 2024
Agreed. He also pointed out other budget measures that will add significantly to the costs of farming. I have heard of one farmer who says he will earn £1000 per acre of he install solar panels even better than Harry Metcalfe will earn by planting grasses instead of crops. Has the government worked out where it will buy the food that will no longer be grown on UK farms? And has it worked out which industries will still be around the earn the export revenues to pay for it?
November 17, 2024
Government measures affecting farmers are entirely consistent with their overarching Net Zero policy. The government knows exactly what it is doing in that regard.
November 17, 2024
“Overarching Net Zero policy which is nonsense.
November 17, 2024
Keir-Ching! is implementing the WEF’s policy to destroy small farms …. just as Rutte tried in The Netherlands.
The WEF doesn’t want small businesses; it represents Globalists and global corporations with “the peasants” working as wage slaves and their behaviour controlled by a social credit system. If they control the food supply, they control the people.
November 17, 2024
+1
This is what happens when you employ people who are, shall we say, economical with the truth, especially when it comes to their ‘life history’ 😉
November 17, 2024
Surely, it’s more efficient for countries such as Morocco with the Sahara desert to put up solar panels and export the energy to Europe. Meanwhile we can produce high quality meat and export to Morocco and countries like that?!
November 17, 2024
Problem is, right now, there’s no economical electrical storage. Morocco is just west of us, so produces solar energy much the same time period as us. We need it at night, especially if the wind don’t blow.
Solve the storage problem and make yourself RICH!
November 17, 2024
Indeed you might get double the electricity from placing the panel in sunny places but you have to have inter-connectors and consider costs and losses.
November 17, 2024
Have a listen to “The Rest is Money” podcast released today. There’s a walk through of the figures to put some real context on this.
Firstly, with the new rules, farmers can leave an estate of up to £3 million tax free to their children (the podcast walks through why this is the case). Anything above that is taxed at a lower rate than other inheritences (in the very small number of cases where any inheritence tax is paid at all since about 96% of all estates pay zero).
Secondly, the total number of estates in a year that pass on assets at that sort of a level (£2.5-3 million) is just over 100. That’s out of a total number of deaths in 2023 of just over 580,000.
Etc Ed
Why did Jeremy Clarkson buy a farm and call it “Diddly Squat”?
Reply These figures are contested by NFu and I think by DEFRA.I think Clarkson is drawing attention to low or no profits in farming
November 17, 2024
To transfer assets free of IHT you have to live for at least 7 years post transfer. The proposed theft of farms will kick in in two years time, making it impossible for those who haven’t already engaged in estate planning to do it. Elderly “small-family-farm” farmers saw no need to prepare in that way because they believed that their farm would pass onto their family without an IHT levy.
The budget policy is utterly appalling …. and is designed to drive small family farms out of business.
November 17, 2024
Well you can gift surplus out of income and also gift capital and take 7 years of life cover in case you do not make it or pass to wife amd do this if her life cover is cheaper. Also family LLPs can help I understand.
November 17, 2024
fundermentalwills.co.uk ‘How to avoid inheritance tax on farms in the UK: 5 Proven strategies for agricultural estate planning’.
Apart in case of a sudden death of the owner, it seems that only mugs would be paying IHT as the seven-year rule is still in place plus the deductions for Agricultural Property Relief (on the property) and Business Relief (on buildings and equipment).
Moreover alternatively putting such a farm in a trust (20% tax over the threshold (£1.325m?) to open it, then cost 6% every 10 years) is still a possibility.
My understanding agrees with PP, at least £3m of a farm can be passed without IHT.
November 17, 2024
It is 1.5m for a single owner.
3m only applies to two person ownership.
Which then can create a problem for the surviving owner.
Farms are often asset rich on paper but cash poor.
Finding the cash to pay the tax each time someone dies is a real problem.
November 17, 2024
As discussed on gov.uk ‘What are the changes to agricultural property relief?’ 05/11/2024 any farmer with a direct descendant willing to take over the farm can if properly done seven years before the death of the original owner leave the farm in the family without IHT.
November 17, 2024
Now you’ve switched to the seven year allowance hefner.
My post never mentioned this.
And this sudden unexpected reversal of tax treatment means any elderly farm owner who fails to live at least seven years more will suffer a new tax hit.
November 17, 2024
Two more interesting documents:
gov.uk 16/09/2024 ‘Farming evidence – key statistics’.
gov.uk 24/10/2024 ‘Agricultural price indices – United Kingdom: August 2024’.
November 18, 2024
So high tax hefner is right and the whole farming industry and the National Farmers Union are wrong.
Your views create a good argument for reversing this Inheritance Tax change as you say it will raise very little.
November 17, 2024
The Treasury figures purport to relate to APR, their figures reflect the previous number of claims per year. These reflect the levels of fixed assets in an estate may include house, cottages , land, woods, ponds etc
The measures proposed cover also BPR, which relate to buildings, crops harvested and growing, livestock, machinery and plant, material stocks etc which have been included in DEFRA figures.
Many more estates are within scope when both taxes are appropriate, these may include tenants as well as freeholders and affect all businesses where assets are owned by the proprietor.
Government should get their Departments to rationalise these differences; they then might more fully understand the furore and hopefully diffuse the time-bomb.
They should alse realise that the levels of return upon the capital they are intent in taxing do not permit the payment within a generation .
November 17, 2024
Well if the numbers are so low, why bother with the change of tax at all, given it will raise miniscule tax?
I suspect the numbers will be much closer to what the NFU are saying, and it will be a disaster for those affected.
Family businesses which have developed over generations, and are the livelihoods of those who inherit them should not be cut up with inheritance tax. This is utterly immoral.
If the farmers can bring down the government, I wholly support them. The damage it is set on doing can’t wait another 5 years to rectify. The last lot were awful, but at least you felt if you could win the arguments change might be effected. This Labour government are wise in their own conceit and beyond reason.
November 17, 2024
DA
I have to agree, as many families and other business owners will eventually find out !
When a three bedroom family home is worth £500,00 or more in many parts of the Country (especially in London) a single person with no children will also be liable for lHT
To avoid regional differences the-designated home should be exempt from the calculations.
November 17, 2024
The capital value of Farmland has been pushed up by people using it for IHT tax planning purposes. The Tories are to blame for this as they had penal IHT on most assets but not on Farmland. No IHT at all is best but tax systems certainly should be fiscally neutral.
November 17, 2024
If it is that small a number that will pay IHT why change the rules? It won’t generate much money and requires a lot of planning to avoid.
November 17, 2024
and will piss off large numbers of voters at the next election.
November 17, 2024
@Mark B – according to Guido just one man a far-left academic who produced a report for the IFS as their tax expert, and is also an advisor to the OBR has suggested these attacks through them as well. Along with many other attacks he has presented our ever so experienced former BoE economist Chancellor(sarc). Yet another unellected and unaccountable individual is bringing misery to thousands without recourse while ensuring immunity from the attacks and not contributing equally – the 2 Tier System of State Control and Government
Reply Many Labour MPs believe in class warfare by taxation.
November 17, 2024
@Reply, so true, although not to different from the last shower they just tend to be more vindictive, idealogical and petty at the same time. The obsession to contrive more tax take, obscures the need to control and manage expenditure as bing the root of the Uniparty’s problem. Both sets for got one thing it is not their money it is ours
November 17, 2024
Meanwhile, in the USA a Democrat Representative for North Carolina with the unusual name of Wiley Coyote( correction Nickel) believes a shadow cabinet, along British lines, would prevent Trump from achieving many of his plans.
Obviously, it was not a very in depth examination of how British shadow cabinets work.
November 17, 2024
I watched Question Time the other day. Five people plus the Chairwoman, non of whom showed any sign of any understanding of energy, engineering, climate, logic, energy economics… Why not at least have one such person on a Matt Ridley type?
One person was even so daft she thought Valencia floods were to do with manmade CO2!
Another said the amount of “power” stored in an EV car would power a house for a week. Well he meant energy but perhaps does not know the difference. Anyway two days would be more like it and if the house was heated by heat pumps and it was winter and had an EV car it would be more like 2 hours.
Who would want to use their car to overcome the intermittency of “renewables” who want a flat car in the morning and the charge discharge depreciation caused makes in uneconomic to do so.
He then made the idiotic statement that you cannot recycle petrol but can recycle EV batteries.
Well the battery is essentially the fuel tank mate not the fuel. You can easily recycle a £50 plastic tank. £20,000 of EV batteries is a rather harder problem and vastly more expensive to renew. Plus the Batteries last only 6-10 years far cheaper plastic tanks last far longer 30 years often.
The petrol is the equivalent of the electricity used to charge the battery and is largely generated from Coal, Gas, Oil, Nuclear, burning wood at Drax anyway! And not renewables are not cheaper once back up is considered. So just the same a petrol.
November 17, 2024
Call that net-zero, Sir Keir? Britain has an astonishing 470 DELEGATES at climate change summit that’s a 5,000-mile round-trip flight.
The Mail on Sunday today! Did they not all cycle there? Not that that would save CO2 but at least these people would not be doing more harm to the UK for a week or three if harmlessly cycling.
November 17, 2024
All five + chair on QT we believers in the CO2 devil gas religion needless to day. The BBC bias on this topic is a total outrage and as usual the BBC is wrong on the issue. Thank goodness for the climate realist Trump. The BBC also endlessly attacking Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for health secretary for his Vaccine Realism and being for bing a “conspiracy theory” person.
Conspiracies like Covid came from a lab and the Covid vaccines and lockdowns did more harm than good and Net Zero is an exaggerated scam, big Pharma largely controlled the regulators – all of which are now almost certainly completely true!
November 17, 2024
So you watched the BBC, LL. Why? You know very well why the BBC won’t have on the QT panel someone like Matt Ridley. You’re well aware the BBC has it in for anyone who criticised the Covid vaccines. Can I recommend you don’t spend your time supporting the national propaganda broadcaster by tuning in to it, and you save your money by not paying for it?
November 17, 2024
Well I have to pay as there are somethings my wife and children like to watch (one at university does not then need a licence if she watches iplayer on the laptop not plugged in they say how would they know?). And I like to watch things just to check on how absurd their bias is and how many times they can say wrongly due to “global warming/climate change”. I stopped paying for it at my second home many years back. Some programmes are truly hilarious Woman’s Hour for example especially when on about anything to do with the “gender pay gap”.
November 17, 2024
Nice explanation of the tank/battery reality LL. I appreciate your sacrifice in watching the execrable QT – I gave up doing that years ago ….. it’s almost entirely lefty propaganda now overseen by a drip.
November 17, 2024
LL : “Who would want to use their car to overcome the intermittency of “renewables” who want a flat car in the morning and the charge discharge depreciation caused makes in uneconomic to do so.”
They know this of course. They will make it mandatory to connect an ev to the grid whenever it is parked up or at least overnight.
Anyway the idea that evs will somehow save the grid when the wind isn’t blowing is nonsense. Firstly there will not be sufficient evs and hence energy available and more importantly there is insufficient capacity in the local grids to handle the power. 80% or more of our local grids can only supply 1-2KW/household continuously. So only 1 in 7 houses could have an ev and heat pumps in every household without massive local grid upgrades are totally impossible.
When they cut off the gas we will freeze.
November 17, 2024
Lastly, we’re heading more in the direction of Blade Runner / Star Wars in technological sense than Mad Max but if we’re not careful things could end up Mad Max from one degree to another.
November 17, 2024
Interconnector energy from France is currently at 20% as at 13:00hrs today ….a fifth of our energy is imported https://grid.iamkate.com/
November 17, 2024
I think we’re only at beginning of Green Tech. Technology is getting incredible weird – in a good way – bit like quantum physics. It’s absolutely inevitable that fossil fuels will become redundant. What we need to ensure is that the transition to green fuel and tech doesn’t upset the economy (it does NOT have to) and the UK becomes a leader in this Green Tech. Which will stop being called ‘green’ as it becomes more and more normal and integrated with other traditionally non-green tech. I mean how far are we from people travelling privately in enlarged drones and that will be fuelled by electricity not by petrol.
November 17, 2024
Ed M :
Why will “fossil fuels” (hydrocarbons) become redundant?
How will we get CO2 that has been taken up by shelled marine animals back into the atmosphere so that plants can grow and life can exist on the planet?
November 17, 2024
Fossil fuels will become more and more like the culture of smoking cigarettes. I’m not saying i agree with that. But that’s just how it is.
Also, a lot of scientists enjoy the challenge of making tech that draws energy out of the earth (green energy) and making the tech for it to fuel (green tech).
And entrepreneurs just want to make as much money as they can where culture / the consumer market is driving changes in technology and we use energy.
I’m not saying I think it’s right or wrong. I’m just looking at it from the POV of how the UK can be a leader in this tech for the sake of money and skilled jobs! (And I think most people in high tech, advertising and marketing which is my background – the big firms – would agree with me).
November 17, 2024
Yes, I’m sure big tech and influencers would agree with you.
November 17, 2024
Ed M :
Sorry but you haven’t answered my question. Atmospheric CO2 has been in a steady decline for the last 150m years. Dr Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, believes this decline is because shelled marine animals have been using the CO2 to make their shells. 100 million billion tonnes of CO2 are locked up in carboniferous limestone rocks and consequently CO2 dropped 9 times in the last 800,000 years to 180 ppm just 30ppm above the minimum level for plants to survive. We therefore need more CO2 in the atmosphere and burning hydrocarbon fuels not only provides affordable and reliable energy but also raises the level of CO2 and aids plant growth enormously.
November 17, 2024
You really have a strange understanding of the carbon cycle.
November 17, 2024
Yes this idea that EV car batteries can power the grid if required is curious. Let’s leave aside the complex and costly technical issues of returning power to the grid (which operates as AC rather than DC), the proposition is that if we have a day with no wind then no-one is allowed to use their cars and they are all somehow connected to the grid (even the 50%+ without home chargers) and they all run down their batteries to power the grid ? How’s is that supposed to be implemented ? It is absurd.
November 17, 2024
But those with fossil fuelled care will find the roads much quieter the next morning.
November 17, 2024
of course the reverse could also be true, if batteries were run down to say 10 miles left the owners might be queuing at the fast recharge sites.
November 17, 2024
I think we have done the Bank of England to death. Not without good reason, but the audience who are with you are begining to yawn. It is begining to take on a similar ennui to dear LL’s battle against covid vaccines. There are bigger current dragons to slay.
The self motivated police fight against freedom of speech. While I acknowledge that there may be some unforgivable things written on ths internet, even worse than that said under parliamentary privalege, without subsequent aplology in some cases. It does not merit their attack on journalists or children in playgrounds. It emphasises the inadequasy of failed policing, desperately grabbing at the lowest fruit. While at the same time ignoring shoplifting, mugging, burglary and car theft. All of which require a bit more than simple addition, perhaps to the application of a touch of algebra. At the heart of their failing is the police senior college and their product of socially engineered senior police officers with the script writers at the Home Office.
Then there are the small and average sized farmers of the UK. All being asaulted by the economic illiteracy of the Chancellor , the Treasury, and ultimately HMRC. It may be only one of her sins from her budget, but it is occupation specific, and the results shortly to become obvious in our supermarkets and the cost to the shopper. This is another piece of class envy driven by the mallice of Islington.
So, give the BOE and its govenor a rest, the level of incompetence is a natural home for Labour and the ingredients for their permanent departure.
Reply Go to another site if you do not like this one. I write about things I understand and wish to change. No one else is highlighting the failings of the Bank and the huge impact they have on political and economic outturns.
November 17, 2024
R to R
Sir John no one doubts the importance of what you write but, when there are equally serious matters at hand, such as the attack on farmers and farming, coupled with so many breath taking deeds by this government, whist it is good to read what you write one cannot fail to be compelled to speak out on other matters.
Sorry to take your article off topic, but I am in a little shock at the scale of the abis we are about to decend into. As for the BoE and its woeful actions, as the Black Knight would say compared to all this current government has so far done, “It is but a scratch !”
November 17, 2024
The subject of the failing BOE is as boring as is poverty. Unless you are content to be poor it must be tackled to reverse the situation.
November 17, 2024
Agricola has a point. An ex-MP for what was described as semi-rural constituency might be expected to take more of an interest in promoting food security and retaining the farmland that it requires. This issue is moving higher and higher up the scale of priorities: “today’s issues and tomorrow’s problems”, as our good host describes them. By comparison, I don’t feel I need to be reminded yet again of the fact that the BoE and its governor aren’t doing the job properly.
November 17, 2024
Agricola,
“It is begining to take on a similar ennui to dear LL’s battle against covid vaccines.”
Since you mention him, LL was at 6 posts out of 12 this morning. Seems anything he posts gets published. He has stated that none of his posts get deleted.
November 17, 2024
Bailey will do everything he can to prop up the communists in government. He’d already showing his true colours by saying Brexit harmed the UK economy. The fact we had higher growth until 2TK started trashing the country is never mentioned by the BoE or the OBR.
Bailey brought Truss down by selling of gilts at an enormous loss to the taxpayer and blaming her budget.
It will be interesting to see who gets the blame when we go into recession whilst America booms.
No doubt it will be some outside influences.
November 17, 2024
So why does Bailey largely escape criticism apart from that for falling asleep in a meeting when he was in the FCA?
November 17, 2024
The IMF and WEF protect their own.
November 17, 2024
He escapes criticism from the Conservatives because they appointed him and from Labour/LibDem because he supports their policies.
November 17, 2024
Maybe we should take a close look at Bailey’s CV to see if there is anything of note ?
November 17, 2024
Like how many companies he might have been involved with prior to Administration?
November 17, 2024
“The Bank of England damaged the U.K. economy, not Brexit”
Indeed but the failure to take full advantage of Brexit did too as did the Covid lunacy from Boris and Sunak and the 14 years of tax borrow and waste Socialism from Cameron through to Sunak and now even worse from Starmer with 2/3rds of MPs from 20% of the electorate gifted to them by throw the towel in six months early and pushed of the Net Zero scam and vast open door low skilled immigration Sunak.
November 17, 2024
Reeves seems to have been retrospectively correcting her CV dishonesties. But surely the main thing to correct is her huge lie that her budget was “a budget for growth”. It was the complete reverse in every respect.
November 17, 2024
She should be drummed out of parliament for lying on her CV
In the private sector it’s a sacking offence.
In government lying is seen as a positive trait
November 17, 2024
Indeed David Cameron “I will stay on as PM post the EU referendum (either outcome) and deliver the section 50 Notice the next day”, “I am a low tax at heart Conservative”, migration reduced “to the tens of thousands”, May “Brexit means Brexit” Sunak “the Covid Vaccine are safe”, Starmer & Reeves “we will not tax working people”, “a budget for growth”… plus far too many others to list. And allof them pushing the Net Zero con trick – liars or so stupid to have actually fallen for the alarmist scam religion?
November 17, 2024
Ian, it is practice for further statements made, and perhaps yet more to come.
November 17, 2024
+1
November 17, 2024
and we will not increase tax for working people (oh and benefits claimants).
November 17, 2024
Good Morning,
Conclusion: The ‘Independent’ BoE, essentially the Money Management office of the Treasury Department, developed it’s own political agenda over time. That agenda developed because the BoE doesn’t have to follow the political principles that of the government in office, hence the political views of the Chairman became the guiding force for the institution.
The overt anti-Brexit stance, the undermining of the Truss plans were the most egregious evidence of its political activities. Tories could have, but didn’t, sort that out.
November 17, 2024
Our host never seems interested in pursuing the reason why the BoE ‘made the same mistake’ as the Fed in the USA. We surely have to question whether the BoE is independent and takes its own decisions. As for Bailey’s claim that he could not predict the Ukraine war, British intelligence did, and I doubt that would have been kept from him. In any case, plans were being made years ago which he must have known about, to bring Ukraine’s economy into the Western orbit via privatisation and engagement with the International Monetary Fund. This meant turning Ukraine away from Russia, a clear provocation to the Kremlin. The National Bank of Ukraine was talking about being at war with Russia years before 2022, because of the Donbas conflict. If Bailey didn’t follow that situation and its possible consequences, he was very remiss. Anyone in business knows that regularly conducting a SWOT analysis is vital, but apparently Bailey didn’t do so.
November 17, 2024
The B of E is Independent from the British Government-of-the-Day. That doesn’t make it truly independent.
From the Maastrict Treaty onwards, the UK committed to run the economy in the interests of the EU. You will recall that with his Windsor betrayal, Sunak announced that “we don’t compete with friends” …. so it appears to me that the Maastrict “principle” still applies and that is what Bailey is doing.
Perhaps Sir John would comment on that since he has far more expertise in this area than I do?
November 17, 2024
@Donna – “The B of E is Independent from the British Government-of-the-Day.” Yet successive chancellors have handed them £45billion of Taxpayer, Our Money since 2022 to cover their self inflicted loses. As Sir John quite rightly often reminds us, there is no reason for these loses it a choice created by the BoE themselves.
The Chancellor has hold of the public purse ultimately is installed simply to look after ‘our’ money, ‘our’ resources on ‘our’ behalf. So for any Chancellor to give away ‘our’ money with out any recourse applied is just neglect of duty, ineptitude of the highest order
November 17, 2024
Precisely Ian. Why does the Chancellor do it? I think it probably comes back to the Maastricht Treaty/Brexit Deal/Windsor betrayal.
The IMF/WEF don’t want the EU/Euro to collapse. I expect the British economy is therefore still effectively being run in the interests of the EU.
November 17, 2024
Bailey was probably asleep at the wheel ? Again !
It was obvious when ‘Call me Dave’ made his speech about extending the EU all the way to the Urals included Ukraine. It was obvious to me what that meant and the potential implications, and it should have been that for anyone who was paying the slightest interest.
We all know that EU is a politcal project and not an economic one. We all know that its aim is to create a single European State, with one government all the trappings of said government. The Russians certainly knew and knew what they could mean in the future if Ukraine was to become part of the EU and NATO.
November 17, 2024
Philip P ; “We surely have to question whether the BoE is independent and takes its own decisions”
Surely the question is :
Is the Government independent of the BoE and makes its own decisions?
November 17, 2024
All of it was deliberate.
Brexit was never going to be allowed to work and it hasn’t.
We are in a much worse place without the ability to escape it now.
November 17, 2024
Brexit has worked but not to the extent that it would have had the political class taken instruction from the Sovereigns.
November 17, 2024
K :
It has worked. We can escape and we will when we have removed most of the current MPs (and Lords) in Parliament.
November 17, 2024
It wasn’t just the B of E. The entire Remainer Establishment, including many of those in the Not-a-Conservative-Party, were determined to “prove” that Brexit was a mistake and they have deliberately set out to punish “the peasants” for daring to vote Leave. They have hobbled our economy as much as they possibly could.
The Not-a-Conservative-Government supported the deliberate expansionism of the EU knowing full-well that it would provoke Russia. Johnson was sent to Kiev to scupper Zelensky’s negotiations with Putin to ensure that the war continued, costing us a fortune we didn’t have.
Johnson ramped up the WEF’s Net Zero lunacy, bragging that he would make us “The Saudi Arabia of Wind.” Johnson imposed the Covid Tyranny on us and then announced he’d “Build Back Better” ….. the WEF’s mantra.
Hunt could have stopped Bailey from carrying out the Bond-selling programme, but didn’t. Bailey and the B of E are symptoms of the treachery, not the only cause.
November 17, 2024
Boris Johnson also appointed Bailey as Governor of the BoE. There was no proper examination of his CV which hardly supported such a promotion, nevertheless Johnson simply responded to a ‘groundswell’ of support coming from where exactly? Johnson was nor interested in financial matters except in regard to his own.
November 20, 2024
Constitutionally, it is the Sovereign on the advice of the PM who makes the appointment. In practice it is now the Chancellor’s choice but he was new (Javid) so it was the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Tom Scholar, who chose Bailey. Miss Truss sacked Tom Scholar.
November 17, 2024
Donna :
Agreed.
November 17, 2024
Can I suggest a slight modification to the title of this article?
“The UK government damaged the UK economy, not Brexit”
It’s the tax, borrow and waste policy of government which contributes the majority of the damage. I don’t believe leaving the EU was entirely harmless – it did mean British industry had less access to east Europeans to exploit on low wages, and increased costs for exporters, but the effects are heavily exaggerated by the Rejoin lobby. The government on the other hand continued with heavy taxation of business, wasting excessive amounts on the unreformed public sector and their vanity projects.
I run my business in the black and I’ve paid off my mortgage, so personally I’m not much affected by BoE interest rates.
November 17, 2024
@Dave Andrews – as a resilient self reliant individual and businessman you have set yourself up as the next target for Government. You are on sound footings they are not and someone has to pay
November 17, 2024
+1
November 17, 2024
DA
But your customers may be.
November 17, 2024
The too kind Bernanke review should be viewed as only a start: a full audit of the Bank is needed or else we risk continuation of its relentless working against the interests fo the people.
November 17, 2024
The bond fiasco and the BoE poor performance are hardly mentioned (if ever) on the BBC nor most other media.
Why not?
November 17, 2024
Because back in January 2009 the person who should have exposed what was going on, what the Treasury and the Bank were really up to, chose not to do so, after a single brief outburst at Column 487 here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090119/debtext/90119-0004.htm
“Finally, will the Chancellor be straight with people about the announcement today of an asset purchase facility? He mentioned it in his statement, but he did not spell out that it could have implications for the whole country for years to come. That asset purchase facility gives the Bank of England the power to use asset purchases for monetary policy purposes. That amounts to a programme of “quantitative easing” — the modern equivalent of printing money. While no one rules it out, it is the last resort for Governments who have run out of other options. Two weeks ago the Chancellor said in Liverpool that it was “an entirely hypothetical debate”; that was the phrase that he used. Two weeks later, it has become a real option for which the Government are clearly preparing. What has changed in the space of a fortnight?”
A lengthy summary offered on January 11 2014 can be found by searching for the phrase “ad nauseam” here:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2014/01/09/why-are-so-many-out-of-work-in-euroland/#comments
“And I’ve repeatedly pointed out, ad nauseam, for nearly five years now, that as practised in the UK so far the process of QE has meant one arm of the UK state, the government, and specifically the department of the government known as the Treasury, indirectly swapping its IOUs, known as gilts, for IOUs issued by another arm of the state, the Bank of England, which we know as money … “
November 17, 2024
We are well beyond expecting the BoE to correct the problems it has caused. It is time for action by those that regulate the Bank.
Why is parliament doing nothing to remedy the waste and lousy service the BoE provides – it goes through the motions but directs us on to a course where our country will surely flounder.
Have we reached the limit on what democracy can do for us – it seems that way, because it is currently failing us badly, and unless we evolve to a better version, or fix the deep state tragedies happening, then we are all going to be on the rocks.
November 17, 2024
@Bryan Harris – technically it could be argued it is Parliament that is shoring the BoE up by paying all their loses with our (Taxpayer) money causing it to be passed over with out question. The Uniparty in full-flood in using every avenue to get their political message out, as that now seems to be the function of the BoE
November 17, 2024
Cyprus.
If I recall, the Cypriots had their bank accounts frozen and their money taken to pay for their nations debts. And whilst I do not claim the same is happening here, I believe the losses and that high tax regime is being used to pay.
Who or what I do not know.
November 17, 2024
If we had remained in the EU there would have been a Brussels oversight that might have prevented Government and the BoE from making wrong decisions. Before Bailey there was Carney and some politicos were forever complaining about him as well but his legacy lives on. We are where we are.
November 17, 2024
What nonsense – we are already following EU standards, very little has changed since we left.
November 17, 2024
That must explain why the German and French economies are going gangbusters and aren’t collapsing due to the weight of debt, largely caused by the Net Zero lunacy and Covid Tyranny.
Oh. 🙂
November 17, 2024
You have to be careful with irony. Some people don’t get it.
November 17, 2024
The EU made the wrong decisions too ! We needed oversight from the Swiss.
November 17, 2024
The EU has not had their accounts signed off for decades. If they were not a dictatorship they would be in jail.
November 17, 2024
We learn today, talking of banks, that the world bank – another corrupt international quango, is living up to the Western standard of banking and government tracking of monies we saw during covid.
Do we ned any more proof that the climate change religion is the biggest scam of this century so far!
November 17, 2024
Talking of ‘floundering’. I had to go to Dartford this week – it’s one of the few local towns that has any banks.
The town is dying!
Shops are boarded up. There are dismal areas where it feels unsafe to walk, but the town has an aura of decay.
I noticed but one shoe shop, and that is closing too. Certainly the shops that were open were not over-busy.
Just perhaps this is caused by internet shopping, but it feels more like preparations for 15 minute cities.
Are other towns in the same boat?
Yes from what I’ve seen.
Netzero is killing our town centres, inch by inch. All that will be left doesn’t bear talking about!
November 17, 2024
@Bryan Harris – it is in part the disparity in the tax system when it comes to the high street. Businesses on the high-street pay for space as a tax(rates) not by earnings as with the rest of industry. Then again parking charges, aggression towards personal transport taken up by councils results in the final push.
Dartford is now days a fully fledged Conservative stronghold which is a change around, even Mrs Thatcher when she started out couldn’t get elected there, very, very Labour then.
Brian maybe they all use ‘Bluewaters’ or if they can afford the Tolls ‘Lakeside’
November 17, 2024
@Bryan Harris – I would doubt on-line has dented traditional shopping, the products and services are generally all newer than those found on a traditional high street. However, with Dartford the BlueWater facilities offer cleaner easier to access options all with free parking. I would guess pro-rata the local rates(taxes) paid for occupants at Bluewater would be a lot less than the High/Spital Street in Dartford especially when ability to pay based on turnover is factored in.
The Local Councils as with other areas have killed traditional shopping. Here in Wokingham they have driven not only the traditional ones out with high rents(they own a lot of the premises), rates and parking charges, they seem to want to deter anyone going near the place, it makes life quieter for the Councillors.
November 18, 2024
Online shopping and high business rates, of course, have had an effect on shops closing, but more fundamentally we have the problems related to hight taxation and netzero policies, both of which take money out of the economy.
With people now worried about how they will pay their bills, especially for energy, less shopping will happen and with discouragement from councils to visit town centres, along with 20 mph zones more and more shops will go bust.
November 17, 2024
Reeve’s budget appears designed to kill off our town centres.
There are very few retailers who can afford both the increase in the minimum wage AND the increase in employer NI contributions. She has also halved the level at which employer NI contributions must start to be made, which effectively makes part-time employees (which make up the bulk of retail workers) uneconomic.
The same goes for the hospitality industry.
Many retailers in the small town near where I live in the west country have (so far) managed to survive but I fully expect this budget will drive them out of business.
November 17, 2024
I have always argued on this site that ENIC is a tax on jobs. And so it will prove to be.
November 17, 2024
I hear Swindon is going that way.
November 17, 2024
Yes, Swindon has been that way for some time
November 17, 2024
@ Bryan Harris
Food eateries and cheap shops, nail bars etc…is about all that will be left!
Even more wealthy towns have lost the department stores plus all the likes of Next, Top Shop, Woolworths, Wilko, Debenhams. Lakeland, Hotter – they’re only in a few big towns now. It’s quite depressing to see.
November 17, 2024
BH
Yellow lines, parking fees, Ulez, and a host of other costs are part of the cause. ,
November 18, 2024
@Berkshire alan
Absolutely, and all components of destructive netzero policies
November 17, 2024
The BoE has bizarrely adopted a political stance, yet how can this be, the UK Chancellor sends it our Taxpayer Money to cover all losses, but never asks questions never applies sanctions. The presumption is that it is what has given rise to the Two Tier System of Government in the UK – one law for us, no laws for others. Politics should not be funded by the Taxpayer without a say, representation and accountability
Elsewhere we get in the Media “Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy after it was revealed the UK sent an incredible 470 delegates to the UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan.
Britain’s huge delegation to the COP29 talks has left a massive carbon footprint – despite Labour’s zealous drive towards Net Zero – and cost taxpayers millions.”
Public Sector pensions (the Worlds Largest Ponzi Scheme) gets protection the private sector not only doesn’t but has to pay to keep public sector in funds.
November 17, 2024
´the German and French economies going gangbusters’ …
That must earn Donna ´comment of the day‘’reward, a one-year subscription to WEF/IMF publications.
November 17, 2024
Donna is right hefner
The French and German economies are not doing well.
November 17, 2024
Well, the Cambridge Dictionary has it as ‘to show a large amount of energy, activity, speed or sucess’ while the Collins Online Dictionary has it as ‘ to perform strongly’.
November 18, 2024
hefner you seem desperate to avoid the obviously correct statement that the German and French economies are not doing well.
That must earn you a free EU supporters badge.
November 17, 2024
Sir John, your well justified criticism of the BoE is perfectly justified from 2% to 11% inflation is a complete failure of their prime duty.
Sadly if you look at any public sector activity they are all equally failing. There is no Public Sector activity managed by the Public Sector that is achieving any of the objectives set for them.
The list of ongoing deterioration of our public bodies is appalling. The NHS is consuming ever more resourced employing ever more staff and achieving ever poorer outcomes.
The Councils up and down the country, which are the recipients of state funding greater than any other public body are all entering economic collapse. The simple tasks once carried out such as maintaining footpaths running schools repairing the local roads street cleaning and maintenance of public spaces are now virtually abandoned.
Policing is a disgrace on all measures, let’s not mention hate crime focus.
If anyone can name any Public Sector led service that is doing well costing less each year and doing more for the money they receive please enlighten me.
November 17, 2024
425 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France …despite brexit
November 17, 2024
MSN / GBN article 16/Nov : ” Nearly 10.000 migrants deported since election as Starmer ( incl. photo with stern look .. ) organises three BIGGEST return flights ever ” Apparently includes returns to Albania, Poland, Romania & Vietnam. Also mentioned – as it was prior to this – returns incl. to Timor-Leste and Ghana. If this is through efforts made entirely by Labour then credit where credit’s due even if only a case of water treading.
November 17, 2024
And 425 criminals would still come and Remain (see what I did there) even if BREXIT never happened.
I believe the UK Government have done a deal with the EU (France and Germany) to take all these and shut up.
November 17, 2024
If as said above the migrants have been sent to Albania, Poland, Romania, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Ghana, I doubt very much France and Germany had anything to do with it.
November 17, 2024
Agree
November 17, 2024
‘Damage to the UK economy’
Trump appoints an energy secretary who’s pro fracking shale gas
Starmer appoints an energy secretary who’s pro wind-farm
November 17, 2024
And what about the Five Eyes for our intelligence work – It can’t possibly work like that anymore with the changes going on in US – we’d never know who Trump might confide in as a show off – mabye Putin or the N Korea leader Kim or Xi
November 17, 2024
This should make all British citizens wonder what is the purpose of the Bank of England in the 21st Century?
November 17, 2024
To make the rich, richer !
November 17, 2024
A piece of interest maybe from last month by a senior researcher from UK in a Changing Europe – ” The Brexit bill no one’s talking about ” A powerful piece of law that would on the face of it allow UK to unilaterally align with EU regulations related to the environmental impact of products etc., There appear to be hints in there signalling at more expansive intentions. ( The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill )
November 17, 2024
@ Diane We have a corrupt government, preceded by several others…
November 17, 2024
Part of the failed amateur system we’re continuing to suffer
November 17, 2024
Off topic, hot from the press, the same nonsense as before:
https://inews.co.uk/news/return-uk-possible-eu-brexit-reset-starmer-told-3385015
“Brexit reset needs to move UK as close as possible to EU, Starmer warned”
“But the BCC in its report and surveys and evidence has the data from our members to say that they think for traded goods, having as much alignment as possible is beneficial for trade with the EU.”
Why do I say “the same nonsense as before”? Because this is Theresa May in March 2018:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43256183
“businesses who export to the EU tell us that it is strongly in their interest to have a single set of regulatory standards that mean they can sell into the UK and EU markets.”
and so businesses who do not export to the EU, who export to the US or Brazil or China, or who do not export at all, must also follow the same regulatory standards as that minority of businesses who do export to the EU.
And that set us on a path that eventually led to Northern Ireland being partially split off from the rest of the UK.
November 17, 2024
For a long time it was Junker the boogeyman thaàt was to blame then Carney – usually foreigners if you can get them but they are out of fashion now so Bailey will have to do
November 17, 2024
That is wrong. No foreigner has done anything to us. It was our own elected governments that surrendered Britain to aggressive foreign rule, and the Queen agreed with it all and became a common citizen of the EU.