Off Topic JULY 4th 2024 6 months JAN 2025 ..chaos+ more fibs +roughshod attitudes+backtracking +++ C R A S H++

it will only get worse as the companies that are likely to be affected take measures from now till April to "readjust their finances !

eg a COMPANY WITH 50 EMPLOYEE'S PAYING £500 PER WEEK WOULD PAY CIRCA £2,300 EACH that would go up to £3, 100 [per person ] or the SALARIES OF 2 EMPLOYEE'S ... so likely to reduce by natural means retiring or leaving voluntarily a company with 48 employee's and better off by £40,000 per annum with increased NIC.

reducing staff levels might mean production goes down or is absorbed at same level .... because less profit and less expansion!

SHOULD TESCO for example take on more pensioners and reduce staffing mix by an effective 7% that would mean a saving of £90,000,000 big 6 [ include COOP ] that could mean a saving of around half a billion of the so called increase

 

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves campaigned on a promise to make Britain the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
But new data shows that the country has in fact crashed near the bottom of the growth table in the months since the election.
GDP growth plunged from 0.5pc in the second quarter of the year to 0.1pc in the third, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In the first six months of 2024, Britain had the fastest rate of growth in the G7. Officials described the UK economy as “going gangbusters”.
Yet when comparing performance in the third quarter, the UK was the second worst in the G7.
Growth in the UK was slower than Germany (0.2pc), Japan (0.2pc), France (0.4pc) and the US (0.7pc). Canada is yet to report but analysts expect growth of around 0.25pc. Only Italy did worse than Britain, with no growth in the third quarter.
The ONS said the slowdown was broad-based and economists and business groups placed the blame squarely on Starmer and Reeves.

 

I guess they would argue they are in the middle of a reset. Short term pain for long term gain, etc. I’m no economist so I wouldn’t pretend to know who’s right, but it does seem logical to give it more time.

 

would agree .. to the comment "give it more time" .......however you have to a plan, not just assume a stance that everything is broken, but look at the situation in truth...............

So I cant really look at it as give it time! Why? ........... because all of the situations around why it became broken .. and note the "why it became broken" and the true life fact since the start of 2024 it has been on a road to recovery, indeed the 3 month overlap must have given a feeling of euphoria to the Labour party as the economy /inflation and interest rates were were on a sound road of recovery [ figures usually 3 month's in arrear! ] & the 1.7% was due to just one item [ summertime event ] being instrumental in it being so, averaged it would have likely been 2%.

the OBR and various fiscal entities all poo poo the £22bn "blackhole" as it is only 3 month's into fiscal year and such things depend on income from sources from whole year and they all have since stated the figure at likely £9bn. such amounts are regular "hiccups in fiscal accounting !"

pre election the £40bn plus they were "going to spend on mending the "broken" / GBE and other events like the Milliband fiasco and the Milliband fiasco etc were NEVER EVER answered on how they would get the money and within a couple weeks they had done an audit and came up with £22bn. Pre election they had ideas ....not plans and no financing........

A plan .... comes from an idea, the idea is then investigated for ability/cost/ repercussions / likely errors/ impact/ and various other things and finally VFM or cost and how to have the funds to buy/ do/ build /or whatever
Labour plans seem to an idea / knee jerk and very little of anything else! SO .. does seem logical to give it more time.!! time to do what? & think it through and admit you failed to do it properly!

 

https://apple.news/AO8nblpmCTjWRNgwfR0-PkA

Just to add a bit of balance.

 

All very well if true, bearing in mind it is the Daily Mirror
Just as pressing is an apology to, and a desire to work with Donald Trump after all of the childish comments from Rayner, Lammy, Streeting and co
Trump could bs very very good news for the UK and our stricken economy if we get onside with him early on
He can see what a mess the EU is and might offer us favourable trade terms if people treat him with respect and show a willingness to cooperate
What we don’t need imho is getting closer to the EU aside from shared intelligence
Biden was anti UK, and pro Ireland and the EU
We finally have someone on our side
I hope we can make it work

 

Who on here has ever “embellished “ their own CV?

 

Balance.....The Daily Mirror.

 

It’s an alternative view, not my idea of a quality paper either, that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed though.

 

I reverse embellished my CV.... after being made redundant in 1981 I had great difficulty in getting another job [ time when 3,000,000 out of work and in similar boat .. I was advised to ask why I hadnt gotten the job ..think I applied for 30 or more [ in them days it was in person or telephone or letter with CV ! ......... over qualified was the answer to them that replied! still very little success after about 6 month's ... was advised to ask what was the over qualification .... education / last job was unique one / and a couple other things [ Problem was getting the interview more than the job ]
so downgraded education ... put labourer [ sort of to fit the job ] .... pushed willingness to work .... and most importantly dropped the previous salary level! . was soon back in employment ... although got made redundant a few more times ...

 

A distinct patternis emerging regarding the boat crossings 4 days of calm seas and no boats then 237 arrive Friday in 4 boats 425 in 9 boats Saturday if thepattern is followed then Sunday /monday/ Tuesday wx permitting will see another 700 +++ arriving!
Statement says since July 4th circa 9000 have been flown out of the UK bearing in mind Tory.gov had a few 000's processed ? lined up for Rwanda ? and 230,000 are in the que to be processed ... a start! but not a deterrent as
almost 20,000 have arrived in the last 130 days or so about 59% of years total

 

The countryside responds ....

Note a decade ago we used to have import a lot of our staples [ vegetables ] 1 POTATO'S I can remember when buying spuds one of the main suppliers was Egypt, now most spuds are "with a union jack on the bag!" some root veggies and beans [ a lot, beans, still do over winter month's ] but are actually less because people opt for frozen packs of single items and mixed veg [ marketed as STEW'S/ CASSEROLE/ ETC. Besides growing my own I still have to "top" up" some items , mostly carrots / Cauli / brocoli, eat a lot of Brocoli!

regarding the unfolding Farmers protest varoius interviews show up the total lack of and disregard for the Countryside / Rural areas by most of the cabinet especially Rattlesnake and 2 TIER HARMER ....... viz .......

Indeed, speaking on The Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4, Baroness Mallalieu, a Labour peer and the president of the Countryside Alliance, said the government’s changes to inheritance tax relief “smell of incompetence” and that a "large part of our party has become urban... divorced from a big section of the community".
Two things strike me about all this: firstly, the absolute insistence from ministers from Sir Keir Starmer down that they are not going to change their minds.
And secondly, the beginnings of a parallel, perhaps, with the rows Labour had with many in rural Britain the last time it was in power.

 

continued...The countryside responds.............

Asked whether he accepted that farmers felt betrayed over the changes, Sir Keir said “it's very important that we support farmers.”
He then made an argument we can expect to hear the Environment Secretary Steve Reed and others make in the next few days, about the wider support the government insists it is offering farmers and the countryside.
"We’ve put £5bn in the Budget for the next two years into farming. That is not to be overlooked. That is the single biggest sum of money in a Budget over a two-year period that has ever been put down in relation to farming.

2 Teir Harmer has a unique way to dodge giving an answer .. and is made with out researching and without the simplest bit of logic he has been trying to force down some of our throats.
Farmers and farming were all part of the EU collective farming initiative so used to get grants and money on a regular basis.. since end of Brexit this has gradually needed to be replaced as we saved £x bn from not having to pay EU in respect to the simplicity [ simpletons ] he takes the majority of the British public as he has admitted via excessive pay grants to Railway workers etc inflation has eroded by up to 20% so is fair to say that the £2,500,000,000 pa is far short of the money farming and agriculture got 3-4 years ago!

every Q he is asked he has a premeditated prepared statement that rarely actually fits the Q!

 

Hilarious how these big companies have sent a letter to the government bemoaning having to pay £7Billion next year. Stores will close and Jobs will go.
Are these the same companies who backed Starmer and co last July ?

Oh....the fools.

 

When, last year or now ?

 

they all fell to the lies and deceit? / conceit? spouted by 2 tier Harmer and his multitude of cronies ..... = 2 tier = 2 different levels, ie the truth and the lies .. take your pick was he lying about the truth?
Profit margin of the big 4 supermarkets is around 3 -4% of their accounts are very multi layered and complicated for all but highly trained accountants .... but basically expansion/ modernization and maintenance is best worked around the ability to generate a profit ..

 

A point I have found interesting is the governments insistence that only 500 out 29,000 farms will be affected -

Row over how many farms will be affected by inheritance tax policy - as PM doubles down ahead of farmers protest | Politics News | Sky News

It follows Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing a 20% inheritance tax that will apply to farms worth more than £1m from April 2026, where they were previously exempt.

Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed said only about 500 out of the UK's 209,000 farms would be affected, according to Treasury calculations.

Its a nonsense. An average sized farm is worth more than a million pounds. An average sized farm is 100 acres plus = Worth considerably more than one million pounds.

 

All Labour seats in marginal rural constituencies will be lost at the next election hopefully.
It’s clear that Labour do not understand farming or the countryside, or the people and services who make often a very modest living out of it.
It's literally a cash grab by this Government who are hell bent on alienating everyone apart from public sector workers.
Rather than reform the NHS and stop the wastes or money, which is what it desperately needs, they will rob OAPs of their Winter Fuel Allowance, and Farmers and their dependents of their land

 

Well Banks got it right increasing and stabilizing interest rates and slightly higher mortgage rates ahead of this month's inflation forcast .......... and before you say it" ah but it went down to 1.7%, that included energy price drop and seasonal 3 month's lower power usage! " so increase is actually higher than the 2% which would normally follow that fall!.

The inflation rate, which measures price changes over time, rose by more than expected to 2.3% in the year to October, up from 1.7% in September.
Annual gas and electricity bills for a typical household went up by about £149 last month although prices are rising much more slowly than in recent years.
The latest inflation figure comes after the government revealed that an additional 50,000 pensioners will be living in relative poverty next year as a result of cuts to the winter fuel allowance.
Higher inflation pushes up the cost of living for households, and can lead to interest rates remaining at a higher level, making the cost of loans, credit cards and mortgages, more expensive.

Derek Lickorish, non-executive chairmanof energy supplier Utilita, said he had seen a 60% increase over summer in customers asking the company for help with bills.
"Now it’s really cold, that figure is going to be even higher," he told the BBC, adding that people were "running on empty" after being hit with rising costs through the pandemic and energy crisis. .....

Darren Jones, [ Bristol MP, always shot down in flames in interviews! ] chief secretary to the Treasury, said the government knew "families across Britain are still struggling with the cost of living", but told the BBC that it was "good news" inflation was "stable".
Interest rates were cut to 4.75% two weeks ago, but experts suggest they will not be cut again until next year.
Indications from BOE and fiscal entities were likely tobe at least 1 more if not 2 in NEARER FUTURE! ] The last time inflation was at 2.3% - above the Bank of England's target - was in April.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said claimed Labour's Budget would "push up inflation and mortgage rates".