Inflation to top 4%, Strikes Galore - back to the 70s

Mervyn King the Governor of the Bank of England has told the Chancellor that inflation could well top 4% by the end of the year. This as he wrote to the Chancellor, Oh my Darling, to explain how he was to combat the rise in inflation to 3.3%.

Welcome to the start of Stagflation! Hold on to your hats we are going back to the 70s.

Inflation on the up, the economy stagnating, the unions flexing their muscles on pay disputes. Sounds like a newsreel from 1974!

The next year or so is not going to be pretty - anyone want a bet on $200 oil and 3m unemployed?

Taxpayer to take £90bn of risky bank assets

So the government increases the tax on the poorest in society via the 10p debacle. Then allows lots of rich bankers to hive off up to £90bn of risky assets to the Treasury in return for gold plated Bank of England bills.

Well done Gay Gordo and Oh my Darling - a fantastic piece of fuck up.

So we bail out bankers who took ridiculously risky positions, who sold mortgages to a whole load of poor people they should never have touched, wrapped them all up in some asset securitisation, and made big book profits & bonuses.

Then it all goes tits up and we (i.e. the taxpayer) bails them out. Northern Rock was the best example of a fubar high risk business model - Alliance & Leicester and a host of other institutions have similar problems.

You couldn't make it up - and people are surprised when it appears that the banks are wrapping up low rated assets as collateral for the Treasury bills. For the banks its a no-brainer.

10p tax rate - Darling & Cameron get it wrong

The uproar over the abolition of the 10p starting tax rate continues to gather pace. Quite rightly Labour MPs are giving Brown & Darling a good kicking over this. The problem is that they just don't get it. They think it is OK to take with one hand because they will just give it back by sticking more people on benefits & tax credits.

If Brown has achieved anything since 1997 it is to ensure that lots of tax accountants are getting richer. The tax system is ten times more complicated now than it was in 1997 thanks to tinkering and tax credits.

But I worry that Cameron doesn't get it either. The Chancellor is not actually wrong to abolish the 10% rate. He is wrong not to do so as part of a wider tax cutting agenda aimed at low and middle earners.

Abolishing the 10% rate simplifies the system. If it was accompanied by a hike in personal allowances to £10k no-one would complain. The Labour government has increased tax by the back door. No need to put up headline rates, when you can just stop the higher rate band level rising in the face of wage inflation. So thousands more people are now paying 40% tax compared to 1997 just due to the top band not being raised at a fair rate.

Cameron should say clearly that getting rid of the 10% band is correct but that it must be accompanied by a wider re-think of the tax burden. Just hitting the hard-working families and individuals is wrong wrong wrong & has nothing to do with social justice.

Oh my Darling - in denial again

Alistair Darling is deluded. He says that the UK economy gives him "grounds for optimism". I nearly choked on my 11am chocolate biscuit when I read that.

We have the highest debt levels across Western Europe. Gay Gordo & now Darling have used the boom years to flush billions of pounds down the drain. Most sensible people would say that in the good times, pay off debt & create a surplus to see you through the bad times, then invest.

This lot of cretins have spent like money was going out of fashion. We now have huge national & personal debt & a huge deficit. If the USA looks shaky in the current climate, then the UK outlook must be very poor indeed.

What do we have to show for 10 years of huge investment in public services? Not much. The NHS admits that most of the extra cash they have had has gone to fund pay rises for Doctors & Nurses. Schools continue to decline with grade inflation and horrendous pupil behaviour. Local councils are struggling under the burden of gold plated public service pension liabilities.

The sound of chickens coming home to roost gets louder.

And FFS what are going on with Darling's eyebrows????

Oh my Darling.... barring is too good for you

very funny - Guido has linked to the story about banning The Chancellor from all his local pubs in retaliation for the tax rises on alcohol.

Personally I'd just hang him from the nearest lamppost for being a mono-browed socialist incompetent cock.


http://www.order-order.com/2008/03/barred-by-blogosphere-from-bars-and.html