‘Tis the Conference Season – Labour first …
‘Conference Season’ has arrived. The Libdems cancelled theirs because of the Queen’s death, so it’s Labour out of the starting blocks and by God, they’re at it, aptly supported by economic correspondents and ‘Teh Markets’. It’s all about the economy, the taxes, and the £ Sterling. This morning’s dead tree press went with those tax cuts, parroting Labour BigWigs who declared them ‘immoral’, and reporting that Starmer would reintroduce that top 45% income tax rate (link).
In the online editions we read that the ££ fell to its lowest level against the $$ since 1971 when markets in Asia opened (e.g. here). Not headline-worthy is the news that the €€ also fell to a 20-year low or that
“The Swedish krona has fallen even further against the dollar since January than sterling. So has the Japanese yen and the Korean won. The dollar index (DXY) is close to the extreme levels of the mid-1980s.” (paywalled link)
Of course that isn’t newsworthy because the only reason for the fall in ££ has to be yon tax cuts announced in Kwarteng’s Mini-Budget. Perhaps the markets reacted to Starmer’s announcement that he’d reverse those tax cuts? Perhaps some Asian traders even reacted to the announcements by other Labour bigwigs? For example, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said that:
”[…] even that cut [the 1% cut to 19%] was “not a fair measure because the rich benefited more”. The mayor said the mini-budget was “obscene, immoral, awful”, putting himself at odds with the party leader. “I personally think we should reject the entire package that Kwarteng put forward on Friday, the whole of it,” he said.” (link, paywalled)
Cutting taxes, even the meagre 1% cut benefiting those on lower incomes is immoral because ‘Teh Rich’ also benefit? I’m flabbergasted! Perhaps Burnham was listening to the speech by one of the trade union bosses threatened “to bring Britain ‘to its knees’ and lead ‘millions’ on strike” (paywalled link) because of ‘pay disputes’. After all, public servants need to be paid, and that means tax cuts are, ahem, unwelcome:
“Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), said a coordinated mass walkout could cause “chaos” and succeed in driving the Conservatives out of government. Speaking in Liverpool at a fringe event of Left-wing MPs, Mr Serwotka said industrial action by civil servants – who his union represents – would lead to cancelled driving tests, huge border queues and problems collecting taxes. “We are balloting for sustained action in targeted areas, and I’m going to say it, to cause chaos, to put pressure on the government,” (paywalled link)
Clearly, it’s not about gaining better pay for their members but about ‘driving the Tories out’. Moreover, this call for strikes is preemptive, fuelled by this statement by Kwarteng:
“The Chancellor last week announced new legislation that will force unions to put pay offers to a member vote – ensuring strikes can only be called after negotiations have “genuinely” broken down. The Government also plans to press ahead with minimum service levels, similar to those in other European countries, that would stop unions from closing down transport networks during industrial action.” (paywalled link)
Terrible, innit! Labour has to fight this and never mind that this might become a repeat of the Winter of Discontent, with blackouts and rubbish heaps everywhere, and the political consequence: Mrs thatcher. How such strikes will help Labour with their latest, fantastic plan to help the economy is another question. See this:
“Labour will announce today a proposal to set up an £8 billion sovereign wealth fund to kick-start green investment in clean steel and hydrogen. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, will lay out plans to invest in strategically important industries over the next decade and to act as a catalyst for finance from the private sector. Labour says the move is based on sovereign wealth funds in countries such as Norway, Singapore and the Gulf that have used government reserves to provide stable investment returns. The proposal, however, will involve borrowed money as part of a £28 billion-a-year green prosperity plan to invest in transition to net zero.” (link, paywalled)
Awww – how green! Note that Labour will borrow money to set up such plan, unlike e.g. Norway which uses the income generated from their oil- and gas fields – money they have already earned. But it’s ‘green’, innit, and it won’t touch the sacrosanct Net Zero. No, don’t ask how this can possibly work out: it’s a Labour proposal so therefore proper economic facts don’t apply, like borrowing in order to save.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, there are reports that ordinary Brits have been raiding their savings accounts already, even before the expected exorbitant home energy bills land on our doormats:
“Households’ savings have more than halved since the start of the year as the soaring cost of living forces people to tap into their rainy-day funds. The cost of essential goods such as food, energy and mortgage repayments has risen by £145.50 a month this year for the average household, according to research by KPMG, the accounting firm. As a result, households are expected to be nearly £1,800 worse off on average by the end of the year, with many facing an even steeper increase in their regular bills.” (link, paywalled)
These must be ‘Teh Rich’, according to Labour, because what properly poor person could have a savings account! That’s immoral, so the must be taxed! The DM also reports on people raiding their savings and that many, especially the young, have cut back on going out, on streaming services and holidays (link).
Meanwhile, Kwarteng is untroubled by Labour’s cries about tax cuts being immoral. According to the DM, he is “drawing up plans for a fresh round of tax cuts to help families struggling with the cost of living”, having launched “a review of all tax rates ahead of a formal Budget that is expected next year.”(link). What’s wrong with that? Moreover, what’s wrong with this statement by Kwarteng:
“You don’t deal with people’s rising cost of living by taking more of their money in tax,”[…] “This was a totally perverse argument. No other G7 country is lifting up taxes while dealing with the cost of living.” (link, paywalled)
I leave you with another Labour ‘initiative. Once in No 10, according to Ms Yvette Cooper, they will ‘crack down on knife sales’ by ‘punishing bosses of amazon’ and other BigTech companies for ‘hosting knife sales’ on their sites (link, paywalled). Well, that got her into the headlines …
Perhaps she and her colleagues ought to demand that Labour Mayors such as the Khans and Burnhams firstly ought to get their police forces to crack down on people walking their streets armed with knives? Or would that be racist?
There are two good news items even though so far they’re only predictions. One is that “Tumbling gas prices on track to slash £60bn cost of energy bailout – Successful efforts to fill gas storage could halve prices by early next year” (paywalled link). Hope springs eternal, but I believe it when I see my gas bill being reduced.
The other is the news that, to the horror of Brussels and our MSM, Ms Meloni looks to have won the elections in Italy:
”As polls in Italy’s snap general election closed at 11pm, exit polls showed Meloni’s hard-right coalition in the lead with between 41 and 45 per cent of the vote, enough to give it control of both houses of parliament.” (link, paywalled)
Will our lefty bigwigs with villas in Tuscany now refrain from visiting Italy? Will Brits stop travelling to Italy altogether because of that ‘hard extreme far right’ government rather than because they cannot afford to travel altogether?
Will Brits even be able to have holidays in the UK? After all, affordable hotels in the UK are filled by those dinghy-drivers. Travelling elsewhere is of course so very un-green, and who can afford it anyway. Pity those poor ‘travel and holiday’ correspondents …
Meanwhile, we’ll have to survive the next days of Labour Conference. Expect more exhortations about the immorality of tax cuts . Expect more ‘justification’ for creating a nice, cold winter of discontent. Does Labour actually learn from their own history?
Can fracking be carried out below the sea floor,and if not, why not ?
TG- yes.it can and yes it is performed on a regular basis.
Sticking to British waters, it usually is in the Southern North Sea.
Shallow water, say 100 ft to 150 ft and fracked at 8 to 10,000 ft total vertical depth, in SNSea.
As the gas sandstones are normally ‘tight’ – they are fracked to open up channels, held open with specifically sized sand or bauxite (proppants – to prop fmtn open) to allow the gas out easily along the channels.
This is an eye spy explanation but gives you the idea.
NOTE:- ALL THE CHEMICALS, PROPPANTS, AND FRESH WATER USED IN THE PROCESS ARE BENIGN.
Thank you. That’ll be the Dutch, I spose. On the other hand ” benign ” is one of those words. Still, That’s better than under Blackpool.
A bit late to the coalface today, but at least the Italian result is definite now, so I have said this before, if not here, but it is worth repeating.
Every news and print broadcast begins by telling us Meloni is of the hard-right, and that her party has its roots in post-war fascism. Just like Ukraine then, but those same journos look the other way on that. (Did you see the German street interview in which a Ukrainian tank with a Swastika on it, went by in the background? Oops!)
So who is this hateful woman?
She supports the family as the basis of a stable society;
is anti the EU (but not the euro);
wants to control/stop mass immigration;
espouses the Christian values that used to be the bedrock of Western civilisation;
is fine with sexual identity but questions LGBT lobbying;
and rejects gender ideology;
stands against Islamic violence;
and for safe borders;
and Italy for Italians.
That she is labelled a hard-right extremist shows just you how far the Left, with the Right’s capitulation, has been allowed to drag the Overton Window.
Thanks Phil O’S. She sounds great. Italians have done right.
If only Truss would follow suit…
She doesn’t need to, the centre Right are in hibernation.
Anyone remember Russell Hick’s ‘Never Trust a Tory’ poster that was sent round London on the back of a truck? Time that was rescussitated. (I paid for a day of that – happily). The text would need updating for the million visas issued last year and Mrs O’Leary’s belief in the immigration/GDP ponzi scheme.
Industrial action by the civil servants could be taken as anti democratic and anti politics which is a direct attack on our system and warranting dismissal of ( say 50 % = 250.000 or approx savings of say half a trillion. + pensions. ).(Amazon wouldn’t blink, and could help with advice ) and Investment money would come in in Asteroidal quantities..
t g s , now that’s a thought. Perhaps it could be made illegal!
The extra top layer of tax on high earnings at 45 %. results in a very small extra sum but employment of well connected Accountants is ensured … However, it is an incentive.. A reduction of what is seen as hostility to high earners.) for investment in UK which is the purpose to build new or more product without going bust.. So, important with Corporation etc tax lowering. .Corporation tax is seen as a direct tax attack and insult on profit or success by governments… So lowering it is a serious incentive which should be obvious even to the liberal elite…
Note.
I re-iterate Any change in any business costs. . Any. Increase in sales, costs ., New products cost. New anything costs serious money( Take a new product :–Research and development, new materials, new workers, new space new credit, advertising, salesmen and on and on. So new costs ) . Or call it:- new investment
If you are an idiot and believe in supply chains or JIT etc. you can try to pass on these costs to a supplier or someone else but you still pay, but more.. But they’re cleverer than you so they’ve earned it.
So so far the minibudget is a little positive.. .OK enough for the business management/ownership class to agree.
Just to re-iterate. The 1% cut in income tax does NOT benefit anyone except the earner.. Saying otherwise is rank hypocrisy.. It’s going to take a long time to iron the kinks out of this budget. but it is important.to get it right as a first step cause we’re laying a bedrock of a new ( To politicians and others..
Good `ol Rachel!
A Sovereign Wealth fund eh, in fact a Labour inspired Sovereign Wealth fund.!
Pity you missed the boat Rachel, according to yesterday`s Sunday Telegraph headline Kwasi got there before you and even if your plan is not quite the same concept as yours, he has at least a 2 year start ahaead of you!
Under the headline “Fracking cash to be channelled into growth”
A sub heading reads “The Treasury is planning to launch a sovereign wealth fund partially funded by gas extraction”
The blurb goes on underneath
“A UK sovereign wealth fund partly bankrolled by the proceeds of fracking is being considered by ministers as part of plans to invest in business and drive economic growth.
Officials have drawn up plans for a Norway style state backed fund that would also accept investments from pension schemes and focus on backing long term projects.
It could be used for national infrastructure investment and to drive growth in the Government`s new `Investment Zones` while providing the treasury with access to cheaper credit as interest rates rise.
A source close to discussions about the fund said it may be partly funded by royalties collected from fracking and oil and gas extraction from the North Sea”
Apart from a few `weasel words and phrases` such as “is being considered” and “It `could` be used” and “it may be partly…….”
I applaud it`s setting up and all I say is GET ON WITH IT
There is no time to waste in shilly-shallying around
After all we are really in an economic `crisis` position, both Labour and Conservatives have correctly identified the problem of under investment and officially induced, shameful and lamentable static growth, A Sovereign Wealth fund is a MUST.
Perhaps somebody might consider a scheme similar to that of `Post War Credits` also (Oh yes I know it turned out to be a big con, but something properly run should be possible and beneficial in this time of national crisis)
The Tory Party will first need come to some kind of accommodation with their friends in the City and leading Party sponsors the devision of spoils skimmed off the management of a sovereign fund.
From the point of view of a factory manager or rich business owner the reduction in income tax is completely irrevelant…! If income tax goes down one %. Then wages paid go up one percent percent, but the amount the employer pays the government goes down, balances it, and nothing much has changed. Maybe your workforce is a tiny bit happier. But they’ll soon find something else.. Generally speaking Workers understand this far better than their union agitators, who probably do, but know the opposite is expected of them, and another day fishing is definitely appreciated. If the factory manager is not an idiot, then he will have educated them. Again generally, the workforces are desperate for any knowledge or understanding of both sides. The problems of a stupid or disconnected management , and woeful education of bothe sides, and seemingly totally beyond Politics, are different. But the responses of an educated workforce are mostly toatlly gratifying for all.
Clown world indeed, a very apt picture.
Entertainment to keep us children occupied while the digital trap closes around us
Where is the crocodile?!!!!!
HA- Black Knives Matter – end of discussion on knives.
And fat lot you know – we’ve had the (five pct youropeeing vat tax) heat on for a week or more. It is in the 50s and raining.
Yeah, yeah, Stone is warmer than Barbados, blah, blah, because the Carabeyan hasgone green (see wikipedia) blah, blah.
My heating has been on for about a week also Biscotte.
It is set at 18 degrees centrigrade. Haven’t looked at outdoor temperature lately.
Way off topic, but this gave me more than a chuckle this morning.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time in six weeks, despite being vaccinated four times. Bourla previously claimed that his company’s vaccine was “100% effective” in preventing coronavirus infection.
OK – maybe a little optimistic to think the first covid vax was the be all and end all as in the film Contagion.
That is, if you knew anything about infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in poultry and the number of different variants in the vaccines for it (and, given the average lifetime, even of layers), you would be circumspect in your claims. Pfizer has been involved in veterinary healthcare so they should know. It was effective though – against the original strain and early variants, even Delta if the serum antibody level was high.
As for how longlasting the immunity – please remember there was a push to get it out there to try to staunch the spread and get rid of the wretched lockdowns. Normally companies would get some of that data first. (trial participants continued to be monitored to get it) Not abnormal to need a boost every year, whether for mutation (flu) or to maintain immunity (cats & dogs get theirs annually, although a good vet will admit it’s overkill)
I think I read that Bourla got his company’s antiviral, Paxlovid, which means he may have paxlovid rebound, not a reinfection. Fnarr, fnarr.
Bourla of course will have succumbed to omicron. A recent paper proposed from, statistical analyses of the frequency of mutations at different locations on the genome, that it was ‘created’!!! Certainly weird on the lineage tree, branch emerges from the original, not along the way like others. Well, I never – did the WEF dark side panic that it would all be over if they didn’t toss out a designer immune response evader? Remember herd immunity and Gt Barrington Declaration? Well previous infections turned out to be as useless as jabs!
Helena, please stop trying to defend the pharmaceutical companies.
All they are interested in is making profits and they don’t care how many people and animals they kill or harm along the way.
To extend their profit making influence they have virtually taken over our N.H.S. and other health services around the world.
Whatever the corruption at the top, I will defend those of my colleagues and fellow scientists who have kept their integrity to the hilt (which would include most or all of the ‘lower orders’, humble technicians and operatives – some of whom spend their working hours clad in PPE, including the masks many of you have demonised, so that if you need IV meds, vaccines or lens cleaner you have a safe product.)
That said many of us have come across at least one incident where they are in it for the dosh, venture capitalists are classic, not interested in the company, its employees or its customers only getting it to the point where they can flog it on and trouser the profit.
Agreed about the foot soldiers.
Not much / any coverage of the latest ebola outbreak. Agreed only two deaths so far, but it is such a nasty one, that could easily explode in numbers. Now we have all the technology to knock together cures, perhaps we should send some Scottish nurses to bring it back to Britain for us to demonstrate prowess?
An article from Breitbart that tells it like it is, the Muslim Brotherhood are linked to different Muslim factions worldwide and so it’s fair to say that Muslims want to destroy the West and its indigenous peoples. All very obvious tom most of us for quite some time, yet our government insist on inviting as many of the enemy into our country as possible, those not invited and arriving by boat are p8t up in luxury hotels and kept well fed.
Let’s face it our governments starting with Edward Heath and probably earlier than that but certainly including every government since have sold the British people down the river, they are guilty of treason. What else can you call governments that encourage an invasion by aiding and abetting a very hostile enemy with a totally alien culture. Time for the British people to wake up and realise that we are at war and our government are with the enemy
“Exclusive: Counterterrorism Expert Cynthia Farahat Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Plan to ‘Destroy’ West – ‘Like Cancer’”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/25/exclusive-counterterrorism-expert-cynthia-farahat-reveals-muslim-brotherhood-plan-destroy-west-like-cancer/
Flyer In less than two years time it is likely that some commentators on this site will vote for establishment parties despite claiming to hold centre Right viewpoints. Yes, the very parties that time and time again demonstrate by their actions they are committed to changing the face of Britain forever. Are these people not part of the problem?
Not guilty m’lud !
flyer. When have our government INVITED Muslims into our country?
Isn’t it the illegal invasion that is largely Muslim?
Incidentally, last I heard Nepal was traditionally Buddhist and was strugglin against Islam.
Well o.k. flyer, I see your point in a way. By joining the E.E.C. and allowing us to be dragged further and further into the E.U.’s ‘free movement of people’ policies, our governments have invited muslims in.
Pauline there are still hundreds of thousands of Muslims arriving in the UK each year legally, this amounts to an invite and our government won’t even allow criticism of something that they are responsible for.
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown certainly did send out an invite.
They’re being used deliberately by Globocap and the bought politicians as a weapon against us, population replacement with the added bonus (for them not for us) of furthering “divide -and- rule.”
It’s ominous how the migrants are “military aged” young men and I would not be surprised if our rotten Government and their string pullers don’t have secret plans in future to employ them e.g, as goons to raid our homes to ensure we’re not hoarding, for example, precious metals. (Hoarding precious metals would hamper their Great Reset because it would enable us to exist outside the corporate grid and escape dependency on the State with its CBDC and UBI). (I heard rumours that there are already plans to send Inland Revenue goons round to peoples homes. Will dig out the article),
Most mayors are Muslim I believe; a pretence of localised power but really strenghthening globocap control? There was an article on this topic in UK Column I believe which I will dig out.
Correction ” (I heard rumours that there are already plans to send Inland Revenue goons round to peoples homes. Will dig out the article)”,
should read
(I heard rumours that IN USA there are already plans to send Inland Revenue goons round to peoples homes. Will dig out the article),
(Think it was Burning Platform),
PS
here is link re Mayors: https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/global-parliament-mayors-and-abolition-electorate
The one re Revenue goons, in USA , is definitely on “Burning Platform” website but still searching
PS a link, as promised, re IRS goons: https://unmuzzlednews.com/irs-goons-just-sent-a-bone-chilling-message-about-what-joe-biden-empowered-them-to-do/
I know this is re USA but wouldnt put it past our rotten politicians
It was a huge, and deliberate, error allowing Muslims to stand for election. Try, as a native Brit, standing for election in their countries.
The reason behind Blair’s trashing of our Treason and Sedition Law. If he had not done that perhaps we could have seen him and his mates hanged years ago.
Getting rid of the Green Nonsense would be a good start to mending the economy. Money could also be saved by eliminating funding of the various globalist organisations working against us. Perhaps those who got us into this mess should also have their salaries frozen and any bonuses stopped…
Jack, getting rid of the carbon neutral nonsense in all it’s ramifications certainly would be a good start to mending the economy.
Unfortunately there are still some back benchers of the con party who believe in it.
I hear that a new law is coming out that enables UK banks to raid people’s savings if they get in trouble again. Certificates will be issued giving victims a share in the possibly now worthless bank.
Anyone verify this? Googling leads to USA situation.
Neil McCoy Ward has been talking about bail-ins for a while but not here “yet”.
Nothing new in that the legislation is already in place a cross the E.U and has been used. And as part of May’s ‘deal’ we accepted all E,U laws and with no sunset clause, by the way same goes for conscription, now there’s a thought.
I have a drawer in the kitchen full of knives that could kill someone, hasn’t everyone? What’s the point of trying to control knife sales?
I can’t imagine that anyone has turned the heating on yet but we are bombarded with tales of “eat or heat”.
No point at all in controlling sales of knives, plenty of other sharp objects available. Better to “control” the main perpetrators by deporting them or not allowing them in in the first place.