Inflation doing what inflation always does: rise!

 

It’s not so much ’Silly Season’ which comes to mind when I look at this morning’s papers, it’s ‘rudderless ships’. This applies to both the government and the Westminster chief editors who seem to have left the selection of ‘news’ to some stand-ins. I wonder if those are more clued-up on the facts of life because today, the FT, The Times and the Express have suddenly dropped  the phrase ‘Cost of Living Crisis’  for ‘Inflation’ in their headlines, as the compilation shows (link).

I’ll leave it to you to check out the rest of the front pages, with a honorary nod to The Star, telling us that snoozing ‘at work’ is good and a dishonorable mention of ‘Metro’ for their print headline “Snowflakes block A & E” which has vanish without a trace from their online edition.

So what about inflation which, according to The Times, is forecast to ‘hit 18.6% early next year’? Firstly, see this:

“The investment bank Citigroup warned that inflation was “entering the stratosphere”, adding to the strain on households already struggling with the cost of living crisis. It said the Bank of England might be forced to raise interest rates from the present level of 1.75 per cent to as high as 7 per cent to stop price increases becoming embedded.” (link, paywalled)

It’s an investment bank making this forecast, not the Bank of England, but they do acknowledge that inflation exists. There’s even a warning – or demand – that a rise in interest rates is needed. This would have an impact on all who are paying off mortgages.

Leaving aside the inevitable remarks coming from the Truss and Sunak ‘camps’, there are two paragraphs which show that we peasants aren’t as daft as we’re made out to be:

“Evidence is mounting that households are already preparing for the cost of living crisis to worsen by cutting back on spending. Figures from Nationwide showed consumers had trimmed their spending on TV streaming services, DIY and gardening equipment as the costs of utilities, transport and childcare rose last month.” (link, paywalled)

I’ll observe in a footnote that perhaps the announcement by British Airways, of cutting ‘more than 10,000 flights’ from their winter schedule, as reported in the FT (link) isn’t going to be such a terrible crush for families already reining in their expenditure:

“Shoppers are already suffering a hit of more than £160 a month to their disposable income, according to data from Asda, with under-30s bearing the brunt of the increasing cost of essentials such as food, rent and transport.” (link, paywalled)

I can’t help but think that we’re given these data to prepare us for cries for more hand-outs on the one hand while demanding that ‘Teh Old’ not to receive ‘special treatment’, such as having the state pension increased from next year.

There’s already a new ‘cry’ for handouts, this time to support families who’ve taken in Ukrainian refugees. At the same time we read that August could become

“[…] a record month for this year with around 6,000 migrants crossing the Channel. It raises the prospect that August could beat the all-time monthly highest total of 6,878 in November last year. It means that some 22,500 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, double the rate at the same point last year. The total did not pass 20,000 until November in 2021.” (paywalled link)

They also need to be kept warm and fed and housed in nice hotels, so: more money needed, regardless of inflation. Labour’s ‘immigration policy’ is truly bearing fruit – for their own ‘clients’, the working classes, who’ll have to pay for those handouts.

The next demand on our wallets comes from the ‘Civil Service’. Under the headline “Mass Civil Service strike expected to be announced next month – Contingency plans being drawn up by Government amid fears scale of unrest could approach that of 1926 general strike” the DT writes that:

“Ministers are preparing contingency plans for a cross-government strike by public sector unions which could be announced during next month’s Labour party conference. Officials in the Home Office and the Cabinet Office are drawing up detailed plans about how to cope with strike action over pay which they expect to be announced on Monday September 26, during the conference in Liverpool.” (paywalled link)

Good Olde Labour, standing up for ‘workers’ rights’, i.e. more pay for civil serpents paid for by the taxes pressed out of the wallets of private sector workers! Is this another instance of Fear Porn? So far, it’s rumours coming from the usual suspects in Whitehall. I wonder if they believe that these ‘expectations’ will become reality, hoping to make the rest of us cross with the Trade Unions:

“One senior government source told The Telegraph the assumption was that the entire Civil Service could walk out at one point or another in a bid to pressure ministers to increase their pay. The insider said: “I don’t think Rishi or Liz are ready for what they are facing. We are looking at the paralysis of the country.” (paywalled link)

Well, I doubt a Labour government, if there were a snap GE, would be ‘ready for what Keir would be facing’! Here’s a suitable reminder, calculated to induce fear in those of us old enough to remember:

“Industrial unrest over the next few months, as unions increase pressure for pay rises to keep pace with double digit inflation, is forecast to be the worst since the “winter of discontent” which brought the Labour government to its knees in 1979.” (paywalled link)

Here’s the conundrum: do the Westminster MSM which have been surreptitiously pushing for ‘regime change’, promoting dear old Starmer as perfect replacement, believe that he could be the 2nd coming of Mrs Thatcher? Or are they secretly hoping that La Truss might become the new Iron Lady?

A taste of ‘things to come’ is experienced by people living in Edinburgh where the Scottish ‘Iron Lady’ looks more like a latter-day ‘Sunny Jim’ Callaghan: 

“‘Mountains of filth’ pile up in Edinburgh as binmen strike during festival season – Nicola Sturgeon under pressure as city ‘risks suffering international embarrassment’ while it is the ‘centre of the cultural world’” (paywalled link)

I believe you can still look at the photo topping this paywalled article – ‘tis not quite yet at the level of that ‘winter of discontent’. Apparently our governing ‘leaders’ are and will be helpless in the face of the inflation tsunami. They’ll be harassed by strikers wherever they look, and by demands for more handouts. Nobody will ask how this will be paid for. It goes without saying that we peasants will pay with ‘moar taxes’!

I leave you with another scare story which comes with a stark health warning: read on at your own peril! The undead, formerly known as PM Blair, has risen again. This time he’s writing for the DT:

“Tony Blair: Rip up the current exam system – it’s unfit for the modern world – Writing in The Telegraph, the former PM said GCSEs and A-levels leave students ‘poorly prepared for work’ and should be scrapped” (paywalled link).

Well timed: just as the GCSE results are coming out! He proposes to scrap both GCSE and A-levels because “they leave children “poorly prepared for work”. He truly has no shame, having presided over the destruction of our educational system.

‘Tis is yet another indication that the Westminster MSM are working hard for ‘regime change’, to get a Labour government where yon former PM will pull the strings and where another former PM will ‘help’ with the economy. Obviously, trade unions up and down the country and the workforce going on strike are a great advertisement for Labour!

Is yon Westminster cabal really hankering for the country to go back to that future we thought we discarded under Mrs T? Memory loss is truly a dreadful thing to strike politicians and MSM opinion makers!



Print Friendly, PDF & Email