“Another one bites the dustAnd another one gone and another one goneAnother one bites the dust” [Freddy Mercury]
You have to hand it to our glorious MSM. Their aim is to keep us peasants calm, and to avoid giving us the wrong ideas, ‘foreign news’ are hidden if presented at all. If there are ‘disturbing photos’, they are presented to make us shudder with horror. A case in point are the reports from France and Germany. More on that below.
Firstly, check out the ‘news fare’ the MSM print editions have prepared for us today in the usual place: “Newspaper headlines: Fight for ‘precious’ union and ‘crackdown on party houses’” (link). Be warned: scrolling down there are photos of the Spare, so don’t blame me if you suddenly feel sick.
The ‘precious union’ refers to the SNP’s election of their new leader. He bears the proud Scottish name Humza Yousaf. Has anyone got any photo of him wearing a kilt? Anyway, it’s what the SNP wanted, so who are we to judge.
Someone in the DT’s newsroom must have had a fine sense of humour, placing this report above the one on the SNP election: “More than 60pc of Scotland’s trans prisoners began transitioning after being convicted” (paywalled link). Right underneath is this one:
“Humza Yousaf pledges to press on with Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reforms – New SNP leader accuses UK Government of ‘power grab’ over decision to block Scottish Bill and vows to challenge veto” (paywalled link)
I wonder if Mr Yousaf is a ‘sleeper’, a saboteur introduced into the SNP to wreck it and their plans for Scotland’s independence. Of course, it could simply be a politician not learning from the past, believing that what a mere woman like the Sturgeon couldn’t achieve will be fine when he does it.
And so to the astonishing lack of reporting on strikes in countries across the Channel. This is odd because the Westminster MSM is otherwise keen to nudge us into accepting Labour’s ‘Rejoin’. Given the lack of reports and photos from riots in France we’re meant to assume that the Frogs have given up. See, you plebs: rioting doesn’t work.
Yesterday though there was a huge strike in Germany. The grauniad published a report yesterday morning (link). Last evening, Reuters also had a report (link), as did the BBC:
“Germany’s transport network is at a near standstill as the country experiences one of its largest strikes in decades. Staff at airports, ports, railways, buses and subways walked out shortly after midnight for a 24-hour stoppage.” (link)
A quick google search however showed that the rest of the papers, always eager to copy from each other, reported nothing. Now why is that? Is it because, unlike the French, the Germans generally don’t do violent riots unless Antifa is involved, thus there are no interesting images? Or is it because our MSM know that we peasants couldn’t care less because the strikes, from railways to the NHS, have left us plebs cold?
The German Trade Unions were striking for higher salaries to help with inflation. Yes, inflation is present in the EU, it’s not a concoction of Tory policies! The governor of our own Bank of England however knows what drives inflation here in Blighty. Don’t laugh when you see the headline of the DT’s leading article this morning:
“Early retirement has forced up inflation, says Andrew Bailey – Bank of England Governor warns that the shrinking workforce has pushed prices and interest rates higher” (paywalled link)
So now we know! I was astonished, to say the least, when I saw the actual numbers on which Mr Bailey based his analysis (all emphases are mine):
“The Governor of the Bank of England said that a sharp decline in the number of people in the workforce was “part of the reason why we have had to raise Bank Rate by as much as we have”. He said: “We should expect this to put upward pressure on inflation in a way that would call for a higher level of interest rates to dampen demand.” Mr Bailey said the rise in inactivity of people aged 50 to 64 was “particularly striking”. The workforce has shrunk by 0.4pc compared with before the pandemic, the Governor pointed out, equal to a decline of 132,000 people. Before Covid it had been steadily growing over past decades.” (paywalled link)
I am speechless! Who knew that 0.4% of the workforce, or 132,000 people, had such a huge impact on inflation! I don’t even want to know what Mr Bailey would call a decline of more than 0.4%. Mr Bailey’s ‘analysis’ has to be seen to be believed:
“Mr Bailey said that people taking early retirement are spending savings to maintain their lifestyle, maintaining demand in the economy, at the same time as dropping out of the workforce and reducing the supply of labour. […] “If those workers have accumulated enough savings to sustain a desired level of consumption much like the one they had before their early retirement, at least for a while, aggregate demand will not have fallen by as much as aggregate supply.” (paywalled link)
Yes, he really said that! Retired workers with ‘enough savings’ are driving inflation because they’re using their savings to keep their standard of living, forcing the BoE to raise interest rates. How dare they! I recall a previous Governor of the BoE blaming people for wrecking the economy by trying to save rather than spend their money on consuming tat. It seems that savers, especially older savers, are easy targets to blame for all economic ills.
I close with a quote which shows that Hunt and Bailey are working hand-in-hand. Pay attention to the numbers – this is how nudge works:
“The Chancellor also pledged to expand mid-life MOTs, under which the over-50s can receive financial advice to check whether they can actually afford to retire. And he announced a new type of apprenticeship, called a “returnership”, for the over-50s wanting to return to work in a new sector. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that all of Mr Hunt’s measures will add another 110,000 workers to the workforce over the next six years, while higher than expected immigration is predicted to provide a boost of 160,000 compared with forecasts from November.” (paywalled link)
Why Mr Bailey harasses those 132,000 ‘early retirees’ when 160,000 ‘new’ Brits, just arrived from across the Channel, are going to work instead of receiving bennies – who knows! Who knows why he blames those early retirees for the current inflation when Hunt aims to get them back into harness over the next six years …
That’s all I have for today. I’m afraid I will have to buy more mugs now, inflation or not. It’s your fault, Mr Bailey, that I’m increasing ‘demand’ and thus ‘inflation’! Have a good day.
– Al-Jazeera reports tenth day of protests in France, half of them in Paris.
– RussiaToday reports Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has ordered 13,000 police officers into the streets of France’s major cities as protests continue. Darmanin announced the deployment on Monday night, adding that 5,000 of the mobilized officers would be stationed in Paris ahead of marches on Tuesday.
– Bbc front page reports: Kate Forbes to leave Scottish parliament, women’s footballer set to miss World cup, Nashville shooter. (Oh, and excitement over reintroduced beavers)
Many moons ago I remember being told that in the future we would all be working a four-day week and retiring at 45 (or something along those lines) because automation and productivity would be so rewarding nationally! When all these fantasy dreams bite the dust, why is there no one in the media interested in calling out the fantasists? I guess it’s because it is easier and more in keeping with the current ‘narrative’ to label anyone with a thinking brain as a ‘conspiracy theorist’!
My ‘bear of very little brain’ economics balks at the suggestion by Andrew Bailey that early retirees with funds to support themselves are responsible for high inflation! The thought cannot but occur that he is simply parroting the ‘narrative’ that his paymasters dictate! It seems a very long time since we had anything but ‘stuffed dummies’ in positions of importance.
Apropos to my earlier comment above. I’ve just been listening to ‘That’s Debatable” on the subject of the recent mobbing of Posie Parker in New Zealand. The discussion very early on in was already on to ‘Woke’ in the workplace. A listener has commented that the reason for him taking ‘early retirement’ is that he is fed up with being assailed constantly by ‘woke’ nonsense!
So the ‘sharp decline’ in the workforce seems to be (at least in part) due to the fact that those who can do so, get out and take their money with them, because the working environment is now becoming too toxic to bear!
Is it not predicted that when the next general election is held that the SNP will lose in the region of 6 seats to Labour on present trends. The new leader of the SNP on the face of it is an awful individual whose intention is to break up the United Kingdom by whatever means. However, in reality he has been voted by only the members of the SNP not the wider Scottish public. Something tells me that he wont be particularly popular amongst Scottish voters and may even cause the total collapse of the SNP vote in that the electorate will turn away from them in their masses and probably vote Labour instead in the slow realisation that the UK government will not allow another independence referendum. Having recently looked at recent past local authority by elections where the Conservative and Labour has not massively changed in either direction I am not entirely convinced that there will be a major shift from Conservative to Labour as the latter seem rather vague on policies and the Conservatives in the eyes of their usual voters are doing somewhat better. If we are in for another round of SNP causing trouble north of the border demanding another referendum vote etc with large public demonstrations of support, perhaps the rest of the UK could nip it in the bud and seek independence from Scotland instead.
Andrew Bailey is trying to deflect attention from his own failures over inflation. You can be sure that when Bailey retires on a generous pension his lifestyle will not be cut back. In any case, there is the issue of what these naughty retirees are spending their money on and so “maintaining demand in the economy”. Keeping garden centres and theatres going? Going to concerts? The real issue is why Bailey hasn’t been sacked yet.
I was interested to read about Germany. Distracted by France I haven’t been paying attention. It would be appreciated if Independence Daily would bring us more news about Germany as what happens in Germany matters.
I’ll try and provide more info out of Germany in future.
Yes please. Green jobs will not compensate for deindustrialisation – the current fantasy – and as unemployment rises in the former East Germany ……
I still wander around supermarkets adding up the goods as I go along whist working out BOGOFS and three for two offers in my head, and maths was never my strong point. They really need to go back to school and learn their times table rote. There, that’s fixed it! What a bunch of numpties. Of course this may be the plan to keep everyone in ignorance of their shenanigans. Hopefully there will be nowhere for them to hide when the s**t really hits the fan.
Why on earth are Pakistani Muslims allowed in government? They should only have been allowed here on annual visas and work permits as applies to aliens in sensible countries. One can only conclude that the present arrangements were meant to trash our country, probably on instruction from the globalists. How they have succeeded!
My feelings as well, Jack Thomas.
JT- Two things:
– if you suck into Britain all the dregs of the World, you must expect such a group to band together to make the place ‘like home’ (in this instance aka a toilet. See also the Maharaja aka british prime minister).
– The Scotch are so far out of whack with reality, they probably thought they were voting for a first minister of Birminghamstarn. Next up Manchestrestarn.
Bailey may be on to something , the amount of 50 somethings wondering about N.T properties, tourist and leisure facilities here in ‘middle’ England has increased enormously over the last year or so , surrounded as we are by ‘garden centres’ the amount of people there on a daily basis having breakfast or lunch in their cafes seems to prove the point as does vehicle traffic which in the main seems to be cars towing caravans along with very expensive motorhomes usually with over an 50s or 60s driving with same age passenger. There is it appears still lots of ‘money around’ in cerain areas and age groups who would seem to be following the words of another Freddie hit ‘ we want it all and we want it now’
I believe things are not all you think they are! I am a caravaner, and also own my own home.
However I lead my life my own way, I do not eat out, drink alcohol or smoke. I do not holiday abroad or own a tv as I begrudge the BBC any money for the propaganda or programmed rubbish.
Every body to their own thing is my motto!
Well done Michael, defunding the BBC and the Tobacco companies. I propose a toast with a tumbler of Ribena. I bet Biscotte is into the sugary blackcurrant juice as well