Prof

At your recommendation I have just wasted half an hour of my life reading that thread looking for something, anything either interesting, new or worth repeating. Some parts that initially looked interesting I read twice but concluded that they were just blah.

That thread is appallingly empty of facts, relevance or reason. They discuss whether the rot set in in 1997 or in the eighties under Thatcher. They discuss whether Cameron is a bigger crook than Blair. Please tell them that you have changed your mind and want them to stay away.

engineertony

It sounds as though you led an interesting and useful life before you retired and are enjoying your retirement now. Well done.

For your sanity stay away from "-Chart of the Day- UK Economy, more and more sickly".

Anonymous 1 needed this 'Off the Record'

Jeremy Bosk
Just catching up on a few posts.i.e. yours at #371-hope a reference to a past post does not upset you .
On occasion I have been somewhat provocative to help generate discussion.
With respect my English I recognise that without a shadow of doubt it is nowhere near as good as yours, and quite a number of other participants on Citywire. You yourself have complimented some of them, like Rose G.
You are very observant, and I have to admit to being bi-lingual, so my English is not as good as so that of some other participants.
Nevertheless, I do believe I have a good understanding of the posts.

Prof Eman

Robert Court

Kind words, and I perhaps have followed your brother, been to the top, all five star, business, owned five houses, country clubs and black tie gatherings. Then down to the bottom some twenty years ago, walking the streets, in the reading room all day for a warm with the tramps & homeless. Life is great, re-married and back up from zero, retired and very happy, lots to live for.

Back to borrowing. It all depends what we do with what we borrow. I borrowed to buy a Caterpillar digger and it's been worth it's weight in copper ( £4500/ton), cleared the undergrowth on two acres and turned over the soil to a good depth, dug out to repair burst water pipe, dug out to repair septic tank (this is Scotland), and the local agent says he'll sell it for me for what I paid for it. Borrowing money with no return or chance of a return is when the problems start.
Incidentally copper has been at £6000/tonand looks like rising again...these are scrap prices.

Moylando

Agree, agree, Britain is a great place to live. I've worked in some of these places, been chased out of Iran when the Shah left and Ayatollah Khomeini returned, some of the Americans didn't make it. Even in the oil rich middle east, there's people starving, there are slaves and all kinds of injustice, thousands without any papers/passports/birth certificates. I saw kids in Malaysia with disabled limbs because they'd had a break which was never properly set. We had a hairy time in Iran after the invasion, we lost a tractor & trailer to bandits after a crane had been delivered to Basra, we got chased to the Kuwaiti border by gunmen just out to rob us of our 4X4.

All

There's only one answer if you've got into debt and have to keep borrowing to service it, stop living for a while, turn the heating off, live on beans, no holidays, sell the stuff you don't need, sell the car, sell the house or one or two of them. I've been there, it works.
Translate this into a national strategy and ten years from now we'll be balancing the books, and living at the standard of living we earn and deserve. Perhaps it doesn't matter whether it's earned from manufacturing or from sleight of hand as long as the earnings beat the spending.

engineertony

I believe in a healthy society.

I know that people who are suffering probably feel that things can't get much worse, but they could as you've pointed out and that even the poorest in the UK are probably far better off than many millions if not billions of people elsewhere.

What's lacking is real leadership at the present, somebody who can pull the country together and make us ALL feel we are doing our bit.

Lots of people have written about the negative side of Churchill - that he was a drunken manic depressive etc but he united the country 'in its hour of need'

We need somebody who could even appeal to those on benefits and want them to cry out:

'Here's my widow's mite! Here's 10 pence of my lousy £46 per week! Take it please if it helps make my country strong again!'

The country DOES need to live within its means.

We can be far more prosperous if we can only 'make hay while the sun shines' and then have something to fall back onto when the economic tide next turns against us.

I know Norway has a tiny population compared with the UK but look what they did with their oil money!

Not just this generation, but also their children and their grandchildren are almost 100% guaranteed to benefit as the national fund set up by Norway's governments is a huge insurance pot that hasn't been squandered away (unlike our country's taxes from North Sea Oil & Gas).

In good times the government needs to have such a surplus of tax revenues or 'whatever' and then gently stimulate the economy in times of need (but ONLY from previously gained wealth).

To desperately borrow when already hugely in debt and make even just paying back the interest an onerous task (let alone the capital) makes things far worse in the long run.

The ten year yields on UK gilts are extremely low and at present but they could shoot up almost overnight and destroy the very fabric of our society.

That is an unacceptable risk.

The whole country needs to be motivated to ensure we destroy the debt that is building up to cripple us.

Anonymous 1 needed this 'Off the Record'

Dear all
Some very interesting posts within the last few days.
Indeed we should count our blessings.
However there is the past, the present and the future to consider.
Some of our blessings relate to the past, I am not sure they will relate to the future.
Some of us will batten down the hatches and no doubt survive, but that will not be everybody.
Looking through recent post under various headings in citywire. I(t seems to me that the UK is becoming more and more unequal, and less and less fair.
e.g.Some 200 times average earnings and the gap growing whilst other nations can exist happily on 20 times the average. Is that fair and reasonable?
A democracy based on the rich able to buy in the Government of their choosing, your Lord Ashcrofts aided by the likes of the bonus earning banking fraternity, who see investing in Elections as an instant return gamble. Is that fair and reasonable?
A democracy based on FPTP, only needing to keep some 30% of people happy. Is that fair and reasonable?
Dressing up AV as a ticket to ride by BNP. Was that fair and reasonable?
Powerful lobbies in Government. Are they all fair and reasonable?
A democracy based on Magistrates handing down huge jail sentence for small riot related incidents. Is that fair and reasonable?
Blame game. e.g Blaming all our ills on immigrants, some of whom have been/are our allies. Is that fair and reasonable?
Lack of reward e,g, the Ghurka debate of the recent past. Was that fair and reasonable?
Blaming people for abuse of the benefit system e.g immigrants - but from the Independent, yesterday - Homelessness can spread to middle class, Crisis study warns. (Homelessness charity points to direct link between economic downturn and welfare cuts, and rising numbers living in the streets.) when, more than half of the capital's 3.600 rough sleepers are now not UK citizens: most are migrants from Eastern Europe who cannot find work and, unable to get benefits or return home, are left to fend themselves on the streets. Is that fair and reasonable?
Their research is clear that it is the welfare and housing system that traditionally have broken the link between unemployment and poverty and homelessness, yet these are now being radically dismantled by the coalition. The government must listen and change course before this flow of homeless people becomes a flood. Is that fair and reasonable, when bonuses in the billions continue for some. Another article in the independent- Life on the poverty line. Breadline Britain of 12/12/20200, gives further evidence of the rich/poor divide.
The North/South divide. The North already in recession, but not the South. Is that fair and reasonable?
House prices falling everywhere except London and SE. NE down 8.8% according to the Land Registry. Is that fair and reasonable?
Depends on how you look at things. The future does not appear to be rosy, and there is a distinct feeling of them and us, with the ranks of us swelling.
Some people thought that the Lib Dems would be good partners in government, but many now appear to have doubts. Their role as junior partners is such that they have little say. It is one thing to be able to predict the Crash, and the riots, but quite another to mange things to avoid/reduce further problems.
But then many people do not think highly of MP's anyway.
Does the above give some reasons for lack of leadership.
Perhaps some of you might want to suggest further reasons for the malaise, unfair/unreasonable.

Prof Eman