The UK faces serious challenges: the cost-of-living crisis, which has been with us since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is showing no signs of abating; poverty is on the rise; the NHS and other key public services are struggling to provide the services we need; our economy is stagnant; our infrastructure is crumbling; and our […]
The Budget is critically important. If it is well-formulated, it gives ministers the space to address the issues facing the country; if it is not, then whatever promises they may make, they will not be able to keep. Frequently, Budget analysis in the media does not look at it this way and instead focuses on […]
While in opposition, Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer spoke of the need for a decade of national renewal; and since they have taken office, the evidence of the need for that renewal has grown even stronger. They have also spoken about a “financial black hole, the £22bn of unfunded spending commitments, concealed from our country by the […]
There is a rather wonderful story about billionaires. According to this story, a small number of exceptionally gifted and hard-working people, through their own talent and dedication, create and build businesses which both enrich themselves and hugely benefit the rest of the world: their customers, their employees, their suppliers and the rest of society (via […]
Throughout last year, a small working group met under the aegis of Cornwall Independent Poverty Forum to design a Community Wealth fund for Cornwall. This is a proposed £10 million investment fund which will be used to invest in local businesses, community enterprises and university startups in a way that accelerates the transition to a […]
There are many arguments for taxing the extremely wealthy more. Perhaps the simplest is that while most normal people pay tax of up to 40 per cent on their income (or more), the very wealthy can easily pay less than one per cent on their true economic income. To most people that seems very unfair. But […]
Four years on from Brexit, I’m taking a look at how various industries have been affected by the realities of our decision to leave the EU. The first in the series looked at ‘How fishing was gutted by Brexit’, and this time I’m going to look at how British farming has fared. Before I begin, […]
Having recently ‘celebrated’ the anniversary of Brexit, it seemed like a good time to look at how various British industries and sectors of society have fared four years on from leaving the European Union (EU). This will be done over a series of articles, the first focusing on the Brexit poster child – The Fishing […]
Getting the Budget right is a critically important part of governing well. If the Budget is well-formulated, it gives space to address the real issues; if it is not, then whatever promises politicians make, they will not be able to keep. Frequently, Budget analysis in the media does not look at it this way and […]
Dear Editor, I wonder if you would be good enough to check my figures? In 2022, I took out my car insurance policy with Aviva at a cost of £494. In 2023, I renewed the policy at a cost of £584 as the other quotes I found were comparable, hence an increase of 18.2% This […]
All Budgets are important, but this one is especially critical: 13 years of market fundamentalist policy choices have left the UK in a state of decay, with a weak economy, falling real wages, a cost-of-living crisis and growing poverty. Our public services are on their knees: our schools are crumbling and even our cherished NHS is struggling […]
In July 2023, Rishi Sunak made a surprising public attack on the leaders of a major UK bank. “Rishi Sunak slams Coutts”. It is perhaps not surprising, however, that he picked the wrong issue. What prompted his unusual intervention was the denial of one sort of bank account to one rich man. Sunak ought to […]
Listen up! Pay attention! This affects us all! There can hardly be a politician anywhere in the world who does not yearn for economic growth. It was the mantra that won Liz Truss the key to number 10, and now economic growth is central to Kier Starmer’s vision for the future: he wants to achieve […]
Churchill commented, “It is a joke in Britain to say that the War Office is always preparing for the last war. But this is probably true of other departments and of other countries, and it was certainly true of the French Army.” It is certainly true of the Treasury and the Bank of England in their […]
I have been suggesting that interest rate rises are fuelling inflation. I have created a model of a company that is largely service-based to explore my suggestion. Using that model I show that it is more likely that interest than wages push up prices. This is the starting point for this model: The figures are […]
I had a quick check of some key food prices on international markets as a result of comments left on another piece I wrote this morning with regard to inflation. This data comes from Trading Economics: The chart is of US wheat prices. I stress that I do know that we use little US wheat, but wheat […]
As the Office for National Statistics has noted on 19 April 2023: The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 10.1 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023, down from 10.4 per cent in February. On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.8 per cent in March 2023, compared with a rise of 1.1 per cent […]
There has been much heated debate over the past few weeks about the future of livestock farming on the Dartmoor commons. Tony Whitehead takes a closer look at the issues … all is not what it seems … Throughout this tale, one key thing must be borne in mind. A large proportion of the Dartmoor […]
Dear Madam, It was a breath of fresh air reading this, perhaps because it confirmed my views! I am no economist, I am a retired plumber, living in Newton Abbot. What gets me is that I left school at 16, and I can see that the Bank of England policy is irrational. Fundamentally, if people […]
Let’s leave aside for a moment the whole issue of democracy, sovereignty and ‘taking back control’ which is covered in this article from Jon Danzig, and instead call out the abject gaslighting and lies being spewed out to defend a lamentable deal that has some real nasties hidden inside it. It’s not for nothing that […]
Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, gave another of his excruciating speeches on economics yesterday. You only had to read it to know how far adrift from reality he is. Start with this: Monetary policy, in other words, works through the management of aggregate demand in the economy. Simply put, when inflation is too high, we increase […]
Hunt’s latest Budget shows the UK heading for a dismal future. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK is now facing two years with the sharpest fall in living standards since records began. The economy will contract again this year. The level of taxation is at the highest for many decades. Our growth […]
It’s two years on from Brexit and so it’s timely to look at the current transit times from our suppliers and cost changes around the EU. As a recap, it used to be door-to-door ten days max for all EU collections. The average single pallet collection cost £180. All fairly standard. Today, after trying out […]
When I lived in Britain, the drivers were sharing tips with each other: “do go work for this company, you can earn good money there, as there is plenty of overtime”. I even saw a discussion on UK trucking subreddit today when a young guy is asking about becoming a trucker and they say to […]
Dear West Country Voices, I am 70 years of age and started my career in the scientific civil service Chemical laboratories (Ministry of Defence) at Porton Down, Wiltshire. After four years I left, and worked in the food industry, both in production and research and development, finally becoming quality assurance manager in a major baby […]
I had a long discussion with a radio producer on what I thought was wrong with the Autumn Statement. We discussed the numbers but what I said is most important is not what was said, but what was not. That’s where the frightening bits are. It was a very long time ago that I realised […]
Jeremy Hunt is saying we cannot max out the national credit card this morning. This is total nonsense. There is no national credit card. Instead it’s the job of government to make the money we use. And since it can always make that money, it can never max out on credit. Hunt wants you to […]
On a recent episode of the unmissable podcast The Rest is Politics, hosts Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell discussed the Truss cabal’s extreme ideology and their obsession with Singapore – the ultimate libertarian ‘paradise’ – as a model to follow. At one point, Stewart asserted that the idea of Singapore-on-Thames becoming a reality was pure […]
The Sunday Times reports that Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are panicking about the £. So they should. Or rather, they should take the necessary action. Now. Andrew Levi sets out what they need to do to avert disaster: ✅ massive extra govt spending (otherwise business, economic and social collapse) ✅ tax back much of […]
Prof Danny Blanchflower and I issued a press release yesterday calling for radical reform of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (BoE MPC). We think this is really important to protect people from economic harm in the recession to come. The MPC has set BoE interest rates and made all the vital decisions on […]