How do we fix our Economy and the country?

Scoobz3 said:
Certainly wouldn't want to exclude those with adaptions as they have the greatest need but they are ony a real small percenatge of the overall total. "About 80,000 cars in the UK Motability Scheme have adaptations — roughly 10% of all vehicles leased".
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Part of pip is a mobility element. Using all that element gets you a 2 door little car. If you want bigger then you have to pay extra.
 
The Light Was Yellow Sir said:
Just needs someone with balls.
If the debt really concerns everyone, then it currently stands at £2.6 trillion. Private wealth in this country amounts to £13.6 trillion (likely a sizeable underestimation). Seems like there might be an answer in there, somewhere.
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The truth is that debt is largely paid off by inflation. Anybody who took out a £10k mortgage 40 years ago has experienced that. Your £20 a month payments feel like a lot at first but roll forward X years and they’re nothing.

The debt only really matters insomuch as when interest rates are higher it reduces our ability to spend on other things. But if interest rates are largely under control and the debt is serviceable it really is just a number. The important thing with debt is the direction of travel, somebody mentioned that the end of the parliament we will only reduce our debt by 1%. Which is true, but the more important thing is the direction of travel will be downwards, and when that happens inflation will compound the effect and from there it is generally downhill (until the next global pandemic/crash comes along).

This was the big error of the Cameron government, they had a huge opportunity to invest when interest was almost non-existent. That opportunity has passed us by.
 
As I've said before, because I'm now seeing in my job, how horrendous it is - sort out the NHS - don't throw any more money at it whilst it perpetuates the monstrous waste/inefficienies in it today - 10p in every tax pound is spend on it (£200bn+) - a simple 1% saving in that spend throws £2bn straight back into the economy.
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
The truth is that debt is largely paid off by inflation. Anybody who took out a £10k mortgage 40 years ago has experienced that. Your £20 a month payments feel like a lot at first but roll forward X years and they’re nothing.

The debt only really matters insomuch as when interest rates are higher it reduces our ability to spend on other things. But if interest rates are largely under control and the debt is serviceable it really is just a number. The important thing with debt is the direction of travel, somebody mentioned that the end of the parliament we will only reduce our debt by 1%. Which is true, but the more important thing is the direction of travel will be downwards, and when that happens inflation will compound the effect and from there it is generally downhill (until the next global pandemic/crash comes along).

This was the big error of the Cameron government, they had a huge opportunity to invest when interest was almost non-existent. That opportunity has passed us by.
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Absolutely right. The opportunity to modernise this country, at virtually zero interest rates, was an huge scandal. When coupled with ‘George, I misread a students spreadsheet, Osbornes’ austerity, it’s even worse.

Mind you, until we stop electing Oxford graduates (with PPE degrees especially) nothing will change. Only PM since the war not to go to Oxford was Gordon Brown, which is a somewhat damning statistic about social mobility.

I remember reading that Robin Williams had said, about the US government admittedly, that the politicians should wear sponsorship badges on all their suits, like Formula One drivers. Would be a great idea here, as well.
Once you know who’s paying them, you can see what they’re up to…
 
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The Light Was Yellow Sir said:
Absolutely right. The opportunity to modernise this country, at virtually zero interest rates, was an huge scandal. When coupled with ‘George, I misread a students spreadsheet, Osbornes’ austerity, it’s even worse.

Mind you, until we stop electing Oxford graduates (with PPE degrees especially) nothing will change. Only PM since the war not to go to Oxford was Gordon Brown, which is a somewhat damning statistic about social mobility.

I remember reading that Robin Williams had said, about the US government admittedly, that the politicians should where sponsorship badges on all their suits, like Formula One drivers. Would be a great idea here, as well.
Once you know who’s paying them, you can see what they’re up to…
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Ironically, I would suggest Gordon was also the last Chancellor to take actions that actually had some material bearing on the direction of the country rather than simply presiding over managed decline and asset sales.

But then I went to the same university as him, so I am a bit biased. But hey, if Oxbridge can have their old boys clubs then so can we.
 
dannyboy29 said:
I'm way off in politics so be patient with me...

Who the fuck do we owe trillions of £ to? what are the implications of saying "we're skint mate, here's £150 a month"? and forgetting that, why to we pump money over to other counties? (I get we want to help). If I was in a shit tonne of debt, the last thing id be doing is chucking money over to my mates, I'd be getting my own shit sorted first.

Another point that seems mental, how is there nothing in place to hold politicians to account? It seems as though the majority of what they said has been a lie. If I had a job interview and said I'm going to do XY and Z, then 12 months later I had done the complete opposite I'd be sacked. Surely you cant just blag you're way in then just stick 2 fingers up at everyone.
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Football managers seem to do it, after a life in the public sector mate I can tell you now unless your at the bottom no fucker is ever held accountable for their shit decisions, they get moved sideways or promoted.
 
This discussion has been going on since i was a small boy, was probably going on well before I was born and no doubt will be going on long after I'm gone. Every single newly elected government blames the one just gone for ruining the economy, which to me says they are all equally incompetent, bent, or liars. Its probably a mixture of all three.
 
paulchapo said:
This discussion has been going on since i was a small boy, was probably going on well before I was born and no doubt will be going on long after I'm gone. Every single newly elected government blames the one just gone for ruining the economy, which to me says they are all equally incompetent, bent, or liars. Its probably a mixture of all three.
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It’s a constant circle with basically a two party system, Labour over spend then Tories come in and cut, rinse and repeat, I said after the crash in 2008 it would take 20 years to recover from the greedy private sector, maybe it would but with Covid now chucked in and maybe Brexit we are fucked. No way manufacturing comes back we can’t compete with sweat shops, AI will take many jobs over in the next 10 years, so what do we have left? We aren’t a rich country no matter what they keep saying and unless suddenly we discover rare minerals in a field somewhere although some twat would object to us digging them up, this country is going nowhere fast.
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
Ironically, I would suggest Gordon was also the last Chancellor to take actions that actually had some material bearing on the direction of the country rather than simply presiding over managed decline and asset sales.

But then I went to the same university as him, so I am a bit biased. But hey, if Oxbridge can have their old boys clubs then so can we.
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Would this be the same Gordon Brown that deregulated the banks?
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
The truth is that debt is largely paid off by inflation. Anybody who took out a £10k mortgage 40 years ago has experienced that. Your £20 a month payments feel like a lot at first but roll forward X years and they’re nothing.

The debt only really matters insomuch as when interest rates are higher it reduces our ability to spend on other things. But if interest rates are largely under control and the debt is serviceable it really is just a number. The important thing with debt is the direction of travel, somebody mentioned that the end of the parliament we will only reduce our debt by 1%. Which is true, but the more important thing is the direction of travel will be downwards, and when that happens inflation will compound the effect and from there it is generally downhill (until the next global pandemic/crash comes along).

This was the big error of the Cameron government, they had a huge opportunity to invest when interest was almost non-existent. That opportunity has passed us by.
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Unfortunately the 10k mortgage is only cheap if you haven’t borrowed another 500k along the way cos you can’t control what you spend.
 
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