first came lots of cash injections and supply constraints in 2021. the energy price rises came in 2022.
I might just have devious intent!
Agreed. One thing that I'll add is that they have transparency on wages, taxation and IIRC even assets in Norway. This means that anybody can see the broad financial situation of other citizens. What do you reckon are the chances of those politicians that like to bang on about 'transparency is the best disinfectant' proposing a replica over here?
I might just have devious intent. The UK oil bonanza pretty much coincided with Thatcher, and facilitated the great tax cutting policy on the rich she inflicted. Public debt had been slashed before she launched the neoliberal agenda:
UK government debt 2024 | Statista
Public sector net debt amounted to 88.8 percent of gross domestic product in the United Kingdom during the 2023/24 financial year, rising to 97.6 percent when the Bank of England is included.www.statista.com
And this was in the trentes glorieuses in which we had the NHS, utilities were nationalised, universal pension provision, etc, increasing wages, declining inequality, progressive taxation, and so on.
I agree that those might be better comparators. Germany, France and Italy might be better still (but let's not go there). Also, thanks for sharing those stats. Interesting. Presumably those taxes that you're quoting are direct taxes on income (rather than including, eg, VAT)?
I'll do my best to respond:
When I was at Trade Union/ Management pay award meetings - the biggest discussion was about maintaining differentials, a £16 minimum wage could be argued meant £30 for middle paid workers and £50+ for more senior staff - else junior folk would be paid more than their seniors etc. and that just couldn't happen - so you just have a nightmare wage spriral that would blow the business competitiveness apart. People who don't have a wage wouldn't have more money to spend - just a crazy increase in costs.
Well. Private bodies have been buggering things up plenty, so maybe it's time to try public once more.
Cumulative inflation from 1971 to 1980 inclusive was 260%. So if someone's income went up[ with inflation, from say £10,000 to £36,000, but their liability of say £10,000 did not, then the liability went from 100% of their income to 28% of their income. A huge help when paying off debts (except that interest rates of course shot up too), but a nightmare for people with cash assets.
Thanks. Just goes to prove why some people are so vigorous in prioritising tackling inflation.
The core principles of Thatcherite ideology is based on lower taxes, smaller govt / smaller state. It's an easy sell: pay less taxes, more money in your pocket and the govt leave you alone, still being today under Truss and Sunak. But what it actually entails is people have less of a stake in the state creating a vaccuum for the private sector to take advantage of. and smaller govt mean less regulation and failsafes to protect citizens. Put together the UK has been engineered to work in the interests of the private sector with the electorate on-side knowing they would never vote for higher taxes
There are currently 300 odd money trees, all at the end of Tory MP's gardens . . . lovingly tendered by wives/mistresses/friendly accountants to ensure an extra £1-250k PA expenses ( duck sheds aside)
Or Gaz Top...
We get an exemption from the hosepipe ban as my mother is classified as a vulnerable customer, as is our neighbour, not that we intend to abuse this. We will just keep the most vulnerable plants looked after. However, what drives me mad about this company is that they keep getting caught out by totally predictable events. There was a thunderstorm last year and one of their main distribution centres was struck by lightning, which meant we were without water for the best part of a week, and they didn't have generators that were big enough to cope with the volume of water to be pumped. Come on, we have thunderstorms several times a year in this country, or we always have done. Then, we got a reasonable amount of rainfall in late winter and early spring, and what did they do to store it? This is their latest masterpiece:
www.sussexlive.co.uk
Sunak is a Thatcherite, he said it during his leadership campaign
We get an exemption from the hosepipe ban as my mother is classified as a vulnerable customer, as is our neighbour, not that we intend to abuse this. We will just keep the most vulnerable plants looked after. However, what drives me mad about this company is that they keep getting caught out by totally predictable events. There was a thunderstorm last year and one of their main distribution centres was struck by lightning, which meant we were without water for the best part of a week, and they didn't have generators that were big enough to cope with the volume of water to be pumped. Come on, we have thunderstorms several times a year in this country, or we always have done. Then, we got a reasonable amount of rainfall in late winter and early spring, and what did they do to store it? This is their latest masterpiece:
People working from home blamed for Sussex hosepipe ban
Chief executive David Hinton claimed that people working from home was a ‘key factor’ behind the ban
However, I do think that developers, as part of their Section 106 agreements, should be forced to pay for upgrades to the water and sewage systems, rather than just the odd community hall.
There is also a role for the government here, I think. Even in the United States, with its natural aversion to government, you have bodies called Councils of Governments, which comprise the councils covering a particular area, e.g. Washington DC, where the city itself only has a population of about 680,000, but the surrounding metropolitan area has about 3.5 million people living in it. There is a Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments, one of whose roles is water planning.
I don't disagree with the tenor of the post, but the NHS should be ignored. The average GP has over 2,000 patients, so you don't need a huge new practice for the occupants of 250 houses. Besides which, GP surgeries aren't run by the NHS - they're independent businesses (who admittedly derive most of their income from the NHS).
Yes, well, it was a side issue, but I have seen the paperwork and someone (I thought it was the NHS but it could be Swale council) are insisting the developers pay for a new provision. In Faversham we have two 'health centres' populated by multiple GPs. Five years ago I could get a next day appointment. Now it is weeks. There is a walk up provision but you only get to see a nurse practitioner (my experience of that is . . . . not great). The reason why GP surgery provision has tanked (in my experience) in the last few years (it started earlier elsewhere according to reports from others) is of course another matter. My view is HMG is happy to see the NHS struggle so that more people turn to private (using NHS trained doctors, and even NHS employed doctors, such as the surgeon who worked on my knee a few years ago who also works in a swish private clinic doing the same ops). If I were a tory that would be my objective, anyway. Bloody socialist NHS!
