Received not long ago from the FT:
Andrew Bailey's policy at the Bank of England is working.
He set out to create a recession and markets now believe that he will succeed.
Messing things up is the only world-leading activity left to the UK.
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Yet the media still seems to think an “independent Central Bank’ is a good and necessary thing.
In fairness Bailey is not the only village idiot put in charge of a central bank. Here is La-Perma-Tan (Madam Lagarde – for it is she) spouting utter & complete nonsense – with a compliant and imbecilic European Parliament lapping it up:
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/ECB-rates-will-remain-restrictive-for-as-long-as-necessary-Christine-Lagarde–44915868/
Nobody having the balls to ask; “tell me Chrissy – what’s the 2% target based on”.
And all this, in the Uk & EU greeted with dead silence in most of the media & nary a dissenting voice.
We’re quite good at half building railway lines too, it would seem…
I think it was Heath who described the idea that you could manage the economy with the interest rate as one club golfing.
The BofE, like the Bourbons…
FUBAR in most other terms.
FUBAR indeed.
It is hard to think of a better description of what has happened to this country since Thatcher got to work in 1979.
Do you think he will succeed?
Definitely an alternative universe in the UK where people look up to bodgers like Andrew Bailey! Will wisdom ever return to the country and people stop voting for farces? Very sad state of affairs with premature deaths predicted to increase because of the bodgers’ activity.
Give me a moment while I explore the upside ……
Roy S Grey @ 2:13pm. Brilliant comment about half-building railway lines. A MONORAIL from Euston to Glasgow Central would suit me. Call it HS1/2 (or HS0.5 as those foreign folk would say!)
Brings to mind Auden’s ‘Night Mail’:- “Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb. The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time.”
An indication of just what is going on perhaps……………….
I get petitions through from Change.org but from yesterday not any more.
Top of their picks in an email link was a petition to get of all people Mark Drakeford to resign because of his son who had been convicted of some serious sexual offenses.
I was not aware of this so I read around it. The petition blathered on about double standards and stuff like that Drakeford was somehow responsible for how his son turned out. Drakeford’s comments in the media about the situation were appropriate and acknowledged the pain particularly to the victim(s).
The petitioner was based in Scotland. Then, reading the supporting comments below, guess what was repeated time and time again? The 20mph speed limit Drakeford is bringing in, in Wales!!!
Some commentators signed the petition only to register their objection. Bless them.
Change.org want to bring about bottom up change, but nowhere can you put in a counter argument or contact them quickly to object from the bottom up to their enabling of such petitions.
The inference in all this is that it is setting impossibly high bars of moral rectitude and perfection on people in public life. It’s a free for all.
But also, it is aiming to look for imperfections in people who trying to do something differently about our screwed up way of life whilst a load of murdering bastards in the Government – and they are murdering bastards BTW – just carry on.
So this is where we are at – in age of obfuscation about what is important. No wonder nothing gets done.
Reading the comments supporting Drakeford’s resignation, I could only think of that line by Lou Reed from his New York album – ‘Stick a fork in their ass – they’re done’.
As long as we’ve got people willing to be misled in this country we are going nowhere.
What is wrong with some of us? Is this the most stupid country in the world? It feels like it I can tell you. A fascist rentier paradise.
I unsubscribed from Change.Org yesterday over this
Did it some time ago. The petition in Wales over the 20mph limit (a sensible measure that doesn’t increase journey time, saves lives and can get traffic flowing better) is the target of massive signature farming by the odious Andrew RT Davies (Con) and no doubt slugs like Isaac Levido behind it.
Stopped getting emails from change.org ages ago myself, far too many stupid ones with a distinctly populist overtone. I’m not surprised to see it being used for this anti 20mph limit by right wingers like the odious Davies, or that he is opposing it dishonestly by using Drakeford’s son to attack Drakeford.
PSR is right, there are a lot of very badly informed manipulable people in the UK. I went on the Rejoin march in London on Saturday, and had to get a black cab to meet my friends at the pub beforehand. We got talking about the march and it turned out the driver was a Leave voter. He admitted that Brexit wasn’t going well (!!!) and had his doubts about voting for it. Then….
Starmer is going to take us back into the EU as soon as he can.
All politicians are the same, just in it for themselves.
The people coming across the channel in small boats are just coming here to live off social security(!!!!!)
And yes, everything is is a hell of a state in the UK.
We didn’t really argue, in fact I joked I’d pass most of the march on a pub. Which, given my dodgy knee and agreement of the people I was with, I did!
Is 38 degrees a better petitioning site? You can contact them direct.
Maybe
I think this type of activism is largely over though.
I find weownit.org.uk a better site.
They are responsible for getting lots of things changed in this country. Their latest is bringing buses back into public ownership. They stopped Channel 4 from being sold off.
https://weownit.org.uk/about/we-own-it-wins
I like them.
Off-thread. There is a big push from the political parties to promote ‘mayoral’ local government as providing the best way forward for local government; giving it national reach. This is a deceit. Mayoralism is not localism. Localism means people you have never heard of, exercising power over their local areas. This has its virtues, but huge downsides.
When UK political parties in Westminster promote Mayoralism you can be sure they are up to no good. The point of Mayors for Westminster Parties is that Mayors are people you may have heard of nationally; that is because they will be Major Party politicians; who have climbed the Party Greasy Pole. This is a scam. It is a way for Westminster Political Parties to retain and increase control over local government; to take power back to the centre. To select the candidates and determine the local agenda; to drag the locality into the national political and media grip. And nothing more. Everything else is spin. Your locality is being scammed when Mayoralism is promoted as ‘the answer’ for local Government. Party politics serves only Party.
I agree
I really dislike the Mayor concept
What are you doing, Richard? I didn’t expect that comment to appear, perhaps for days. I couldn’t do what you try to do. Take some rest. Go bird watching, if well enough. Take more time off. You will burn yourself out the way you are going.
I hear you
My wife is saying the same thing
I may be listening…..
Also agreed about the mayorism.
What we need is money-ism, or investment-ism not another worthy giving credence to our non-democracy and unfreedom.
So where do you stand on Jamie Driscoll for North East mayor?
I want it. Nearly the whole of Northumberland is in tory hands. Labour don’t want Driscoll as he has talked to Ken Loach about his films about poverty in the North East.
He has plans for a total transport network in the North East.
That’s what I want, and lots like me.
Talking about messing things up, the government has agreed to Rosebank. That is just so stupid.
https://actionnetwork.org/groups/stopcambo
The problem lies with the term ‘mayor’, which has generally drifted into meaning a honorific for a defunct councillor, but would be more accurately replaced with ‘gauleiter’.
One only has to have privatisation of the mayoral office to have the full Charter City effect. While Driscoll and Burnham, and possible even Street, have the welfare of their region at heart, it is a small step for power grabs and the dismantling of local democracy to occur. ‘Lord’ Houchen on Teeside is a classic example, up to his neck in graft, yet untouchable, and able to call on a party machine to attack investigative journalists reporting on his dodgy dealings.
I heard Peter Kyle tonight, against a background of penguins, telling us that Labour will honour the bad commitments this dying Conservative government makes.
Have they not thought this through?
They are giving Sunak carte blanche to write Labour’s policies for the next five years.
Then when those policies crash and burn, the Conservatives can come to our rescue in five years time, promising to make it all right again.
If the Conservatives have no compunction about breaking promises, why should Labour tie itself to bad Conservative policies?
I, too, am staggered by this attitude.
I was astounded by the background of penguins in a green pool considering that they were discussing the reduction in the number of British species, plant and animal. Maybe they don’t know that penguins are not British?
The day before the labour conference in Liverpool, of all cities, there is going to be a Stop Starmer protest. This, sensibly, is going to be in Camden, in his own backyard.
It will be interesting to see how many get taken into custody.