news & politics:discussion

[steviewevie]

13 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

 

wow - go for it driver examiners.

[steviewevie]

Democrats won that last senate seat in Georgia. All over for Trump?

[steviewevie]

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

wow - go for it driver examiners.

12 years of Tory rule have led to all these strikes.

Look I did my own opinion 😉

[Neil]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

wow - go for it driver examiners.

cos ever youngster wants to drive. not!

[steviewevie]

still... not as bad as the late 70s...

[Neil]

6 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

still... not as bad as the late 70s...

we still had thatcher o come then.

[fraybentos1]

House Prices drop 2.3% in a month

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

still... not as bad as the late 70s...

How could Keir Starmer do this to us!?

[lost]

33 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

House Prices drop 2.3% in a month

Oil down below January prices too. Probably why the government is sitting on their hands regarding strikes, they simply have to wait and then can say inflation is down to "x"

China abandoning zero covid though could stoke demand and derail things.

Edited December 7, 2022 by lost

[fraybentos1]

2 minutes ago, lost said:

Oil down below January prices too. Probably why the government is sitting on their hands regarding strikes, they simply have to wait and then can say inflation is down to "x"

China abandoning zero covid though could stoke demand and derail things.

House prices are not included in inflation figures

[lost]

Just now, fraybentos1 said:

House prices are not included in inflation figures

No but its a general theme of demand being choked by higher rates.

[Guest]

The government should be doing much more to help resolve the strikes and give workers a much better pay rise even though some it seems would be happy for the government to do nothing. 

[steviewevie]

38 minutes ago, lost said:

 

China abandoning zero covid though could stoke demand and derail things.

could also help with supply side?

[steviewevie]

40 minutes ago, lost said:

Oil down below January prices too. Probably why the government is sitting on their hands regarding strikes, they simply have to wait and then can say inflation is down to "x"

China abandoning zero covid though could stoke demand and derail things.

I think big driver with inflation is gas and food prices, and a lot of that driven by Russian invasion, so maybe a lot will depend on what happens there?

Back here didn't boe forecast (or someone forecast) that interest rates wouldn't need to get that much higher, or not as high as originally feared, like somewhere between 4 and 5%?

[steviewevie]

For house prices to be affordable to most want to be first time buyers they need to fall by shitloads

[Guest]

UK inflation is currently 11%, the highest in many years we aren’t in a good place. There isn’t much that can derailed here.

The war will play a part but considering energy bills are going up further in April it’s only going to get worse. 

[steviewevie]

isn't current forecast for inflation to fall from middle of next year back to around 2% some time in 2024? A lot of damage would have been done though.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

isn't current forecast for inflation to fall from middle of next year back to around 2% some time in 2024? A lot of damage would have been done though.

They say that inflation will be 2% next year which on top of inflation of 11% this year it means we are still seeing prices much more expensive than they were. 

[gary1979666]

51 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

The government should be doing much more to help resolve the strikes and give workers a much better pay rise even though some it seems would be happy for the government to do nothing. 

You make it sound so simple. The recent budget shows that there just isn't that much money to go spreading it on double digit pay rises.  If it could afford it, I'm pretty sure it would - would be a big vote winner to give the NHS the 19% it's asking for. But there just isn't the funds to do it.  Plus if you give one group a big rise, then the next group will want a similar amount, which will then feed inflation, plus rises in the private sector.

My other half is head of a couple of schools and due to funding issues, is already looking at reducing TA's.  If there's a further increase to her teachers' pay, then that's more cuts to staff.

The rail sector has a fair offer on the table from the gov't but includes funding from necessary reforms, because trains are getting more expensive to run (pay rises on top of already decent salaries) and few people using them (more WFH).

My company is looking to put through a budget of 6% increase, on the back of very little rises the last few years and I'm sure a large chunk of the rest of the private sector would be doing inflation busting rises, so not sure the argument is there for a lot of the public sector to get huge increases.  I'd love to be able to put through more into the people's pocket at work, but it's not the responsible thing to do on the brink of a recession.

[lost]

29 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

isn't current forecast for inflation to fall from middle of next year back to around 2% some time in 2024? A lot of damage would have been done though.

Yep that's BOE forecasts with their own BOE target of 2% inflation in 2 years time. They do get it wrong though about 97% of time. 

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, gary1979666 said:

You make it sound so simple. The recent budget shows that there just isn't that much money to go spreading it on double digit pay rises.  If it could afford it, I'm pretty sure it would - would be a big vote winner to give the NHS the 19% it's asking for. But there just isn't the funds to do it.  Plus if you give one group a big rise, then the next group will want a similar amount, which will then feed inflation, plus rises in the private sector.

My other half is head of a couple of schools and due to funding issues, is already looking at reducing TA's.  If there's a further increase to her teachers' pay, then that's more cuts to staff.

The rail sector has a fair offer on the table from the gov't but includes funding from necessary reforms, because trains are getting more expensive to run (pay rises on top of already decent salaries) and few people using them (more WFH).

My company is looking to put through a budget of 6% increase, on the back of very little rises the last few years and I'm sure a large chunk of the rest of the private sector would be doing inflation busting rises, so not sure the argument is there for a lot of the public sector to get huge increases.  I'd love to be able to put through more into the people's pocket at work, but it's not the responsible thing to do on the brink of a recession.

Of course there’s money to go around, we aren’t running out of it. That’s a myth put around by the Tories to explain to the masses by they shrink the state.

If we hadn’t had falling real term wages for the past 12 years then we might be able to accept pressure on wages now but many haven’t had a decent pay rise so are now demanding one.

Instead of saying people should essentially accept being poorer we should be demanding the government properly fund these public services so we can support people more in these difficult times. If we are saying that people can’t have pay rises because those services aren’t funded properly then it’s the fault of the government that provide that funding not the workers.

There is the argument for public sector workers to get proper pay rises and we should support those people to get it. 

[lost]

19 minutes ago, gary1979666 said:

My company is looking to put through a budget of 6% increase, on the back of very little rises the last few years and I'm sure a large chunk of the rest of the private sector would be doing inflation busting rises, so not sure the argument is there for a lot of the public sector to get huge increases.  I'd love to be able to put through more into the people's pocket at work, but it's not the responsible thing to do on the brink of a recession.

This is the key point. The public sector can only exist on the surplus generation by the private. I believe the figure to give the public sector an inflation linked pay rise has been put at £28bn or basic rate tax going up by a quarter which obviously even the labour party has said is unafordable.

Wages and living standards in this country have stagnated since the mid-90's but that's against a backdrop of our share of global GDP failing as well, as China, India and the former socialist Eastern European countries have entered the global markets.

 

[fraybentos1]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

For house prices to be affordable to most want to be first time buyers they need to fall by shitloads

Let's hope they fall by shit loads then.

 

[Guest]

There’s only one type of person that would be happy with workers getting poorer and we should never be happy with that. Always demand more especially when the rich just get richer.

Also wages have been stagnant in this country for the last 10 years or so.