UK Politics

[Ryan1984]

M and S and Tesco announcing bumper Christmas sales. I thought the economy was broken and nobody had any money?

 

If we go back a few months, this kind of news would be greeted with the quote ‘the plan is working’.

[lost]

M&S are down 6% this morning, I think markets are more interested in whats going to happen:

 

Quote

Marks & Spencer has hailed a “good Christmas” with strong sales of food but warned that British businesses face higher costs from the government’s tax increases.

 

Look at Greggs though down 10%. Is that our "working class getting priced out of fast food" moment that did for Biden?

Edited 11 hours ago by lost

[steviewevie]

57 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

M and S and Tesco announcing bumper Christmas sales. I thought the economy was broken and nobody had any money?

 

If we go back a few months, this kind of news would be greeted with the quote ‘the plan is working’.

Wages are higher than inflation.

[steviewevie]

 

[Kurosagi]

6 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

When it comes to the argument of free speech I feel the left should take some of the blame. To me there have been times where people have been no platformed when they should have debated and also challenging topics have been shut down instead of explored. This has played into the hands of the rights and at times been counterproductive.

 

The rise of the use "progressive left" instead of just, you know, old fashioned "left" in mainstream politics has coincided with what feels like an insufferable moral purity spiral.

 

It's as though people on the "progressive" left these days seem to have a list of current hobby horses and you can agree with 99 of them but if on one topic you go "hang on, are you sure about that? Let's talk a bit more about this..." and you're laughably branded 'bigot', 'far-right' or 'fascist'. It devalues the terms and ends up being counterproductive.

[steviewevie]

13 minutes ago, Kurosagi said:

 

The rise of the use "progressive left" instead of just, you know, old fashioned "left" in mainstream politics has coincided with what feels like an insufferable moral purity spiral.

 

It's as though people on the "progressive" left these days seem to have a list of current hobby horses and you can agree with 99 of them but if on one topic you go "hang on, are you sure about that? Let's talk a bit more about this..." and you're laughably branded 'bigot', 'far-right' or 'fascist'. It devalues the terms and ends up being counterproductive.

fascist

[Kurosagi]

1 minute ago, steviewevie said:

fascist

 

Your mum once put out the recycling in the wrong bins. That's why LA is on fire. Literal genocide.

[MilkyJoe]

6 hours ago, steviewevie said:

It's all gone Liz Truss.

The pound against the dollar is at it's lowest since April last year but has some way to go to reach the depths of October 2023 and a long way to go to hit the levels of Sept 22 when it was looking for a while like it might reach parity. It was almost this low in April though. Just swings and roundabouts at the moment although the swings are a little more severe over the last 12 months.

[steviewevie]

2 minutes ago, MilkyJoe said:

The pound against the dollar is at it's lowest since April last year but has some way to go to reach the depths of October 2023 and a long way to go to hit the levels of Sept 22 when it was looking for a while like it might reach parity. It was almost this low in April though. Just swings and roundabouts at the moment although the swings are a little more severe over the last 12 months.

I think the main worry is lack of headroom for Reeves to remain in within her fiscal rules, so unless she's going to break them it could mean spending cuts to tax rises...something like that.

Reading a few people saying that BoE should maybe ease up on the 2% inflation target with all the global stuff going on, maybe have to live with inflation a bit higher and start cutting rates to help the economy a bit...something like that again.

[MilkyJoe]

4 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I think the main worry is lack of headroom for Reeves to remain in within her fiscal rules, so unless she's going to break them it could mean spending cuts to tax rises...something like that.

Reading a few people saying that BoE should maybe ease up on the 2% inflation target with all the global stuff going on, maybe have to live with inflation a bit higher and start cutting rates to help the economy a bit...something like that again.

Yeah I'm a bit lost and largely ignorant when it comes to the actual reasons for the big fluctuations with the USD although a lot of it depends on the various reports and economic statements on both sides. I believe yesterdays spike was mostly reporting that trump was going to declare an emergency to push through tarrifs or something. Whilst I like to see a strong pound for the most part, I have my salary paid in dollars so I'm a bit of a turncoat where it comes to wanting it to be weak around payday!😂

[lost]

The worry is the pound falling as rates de-couple. As our rates raise people SHOULD want to hold pounds due to getting a better return. Rates rising on government debt and the pound falling at the same normally signals something is broken.

Edited 5 hours ago by lost

[lost]

I didn't realise the state pension is means tested in Australia? Labour are apparently looking at their system.

[steviewevie]

23 minutes ago, lost said:

I didn't realise the state pension is means tested in Australia? Labour are apparently looking at their system.

that will go down well

(but will save a lot of money)