General Chat

Governments, of all persuasions, have sold a lot of the family silver over the years, the most recen piece being the Royal Mail, now the Chancellor has announced he is seeking bids for the governments stake in Eurostar - it is reported that the proceeds from the sale will help to balance the books.

According to some experts, the Chancellor is struggling with his deficit reduction plan aimed at balance the books because - tax revenues are below expectations, the welfare bill is rising, all this this, despite growth in parts of the economy and falling unemployment.

So what can he "sell or do next" to prove his economic plan is working, and where will he find the money for the £7.2 billion in tax custs that his his boss promised in his speech to the faithful on the 1st of October - should that be 1st April ;-)

No doubt we will find out, straight from from the horses mouth, when the Chancellor makes his Autumn Statement to Parliament, on the 3rd December.

What do you think he will announce and what do think he should be announcing?

Something about happiness and sixpence at a guess.
Trouble is that supply side economics and balanced budgets only have one ending and it is not really a tale for a family web site.

"Ask not what your Chancellor can do for you; ask what you can do for your Chancellor".

Well, I believe the Japanese own The Guildhall in London.

....how about selling off Buck House?

Looking at, our energy providers, who supplies our water, who owns a large part of our public transport, who owns the organisations that provide services to government departments & other public bodies, who owns most of our large manufacturing companies, who owns most of our infrastructure, who owns most of our newspaper, who owns most of our communication providers - what is the UK actually left with?

The list of who owns what is endless and I sometimes wonder if my grandfather was able to see into the future, because in the 1950's he used to regularly say China would end up controlling most worlds economies - albeit that was usually after a few drams, but there again, maybe he had a point ;-)

The sort of dirigiste thinking of who owns the trains and so on is one of the factors that have got France into such a mess. With open markets for the most part "ownership" in the nationalistic sense is irrelevant. What counts are access to capital and markets. An open economy such as the UK or USA will always do far better than one obsessed with ownership.

An open economy will tend to suck in capital and that is one of the reasons for the ever increasing property prices in London and the SE.

It is already quite impossible to provide "affordable" housing to buy or rent at a discount on market rents in London. The current trend is to flog off the social housing to property developers ( there is a flog off expo in Cannes right now ) and decant Londoners to Margate Leeds and Sarfend in some kind of ethnic cleansing. It is disappointing that Labour will not commit to social housing in the UK at affordable rents NOT linked to market rents such as Peabody. Thatcher's right-to-buy idea is dead but goes on running around like a headless chicken.

An open economy will grow and suck in labour. Often first generation immigrants are not especially well paid and there will be friction with the in situ labour force where both compete for jobs. Any attempt to stop this will just put the brakes on the economy for everybody. Labour, Tory and LibDems all know this and they are utter hypocrites trying to sing from Faraj's song sheet.

At a rough guess grumpy old men and the NEATs and their progeny will provide UKIP with a constituency for a good long time to come in the more run down towns and cities of the UK. The downside of open economies is that there will always be a sizable element who do not do so well.

Later this week I shall be in an idyllic place called East Coker in Somerset. Sadly it is a village preserved in aspic an England which has already moved far on down the road. Welcome to Dave's brave new world.

:-D

Ethnic cleansing in the UK - surely not, after all UK governments always condemn any countries who do this ;-)