Rachel from accounts

[Agriv8]

Erm could someone let rach’ in accounts know that’s she messed up her spreadsheet- Bank of England just cut growth forecasts from 1.5 to .75 .

all we need is trump to upset the markets a bit more and job will be well and truly knackered!

Agriv8

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

WHOOPS!

Oh Rachel..........................................Blow for Reeves as Bank halves growth forecast.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0lzj3g77gpo

 

 

[JohnfromUK]

1 minute ago, Agriv8 said:

messed up her spreadsheet

SPREADsheet?  THATS the problem - she thought she was supposed to use a BEDsheet

[old man]

42 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

SPREADsheet?  THATS the problem - she thought she was supposed to use a BEDsheet

Could have been a better outcome?

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, Agriv8 said:

Erm could someone let rach’ in accounts know that’s she messed up her spreadsheet- Bank of England just cut growth forecasts from 1.5 to .75 .

all we need is trump to upset the markets a bit more and job will be well and truly knackered!

Agriv8

im already knacked.....bloody reeves took them in leu of payment

[Agriv8]

Oh and more bad news as the water regulator has let our water companies pay hefty bonuses to bosses and the shareholders are now allowed to increase our bills which is going to push up cost of living and price indices!

after years of doing nowt about the growing population!

prices have risen on the weekly shop due to companies up prices to deal with ni increase.

not sure what she thought would happen - no one would notice!

Agriv8

[Weihrauch17]

1 hour ago, Agriv8 said:

Oh and more bad news as the water regulator has let our water companies pay hefty bonuses to bosses and the shareholders are now allowed to increase our bills which is going to push up cost of living and price indices!

after years of doing nowt about the growing population!

prices have risen on the weekly shop due to companies up prices to deal with ni increase.

not sure what she thought would happen - no one would notice!

Agriv8

Yep did my most expensive weekly shop ever this week, £108 and didn't buy that much!  Bottle of cough medicine was £8!

[Penelope]

9 hours ago, Weihrauch17 said:

Yep did my most expensive weekly shop ever this week, £108 and didn't buy that much!  Bottle of cough medicine was £8!

A can of Heinz soup is £1.80 - £2.00! A can of soup!!!!

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, Anyone think this new A I Data set up will be good for the UK or a waste of money that Rachel Reeves has proposed ?? Oh and my favourite Quiche from M and S has gone up from under £2 to £4 😒

Edited Friday at 09:11 by oldypigeonpopper

[TOPGUN749]

The Bank of England isn’t too bright either cutting interest rates at a time inflation is rising! Their job is to control inflation,now they’re feeding it!

[JohnfromUK]

3 minutes ago, TOPGUN749 said:

The Bank of England isn’t too bright either cutting interest rates at a time inflation is rising! Their job is to control inflation,now they’re feeding it!

They are predicting inflation will rise to 3.7% and not return to their target (2%) until 2027.  On that basis - interest rates should be on hold or even possibly rising. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

11 minutes ago, TOPGUN749 said:

The Bank of England isn’t too bright either cutting interest rates at a time inflation is rising! Their job is to control inflation,now they’re feeding it!

 

Just now, JohnfromUK said:

They are predicting inflation will rise to 3.7% and not return to their target (2%) until 2027.  On that basis - interest rates should be on hold or even possibly rising. 

It's almost like you two don't think the BofE and Rachel know what they are doing...............................

[semi-auto]

No doubt pursuing the mythical unicorn of 'growth'. Of course, this cut enables KS to stand up in parliament and claim it as a vindication of his policies, and once again say that this puts money into the pockets of working people. It goes without saying that this will take money out of these pockets as prices rise because of inflation.

[JohnfromUK]

Just now, TIGHTCHOKE said:

 

It's almost like you two don't think the BofE and Rachel know what they are doing...............................

We know Rachel doesn't have a clue. 

I also have my doubts about the current B of E Governor - who (in my opinion) badly delayed raising interest rates in around Jan 2021 and delay for around a year - causing (again my opinion) inflation to go higher for longer than was necessary had he been on the ball.  See graph;

[TIGHTCHOKE]

It was rumoured that two of the panel abstained as they wanted a larger cut in the rate.

[JohnfromUK]

Just now, TIGHTCHOKE said:

It was rumoured that two of the panel abstained as they wanted a larger cut in the rate.

That'll be the lefties

[old man]

12 hours ago, Agriv8 said:

Oh and more bad news as the water regulator has let our water companies pay hefty bonuses to bosses and the shareholders are now allowed to increase our bills which is going to push up cost of living and price indices!

after years of doing nowt about the growing population!

prices have risen on the weekly shop due to companies up prices to deal with ni increase.

not sure what she thought would happen - no one would notice!

Agriv8

Car tax going double in April too??

A party for the people?

46 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, Anyone think this new A I Data set up will be good for the UK or a waste of money that Rachel Reeves has proposed ?? Oh and my favourite Quiche from M and S has gone up from under £2 to £4 😒

This AI will allow unlimited untraceable damage to be proliferated?

[old man]

26 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

 

It's almost like you two don't think the BofE and Rachel know what they are doing...............................

Just think of the damage they could cause if they did?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

13 minutes ago, old man said:

Just think of the damage they could cause if they did?

WHOOPS, Too late.

[JohnfromUK]

26 minutes ago, old man said:

Car tax going double in April too??

As far as I can see this applies to the 'first year showroom tax' only.

There is a really complicated system in place now where as I understand it;

1. In the first year (i.e. when first registered new) - each car pays a standard tax (£190) plus a 'showroom tax' which is applied to vehicles with a list price over £40,000 and varies between roughly £30 and £2750 depending on the official Grammes per mile emissions rating
2. In years 2 to 5 (i.e. not new but less than 6 years old) - each car pays a standard tax (£190) plus a supplemental 'luxury tax' which is applied to vehicles with a list price over £40,000 and varies up to roughly £420 depending on the official Grammes per mile emissions rating
3. In year 6 onwards the car only pays the standard tax of (currently) £190

This applied to all vehicles registered after 2017.  Until April 2025 - electric vehicles paid much less, but they are now having to fall in line.  For example my current car is an eye watering £600 a year now but when it is 6 years old, that falls to £190 9at current rates.

Pre 2017 cars pay on a different scale where they pay by the emissions rating with no luxury supplement in the first 6 years - but most pay more than £190 every year.

It is a tyopicl civil service scheme - hugely complicated and difficult to understand.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-14346519/car-tax-hikes-increase-april-drivers.html

Edited Friday at 10:20 by JohnfromUK

[old man]

1 minute ago, JohnfromUK said:

As far as I can see this applies to the 'first year showroom tax' only.

There is a really complicated system in place now where as I understand it;

1. In the first year (i.e. when first registered new) - each car pays a standard tax (£190) plus a 'showroom tax' which is applied to vehicles with a list price over £40,000 and varies between roughly £30 and £2750 depending on the official Grammes per mile emissions rating
2. In years 2 to 5 (i.e. not new but less than 6 years old) - each car pays a standard tax (£190) plus a supplemental 'luxury tax' which is applied to vehicles with a list price over £40,000 and varies up to roughly £420 depending on the official Grammes per mile emissions rating
3. In year 6 onwards the car only pays the standard tax of (currently) £190

This applied to all vehicles registered after 2017.  Until April 2025 - electric vehicles paid much less, but they are now having to fall in line.  For example my current car is an eye watering £600 a year now but when it is 6 years old, that falls to £190 9at current rates.

Pre 2017 cars pay on a different scale where they pay by the emissions rating with no luxury supplement in the first 6 years - but most pay more than £190 every year.

It is a tyopicl civil service scheme - hugely complicated and difficult to understand.

Thanks  John. Maybe I misunderstood but thought existing tariffs were being doubled?

[JohnfromUK]

1 hour ago, old man said:

Thanks  John. Maybe I misunderstood but thought existing tariffs were being doubled?

I have to admit to being confused myself, but I think the doubling refers to the 'showroom' first year tax.  The other major change was bringing electric cars into the main tax system.

My understanding is that the 'standard' rate will go up 'with inflation' every year.

[oldypigeonpopper]

2 hours ago, old man said:

Car tax going double in April too??

A party for the people?

This AI will allow unlimited untraceable damage to be proliferated?

Hello, it is going to be set up on Culham Business Park , At least some jobs but very high tech, I could try for Tea Boy 😄

[Rewulf]

2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

We know Rachel doesn't have a clue. 

This evening’s Telegraph article may seem overly gloomy but Frost is pointing out the obvious - Tory lockdowns and Reeves’s budget have trashed our economy and our nation’s future prosperity.

————

David Frost (Telegraph website 06 February 2025 6:00pm GMT)

The OBR and Rachel Reeves have begun talking again. The March 26 Spring Statement looms, but the overall picture is already clear: once again there isn’t any money.

The Chancellor’s gargantuan tax-and-spend Budget of just three months ago, supposedly the last in a generation, is already out of date. The planned “headroom”, that is, the £9 billion gap between what the fiscal rules say can be spent and what actually will be, has already vanished in a puff of smoke. Indeed we learn there may now be an “overspend” of up to £20 billion.

There will be much discussion about these numbers over the next six weeks. Important though they are, in a way they are beside the point. What matters is the big picture. And that picture is that the country is heading ever faster towards unsustainability: that is, we’re slowly going bust.

It needs to be repeated constantly: growth per head has basically stopped. The 30 years of over-regulation, of ever-increasing tax and public spending, of high energy costs and the net zero fantasy, and finally the huge shock of Covid, have finally furred up the economy’s arteries. We are only growing at all because of immigration, but the wave of low-skilled migrants, dependents and non-contributors is driving down income per person. That’s why we all feel poorer.

The problem is that, when we look at the government rather than at our own bank accounts, we still behave like a country that is growing. We expect public spending to keep going up by 2-3 per cent a year. But we haven’t got that money and have to borrow it instead.

And the constantly increasing burden of tax, spending and debt crushes the economy still further. The truth is that we can’t afford to increase government spending at all.

This is at the heart of Rachel Reeves’s problem. We’re in a vicious circle. High taxes and spending, low productivity and growth, each reinforces the other. Unless she can break out somehow, the Chancellor will face the consequences at every “fiscal event” until she’s fired. Each time she will find that her “headroom” has disappeared because growth is slower and spending higher than planned.

Can she break out of it? Labour will say “just raise taxes: they are too low anyway by European standards”.

There are several problems with this. The first is that she tried it in October and it didn’t work.

The second is that we should want our taxes to be lower than those of our European friends. The third is that the UK economy has evolved over time to be dependent on footloose industry, creative and intellectual property-based activities and rich entrepreneurs and investors.

Indeed at the moment we are actually reinforcing this dependence, with high energy costs that are slowly but surely killing off industries like cars, ceramics, chemicals, and oil and gas.

Raise taxes too far and these activities shrink or just go elsewhere. Since the war, the tax take has hardly ever risen above 33 per cent of GDP, and never durably. That is arguably the taxable limit of the British economy. Yet now it’s 36 per cent. Labour wants to push it to 38 per cent. It’s not going to happen. A deep, deep recession will come first.

So raising taxes is not a way out. The alternatives are to cut spending or to deregulate to stimulate growth.

Labour will never do the first. Their base won’t allow it. It’s easy to see why. To cut just £1 billion from public spending – under 0.1 per cent of the total – you have to take £1,000 off a million people. Labour are never going to cut benefits, pensions or health spending by anything like enough to make a difference.

So the other option is massive deregulation – of job rules, planning and building, environmental restrictions, financial and business services, and of the whole DEI superstructure – on a scale so far uncontemplated. Shock tactics here could get growth going again. But obviously Labour will never do such a thing.

Virtually everything they do goes in the other direction. The much-vaunted planning and infrastructure plans solve just a tiny part of the problem and will take years to kick in. The more authentic voice of Labour comes from Nick Thomas-Symonds, their EU minister, wanting a “race to the top” in standards.

So everything in Reeves’s party’s philosophy prevents her dealing with the problem. She can’t raise taxes. She can’t cut spending. And she can’t deregulate.

Her future is one of cheeseparing spending cuts, of begging the OBR to be positive, and of putting whatever pressure she can get away with on the Bank to cut rates further. But these are all just palliatives. Her own personal best hope is that she isn’t in office when the debt bomb goes off.

For the rest of us, economic pain is coming. The only question is whether it’s the pain of letting our problems overwhelm us, or the pain of trying to fix them. No politicians, of any party, seem to want to be honest about this. But reality will not be denied. We need someone to step up – or bankruptcy is looming.

[armsid]

Rewulf good honest post but did not Cyprus go the same way many years ago and the Gov. raided everyones bank accounts for money