I mean to say, he has got every single prediction he ever made wrong. He constantly downgrades any predictions he has made about any aspect of the economy, and tonight when asked what would happen to inflation he said he thought it would come down in the New Year, but wasn't sure.
OK. I could have done all of these things and I don't get paid his massive salary, nor can I reasonably expect a seat in the House of Lords when I retire. (Actually I think it unlikely that inflation will come down much in the New Year. OK, the 2.5% VAT increase is out of the cycle, but the massive fuel price hikes are not; nor is food; nor are transport increases.)
Anyway, tonight he has told us that the hallowed banks, against whom no one is supposed to utter a word of condemnation for the almighty mess they made of the economy (or they will leave for friendlier shores), won't be able to lend money to businesses in Britain because the Eurozone crisis has left them unable to raise the cash.
But wait a minute. The banks weren't lending anyway. That's why the chancellor asked them very nicely if they would please lend some of the mass of money that we borrowed or created to keep them afloat to do their job and lend to medium and small businesses instead of taking it all in bonuses. When they said "no", you'll remember, he was obliged to set up a government fund to lend to businesses which are folding for want of a loan, even when they have orders on their books. Talk about booze ups in breweries?.
Sheesh.
With his usual vagueness Old Merv said that because of the Eurozone crisis, households, businesses and banks face an extraordinary period of uncertainty. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow, he twittered, like some fishwife over the back yard fence!
Gives you such confidence, that he's got his hands on the wheel, doesn't it. As governor of the Bank of Britain... ooops no, sorry England, he'd make a really good bus driver.
Talking about confidence, why is Osborne so intent on talking Scotland into the ground? OK, it's a silly question and we all know perfectly well that the answer is... if you haven't got a credible true argument to put forward for something, make one up.
Businessmen are not in the least put off by a discussion of a referendum. At least I'm sure that a few who have had their ears whispered into by Cameron may be. In return for a knighthood maybe? It's actually far more likely that businessmen will be put off Britain as a whole because no one in the government or the central bank has much of a clue about what is going on.
Unlike John Swinney, who knows a thing of two about finance.
Clearly one of the most successful companies in the world is so worried about the future of Scotland that it is creating over 1,000 new jobs in the country.
This UK government, headed by a PR spin doctor, is even crap at spinning!
The picture of the posh boy Osborne has reminded me why I would slap his face and keep on slapping. It would be worth every hour I would spend in the nick. He has that kind of face.
ReplyDeleteHis schoolboy remarks regarding firms not investing in Scotland, (but I cannot tell you who) parroted by Mundell, Moore, MacMillan and no doubt Elmer Fudd at FMQs today are the worst attack yet on the Scottish Government, the SNP and Scotland. The unionist cabal are really down and dirty now. It is treachery such as this that has created the SNP and would see these people in jail in many other countries.
very good Ozzie documentary and not to long, even for me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/foreign/default.htm
I lifted it from the Golem IXV blog
He certainly does have that kind of face KBW. You'd never get tired of slapping it, as my granddad used to say.
ReplyDeleteIt is so ridiculous too. He cannot seriously be suggesting that if the economy passed from his hands to the hands of John Swinney, businessmen would pull out.
I expect that it is true that businessmen like stability, but a serious businessman knows that Scotland will not be an unstable country. There's not going to be revolution; burning buildings, beheadings...
One day there will be a union jack on the castle along with our flag and the next day there will not. Relations will remain friendly, people will still cross the border to work, socialise, holiday, etc.
All that will happen is that a Scottish government will have charge of economy (and the ministry of war!) It seems to me that even under the Lib/Lab executives of the past Scotland has had better governance than the rest of the UK. Why would that change?
Maybe what the businessmen are worried about is that we will remain a part of England, under Osborne, Cameron and May!
You are right. They are getting dirty right away on a campaign that Alex is not interested in fighting right now. Jobs have to be brought to Scotland; the drink problem has to be attacked (that's something employers do have worries about. There is a raft of problems to be solved. But the unionists can only see one thing. The possibility of losing the oil revenue.
And because there are no really good reasons (apart from the money) of the two countries remaining as one, they have to resort to lies.
John Swinney's attack on Osborne http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/swinney-hits-out-1.1135073 is superb. Just the sort of thing we need. John is our Quiet Man. But he's quiet because he is a deep thinker. Not because he has nothing to say, like IDS. Of course it is reported here by a unionist paper, so you have to disregard the tone.
Thanks Wolfie. I'll watch it and comment!
ReplyDeleteDear me, no wonder the country in on it's knees. I go off to toil in foreign fields and when I come back find out that you've swanned off to France spending Euros like water to aid the French economy - leaving behind a seventy year old picture of Petula Clark.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the bankers to blame for the state of the economy it's the idle rich such as yourself who spend your groats and guineas in foreign lands....................
Anyway, welcome back, Tris.
Absolutely excellent piece Wolfie...
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot of good points. I thought that perhaps the two best were Nick Leeson's, that he thought it unlikely that it could ever happen again because the combination of incompetence at trader, management, bank, regulator, central bank and government levels all at the same time, was almost impossible to imagine repeating itself... huh!
And the point made by Sugermann that telling the truth does not pay. He is still unemployed after blowing a whistle!
Thanks for pointing it up.
I'd encourage anyone else who has 26 minutes to spare to watch this. It's riveting.
We (the comparative poor) are paying for the excesses of the comparatively rich...who are scarcely touched by any of it.
We should all be supporting the people in Wall Street, St Paul's, Dublin, Rome and wherever else they are camping out in the cold to try to ensure that these people never get away with this again.
We ignore this at our peril; we allow the authorities and the church to persecute them and we are complicit with the likes of the above named Osborne and King, who would love us all to forget it, and just knuckle down to austerity like good obedient little lower class things.
Damn.
ReplyDeleteCaught out at swanning off around Europe, pouring adoration over an Englishwoman (actually she's half Welsh...the better half, she says), and throwing away millions of Euros (well a couple of hundred actually) on the French economy.
Can't get away with anything, can you?
Ho hum... well here's to a winter of drudgery to pay for it. I am after all, only a representative of the idle poor!
Welcome back, John! :)