* Three friends were made redundant
* Two medium size companies I do business with have cut 25% of their staff
* Two companies I know have just cut their entire marketing budgets by 100%
It's now gone beyond Brown being able to accuse anyone of talking the country into a recession. We're in one and it's going to last a very long time, I fear.
The recession gives the public a chance to get some tax payer's money back if you follow my logic!
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown has presided over Labour’s economic strategy for a decade and a half. The Labour party wilfully followed and implemented Gordon Brown’s Economic Plan.
We now see Gordon Brown and Labour trying to gain political capital through stripping Fred Goodwin of his Pension. Whilst in my opinion the Goodwin Pension should be partially stripped back to the time when he (Goodwin) made reckless decisions as CEO of RBS, supported by a compliant board of directors (I hope they are not ‘due’ bumper Pensions as well). I do think this opens up an interesting Political point!
If Brown is advocating a removal of Fred Goodwin’s pension for taking ‘reckless decisions’ and forcing the banking group into failure and the tax payer picking up the tab. Why does Brown not have his Pension removed for doing a ‘Fred Goodwin’ on the whole economy? It was Brown’s mismanagement of the economy, its regulatory structure and arrogantly implementing policy changes that has caused hardship and savage economic contraction.
Maybe Gordon Brown should have his Pension ‘Shredded’ as he seems to have equalled Fred in his Financial Management skills.
Great idea Martin Day; I shall put your suggestion on my blog, if as many of us bloggers do the same maybe we can create some momentum behind this idea and get it into the MSM.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Martin. I've taken the liberty of putting your comments on my blog. www.catosabout.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI now understand how vigilatism can take over.Frustrated rage at bankers,goverment and the public sector all in the trough is generating an undercurrent of hatred towards them ive never seen before.In our works canteen we worked out that turd of a banker will get 50 times our anual wage in one years pension.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is as much Brown's fault as the bankers. Tri-partite regulatory light touch rubbish. To reward Politicians for failure is as obscene as rewarding their conies in The City. How much are Myners and Mandleson up for? A good few million, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteNo offence Iain but I think most of the nation have had at least 2 mouths of the recession hiting home. For me it was 2 weeks before Christmas when I was made redundant and seeing shops close in the high street of Henley-on-Thames.
ReplyDeleteBut I do fere it will get worse and worse it gets Brown and his Darling will dig us in a bigger bigger holes for generations to come.
Excellent Sheep & Cato - Brown should have his Pension removed as well!
ReplyDeleteYup, welcome to the real world Iain. I was made redundant one week before xmas. One less higher rate tax payer.
ReplyDeleteA number of my friends have lost their jobs in the last few months, one who worked for the same company for over 20 years. These people are mid career (they hope) and high tax payers.
ReplyDeleteYesterday my wife came home to say her employer was looking to save a considerable sum, which meant redundancies soon.
How will we all pay back the earth shattering debts Gordon Brown is racking up in our names ?
Why not do a survey of your reader's personal knowledge of jobs loses Iain ?
Slashed marketing budgets by 100%? The fools - they are doomed. How will they ever attract any business if they hide? What silly nonsense.
ReplyDeleteAt this time, surely there is a need to creatively market your business in order to keep your profile up and retain/attract customers. Cutting marketing to nil seems suicidal to me.
a truely frightening article from irish commentator david mcwilliams, writing about a scene in Dublin.
ReplyDelete(which is heading our way, no doubt..)
bold emphasis mine.
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2009/02/04/uncertainty-is-spreading-like-a-virus-in-a-creche
"On Monday afternoon Killiney Hill was full of delighted children, squealing at the sight of snow. Many had never seen snow before. The children screamed as they threw snowballs and rocketed down the side of the hill on makeshift sledges.
However, the most striking aspect of the scene was not the unexpected snowfall and the dozens of children, but the huge numbers of fathers with them.
These men, all in their prime with young families, mortgages and up until recently careers, are the newly unemployed face of middle class Ireland. If something is not done quickly, their number will swell to hundreds of thousands."
and thats just the opening paragraphs.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a recession. It is a depression, but it has happened so fast it hasn't caught up with some people, particularly those working in the public sector and the BBC and regions such as Scotland where there is high public sector employment.
Capital expenditure on industrial investment has been slowing down for the last 10 years, but it has ground to a complete halt now, there is no cash for any investment, even something as safe as schools PFI.
For years Brown has been pushing a myth of growing GDP when this was always just public sector growth and a flat private sector.
Current GDP growth is about -2% annually which is made up by +6-7% growth in the public sector and -8%growth in the private sector.
Brown funds this growth with massive borrowing. Apart from the funding required to bail out the banks Brown is has to raise additional funding every year equal to 12% of GDP to cover his spending. When you consider that the publis sector is only 45% of GDP (but growing fast), you see that Brown has to borrow 12% of GDP to pay for that 45% of GDP. In other worde he has to borrow an extra £1 for every £4 that he spends. That is not sustainable.
agree with Alex.
ReplyDeletetry to tune into Irish radio to see how FAST this has happened. folks over there are in utter disbelief.
for example, this is a TV series that went out on Irish telly a mere TWO YEARS AGO
Popes Children by David McWilliams...
its like a different decade. not two years ago.
Ireland appears to be somewhat more transparent about the sheer magnitude of the problem compared to over here. I think the MSM over here have barely woken up to it.
the reason why i raise Ireland as something to watch , is because Ireland doesnt have the buffer that we have - Irelands public expenditure is roughly 35 per cent of GDP.
ReplyDeletewe're way way above that - at 44 per cent.
that's Gordon Brown's buffer. so the hit will be very much delayed - and i fear, much much greater when it really hits.
ireland is just ahead of the uk... the pain you see over there , will happen in a years time over here.
its unavoidable.
Martin Day, NotaSheep, Cato ... I'm with you.
ReplyDelete(WV: turdsme ... errm?)
I know just what you mean Iain , nice chap I talk to on the train just got kicked out and that suit and CV looked bit forlorn.
ReplyDeleteThree kids as well Jesus ....
Martin Day
ReplyDeleteWhat about George W Bush's pension?
So Iain, are you saying that the sum of £597,000 and £114,000 is £693,000?
ReplyDeleteIf so, you may be qualified to run a major British bank.