economic situation is dire

[CI]

We could all barter our services if money goes belly up...

eg.. I'll do your ironing for a months supply of eggs etc....

Notice the price of fuel is still creeping up again...... If you go to the Orkneys there always a queue of oil tankers sitting offshore in Scapa flow

apparently crack from locals is that it's oil being kept out of circulation offshore until the price goes up sufficiently to sell. As the Sun accused

JP Morgan Stanley of doing a couple of weeks ago.

Frankly, this has been happening for years. It also happens at the other end of the process in the Gulf where supertankers sit waiting for a good supply price

[peterms]

So, anyway, on politics and politicians more generally: if there were a hypothetical case of a gay Minister of the government who is married but has a younger gay lover, would it be better for all concerned to keep all that under wraps and try to find lodgings and a source of income for said bit on the side through subterfuge and misusing the allowances and facilities afforded to our elected representatives, or for everyone to be a bit more open about what is happening and deal with it more honestly?

[CI]

The latter of course, but is that really going to happen, ever ?

[CI]

So now the banks owned by the taxpayer (RBS / Lloyds) want to charge us for using their cash machines

**** rocket polishers, grrrrrr

[Genie]

I'm going to move my current account from Lloyds to Santander and pocket the £100 they are paying for the pleasure. I'll go via quidco and get another sweet £45.

[tonyh29]

apparently crack from locals is that it's oil being kept out of circulation offshore until the price goes up sufficiently to sell.

Welcome to the world of hedge funds .. they are doing the same with stock piles of wheat around the globe as well

[CI]

Just flicked to the BBC and thought I saw a positive economic news title -

UK seeing 'big rise in property'

I'd misread it, it actually says -

UK seeing 'big rise in poverty'

[mockingbird_franklin]

Just flicked to the BBC and thought I saw a positive economic news title -

UK seeing 'big rise in property'

I'd misread it, it actually says -

UK seeing 'big rise in poverty'

both are actually bad news headlines despite one being portrayed as the opposite, unless of course they would be referring to a rise in the building of property.

[CI]

I guess you're right, the Property boom bust scenario has a lot to answer for

[drat01]

So some Tory supporters are still trying to claim that the Unemployment figures are not bad, when the reality is somewhat different

link

UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high

Chris Grayling blamed the rise in unemployment on the financial crisis

Continue reading the main story

UK Economy

Bank injects £75bn into economy

UK economic growth revised down

Drivers 'cut petrol use by 15%'

UK construction activity 'stalls'

UK unemployment rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million, a 17-year high, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate also increased to 8.1%.

The unemployment total for 16-24 year olds hit a record high of 991,000 in the quarter, a jobless rate of 21.3%.

The number of people out of work and claiming benefits rose 17,500 to 1.6 million in September.

Other figures showed a record cut in the number of part-time workers, down by 175,000, and there was also a record reduction of 74,000 in the number of over-65s in employment.

The Employment Secretary, Chris Grayling, said that what the UK was now seeing was "the impact of the international financial crisis".

He said although the UK was not in the euro, it was "not immune" to the problems currently being experienced in the eurozone and in countries such as Greece.

There have been criticisms of the government's deficit reduction programmes, with some analysts saying it was hampering economic growth.

But Mr Grayling said the "important reason why we are pursuing deficit reduction", was to retain the confidence of commercial markets, and to encourage businesses to set up in the UK.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The economy is growing at half the pace it needs to keep unemployment stable. That's not going to change any time soon, so we should get used to numbers like this”

Alan Clarke Scotia Capital

He also said that the latest available figures showed that over the past year, more jobs had been created in the private sector than had been lost in the public sector.

Mixed reaction

The TUC's general secretary Brendan Barber said: "These are terrible figures. The government's austerity measures have turned unemployment into a full-blown crisis - with job losses not seen since the darkest days of the recession.

"Worryingly, this is not simply the result of eurozone troubles. This unemployment crisis is state-sponsored and areas like the North East are paying a heavy price, with over one in 10 people out of work."

The data drew a mixed reaction from economists.

Ross Walker, from RBS Financial Markets, said the picture was not altogether gloomy.

"The drop in total employment is bigger than people thought. But it is worth noting that it is almost entirely part-time," he said.

"So in the latest quarter, full-time employment - which to me is always the single most important indicator - was down just 2,000 and it's still up over the past year by about 124,000."

But Alan Clarke, of Scotia Capital, said the figures were a "disaster".

He added: "That (the data) shouldn't come as a surprise because the economy is growing at half the pace it needs to keep unemployment stable. That's not going to change anytime soon, so we should get used to numbers like this."

The simple reality is that no chance of any recovery while cuts are causing massive job losses and as importantly youth unemployment. Why dont this Gvmt and their supporters realise this or will they continue to keep their heads buried in their off shore accounts and say it's the fault of Labour

[Richard]

So some Tory supporters are still trying to claim that the Unemployment figures are not bad, when the reality is somewhat different............

The simple reality is that no chance of any recovery while cuts are causing massive job losses and as importantly youth unemployment. Why dont this Gvmt and their supporters realise this or will they continue to keep their heads buried in their off shore accounts and say it's the fault of Labour

Is that as bad or not as bad as some Labour supporters still trying to claim that previous govvernment had no negative impact at all on the economic mess we were in when they lost the election?

[Risso]

That's pretty terrible actually, 2.57m people losing their jobs since the coalition came to power. Disgraceful.

[PIW]

Its funny how the Coalition Govt are blaming the current levels of unemployment on the International financial situation, yet before the last general Election, and just afetr it you would have thoughjt it was labour that caused the economic meltdown. So, are they admitting that actually it wasn't Labour now?

Asd for the levels of unemployment rightly or wrongly there is a feeling that for the Tories unemployment is an acceptable price to pay when they are trying to reduce the deficit. There is no plan for growth just one to keep cutting. And with it goes jobs. Undoubtedly there would have been cuts under labour also but at least there was an idea of how to stimulate growth. it nay have worked, it may not have. but at least certain people wouldn't have just been cast aside whilst we keep hearing the tired old mantra of all being in this together.

[mjmooney]

I keep forgetting it's a coalition government. Seriously, the LibDems may as well not exist.

[Risso]

Its funny how the Coalition Govt are blaming the current levels of unemployment on the International financial situation, yet before the last general Election, and just afetr it you would have thoughjt it was labour that caused the economic meltdown. So, are they admitting that actually it wasn't Labour now?

Asd for the levels of unemployment rightly or wrongly there is a feeling that for the Tories unemployment is an acceptable price to pay when they are trying to reduce the deficit. There is no plan for growth just one to keep cutting. And with it goes jobs. Undoubtedly there would have been cuts under labour also but at least there was an idea of how to stimulate growth. it nay have worked, it may not have. but at least certain people wouldn't have just been cast aside whilst we keep hearing the tired old mantra of all being in this together.

Part of the reason we're in this mess is Labour and their "ideas of how to stimulate growth".

[Genie]

when are the new inflation figures out ?

[RunRickyRun]

An interesting read regarding poverty and the UK

[peterms]

An interesting read regarding poverty and the UK

Pretty poor stuff actually, unsurprising from an ex-NoW hack.

He seems to be flying a kite for doing away with measures of relative poverty, perhaps because the government he so ardently supports finds them embarrassing. But when he attacks legislative targets for tackling child poverty, he would do well to learn first that child poverty is not a concept invented by Gordon Brown in 1999, as he seems to suggest, and second that the legislative targets were agreed with all-party support. And his little dig at think tanks would be better directed not at the IFS, but at the Thatcher-Joseph Centre for Policy Studies which he is associated with.

A better read would be the source material.

A brief extract, which perhaps indicates why such a fawning toadie of the government would rather reports like this were silenced:

the impact of changes to personal tax and benefit policy announced by this coalition government is to increase relative child poverty by 200,000 in both 2015-- -16 and 2020-- -21, and to increase relative poverty for working-age adults by 200,000 in 2015-- -16 and 400,000 in 2020---21. The reforms are forecast to increase absolute child poverty by 200,000 in 2015---16 and 300,000 in 2020-- -21, and to increase absolute working-age poverty by 300,000 in 2015---16 and 700,000 in 2020-- -21.

This conclusion is explained and justified in some detail. It may be inconvenient for people like the author that the impact of government policy is described, and I'm sure many of his political chums would rather draw a veil over it, but the Spectator could surely do better than this lazy bit of knee-jerk rightwingery. Or perhaps not.

[CI]

We are sailing into a massive storm

[peterms]

We are sailing into a massive storm

I'd say drifting, myself. Sailing implies some degree of planning, foresight, and control. I don't think Cameron et al have the faintest idea why what is happening is happening, or what to do about it. Daft kids, let loose on the economy. Tragic. But it's not them that will pay the price of their stupidity and wilful blindness.