Abracadabra! Britain’S Political Elite Has Fooled Us All Again

[dothemaths]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/18/britain-political-elite-fooled-us-again

This is what politics looks like in Britain nowadays, once the newspapers have their japes and the politicians leave the TV studios: it is about justifying an extractive business class that wants to lean on taxpayers to pay their way, even while lecturing the rest of us about welfare dependency. And it doesn’t change all that much whether the Tories or Labour are in Downing Street. The Cresc team looked at who reaped the rewards from growth over the past three decades. Under Thatcher and Major, the top 10% of all working-age households took 29p in every £1 of income growth. Under Blair and Brown, their share actually went up, to 30p in each £1. Cresc found that New Labour bumped up the share of the poorest economically active households from 0.5% to 1.5%. Taxes and benefits evened that up a bit – the same taxes and benefits that are now deemed unaffordable. So much for trickle down.

This is what all the misdirection has been about: taking our minds off the fact that Britain is a soft touch for businesses that want taxpayers to pay their way, and politicians who count on the middle classes to feel richer, not through their wage packets, but by their house prices, their no-frills flights, their luxury buys from Lidl. What a trick has been pulled on Britain by its political and business elite: never have so many people had their pockets picked at the same time.

It's right in front of your eyes and still you don't see .....

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/18/britain-political-elite-fooled-us-again

[zugzwang]

Thirty-six years of privatisation, globalisation and deregulation! Our debts have never been higher, our dependence on the speculative returns from financial gambling greater still. If the election of yet another bunch of Thatcherite goons feels like a death sentence, that's because it probably is.

[renting til I die]

Good article.

and politicians who count on the middle classes to feel richer, not through their wage packets, but by their house prices, their no-frills flights, their luxury buys from Lidl.

All getting richer on the ponzi train!

[Guest_northshore_*]

He writes some decent articles. e.g: Cut benefits? Yes, let’s start with our £85bn corporate welfare handout

(ref: Farnsworth - The British corporate welfare state)

And that's before getting into the biggest subsidies - land/homeownerism.

[interestrateripoff]

Fooled who exactly, not everyone. Although those who own property and are greedy, yes. I certainly don't feel any richer knowing my house is over-valued and is acting as a drag on the economy.

[rollover]

Global finance chiefs urge policy makers to ward off bubble risks

Chief executives, chairmen and senior executives of some of the largest banks in Europe and the US have warned of the potential for unforeseen risks caused by policy makers attempting to avoid future financial crises. Big-name leaders to have put their names to a report, which conditionally backs the use of macroprudential policies to maintain the “right balance between financial stability and economic growth”. The document, developed and published by the World Economic Forum, goes on to warn of “the limits of our current knowledge of the impact” of such policies, which are used to ward off bubbles in markets such as property and equities".

The group of 15 execs has argued that more research is required to ensure the tools are effective and "do not generate additional risks".

[Meerkat]

It's right in front of your eyes and still you don't see .....

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/18/britain-political-elite-fooled-us-again

"And it doesn’t change all that much whether the Tories or Labour are in Downing Street."

oh really, what a revelation...

[DEATH]

oh really, what a revelation...

They are all in this together.

[porca misèria]

Well, I do feel richer for having various mod-cons, from hot water on tap to labour-saving devices like a washing machine and a roomba. Not to mention for having a wide choice of restaurants where the price of a good meal for two has fallen in a generation from a week's pay to an hour's pay.

[Maynardgravy]

Well, I do feel richer for having various mod-cons, from hot water on tap to labour-saving devices like a washing machine and a roomba. Not to mention for having a wide choice of restaurants where the price of a good meal for two has fallen in a generation from a week's pay to an hour's pay.

?

[onlyme2]

Well, I do feel richer for having various mod-cons, from hot water on tap to labour-saving devices like a washing machine and a roomba. Not to mention for having a wide choice of restaurants where the price of a good meal for two has fallen in a generation from a week's pay to an hour's pay.

Err, you kidding?

A hour's min wage will only buy a side serving of one veg at many restaurants now, which seems to be the common trick to elevate prices, but that little effect doesn;t appear in the ONS stats.

In France a decade or so ago plat du jour as low as 6 Euro, now that is cheap, but not so cheap since the sterling took it in the neck and they have their own bubbly economics effects,

[spyguy]

?

McDonalds.

[crash2006]

He writes some decent articles. e.g: Cut benefits? Yes, let’s start with our £85bn corporate welfare handout

(ref: Farnsworth - The British corporate welfare state)

And that's before getting into the biggest subsidies - land/homeownerism.

coorporate welfare is a hidden cost to this country, yet no one sees it, this is were its costing the tax payer.

[R K]

Thirty-six years of privatisation, globalisation and deregulation! Our debts have never been higher, our dependence on the speculative returns from financial gambling greater still. If the election of yet another bunch of Thatcherite goons feels like a death sentence, that's because it probably is.

Youre not allowed to mention "fatcher". Its soon to be an act of terrorism against democracy.

Even the Labour party candidates are bemoaning their election loss on the fact Miliband wasnt "business friendly".

If there was ever a static disequilibrium England is firmly stuck in this one and as with all static disequlibria when they blow they do so with consequential force.

Edited May 19, 2015 by R K

[billybong]

The article published nearly two weeks after the general election and probably 4 years and 50 weeks before the next general election.

Great timing.

The guardian fooled everyone again.

Edited May 19, 2015 by billybong

[Guest_northshore_*]

coorporate welfare is a hidden cost to this country, yet no one sees it, this is were its costing the tax payer.

Or pretend - on another day when reported prices fell and assets soared George Osborne heralds price deflation, which by logical inference must therefore be a precursor to lowering the inflation target to -0.1%. Right?

While John Redwood frankly and succinctly explains the Government take on economic sustainability and CA deficits: "...It has proved to be sustainable as many people wish to invest in the UK or buy assets here. Germany sells rich people expensive cars they do not need, and the UK sells them expensive flats so they can have additional homes." Right.