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UK politics general discussion

BigT said:
Brown was also different to Blair that’s how it goes, you vote for a local MP in this country not a certain PM.
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I know that’s how our voting system technically works, but I’m not sure that that’s how the bulk of people vote in elections. Of those who voted Tory in 2019, for instance, I’d wager that the vast, vast majority voted for Boris Johnson and his manifesto as opposed to their local Tory MP.

With that in mind, I think that a GE would be a good idea, as Liz Truss’ Conservative Party stands for some quite radically different things to what Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party did.
 
The only thing people mainly voted for in 2019 (and it was essentially BJ's entire campaign) was Brexit.

Plus majority of people vote for party and person. Bet if you asked voters why went for a specific party, the local MP would be at best the 3rd or 4th reason.

Hilarious that they took forever with this leadership thing (purely so BJ wasn't the shortest reigning PM) and they pretty much picked the worst candidate out of all of them. Even Gove would probably not be as useless.
 
Not only is the cost of houses so obscene, we're now looking at mortgage rates not seen in 30 years.

Insane.

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AstroDan said:
Not only is the cost of houses so obscene, we're now looking at mortgage rates not seen in 30 years.

Insane.

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You mean 14 years, the base interest rate was 5.5% at the beginning of 2008 which was actually considered normal.

As I said before interest rates should be around 5-6% but a whole generation has only known cheap credit and mortgaged themselves up to the hilt thinking interest rates can’t go up, those of us with longer memory’s know they can.
Good news for savers though, let’s see how long it takes for the banks to put the saving rates up.🤔
 
I've always stress tested ours up to 14% to be on the safe side. This is however why I live in such a bargain bucket house 🤣
 
BigT said:
You mean 14 years, the base interest rate was 5.5% at the beginning of 2008 which was actually considered normal.

As I said before interest rates should be around 5-6% but a whole generation has only known cheap credit and mortgaged themselves up to the hilt thinking interest rates can’t go up, those of us with longer memory’s know they can.
Good news for savers though, let’s see how long it takes for the banks to put the saving rates up.🤔
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Forgive my error. As much as '5.5% was considered normal' - let's look at house prices.

Coupled with an increase in mortgage rates - they certainly weren't £200,000+ back in the day. These days, for a modest family home you're nearer £300,000 with £250,000 on a mortgage. Wasn't the case in the 90s or 00s.

And do many people really have money to save that isn't going towards a house? I am currently attempting to save £450.00 a month to buy a house next year. Starting to get wobbly feet.
 
It’s depends when you are talking, if your talking about 2008 then yes house prices were £200k for an average family home, they have actually not increased by that much since then.
1999-2008 was when house prices increased three fold, I bought a house in 1998 for £60k and sold it in 2008 for £180k, it was a small 3 bed detached, now they are on the market around £220k
I do feel for anyone buying their first house now, it’s almost impossible unless you have very generous parents.
 
Depends what area of the country you're looking at. Because as far as I can see, house prices are significantly higher than they were in 2008. Mine is worth nearly £240k, just a standard small 3 bed. It was sold in 2007 for £125k (not to me) and cost £95k when it was built in 2001. So since interest rates were last as high as is currently projected, it's doubled in price, rendering it way out of reach for anyone on anything other than a high income, with a whacking great deposit and a 6% interest rate to contend with. That's crazy.
 
House prices have gone up by around 80% since the millennium.
Most years prices have gone up by between 5 and 8 percent, apart from the last recession and covid times.
What happens to house prices over the next year should be interesting, drops of 15% in prices forecast by some.
 
It's totally anecdotal but when I say things like "you would be amazed how many people see how much they can borrow then budget to that" I get a lot of sheepish looks. Many admitting that's exactly what they do/did. This type of "adjustment" you would expect will heavily hit demand and as a result prices.
 
And they're only echoing what other economics, bankers and traders are saying... the policy will not increase growth. In fact it is likely to do the opposite. It will stifle growth instead.

That is because increasing inflationary pressures will mean the bank puts up the interest rate to try and control it. Businesses that might have been considering taking out loans to build new factories, take on new staff etc will now consider those loans too expensive and risky and instead look to reduce their existing debts instead.

Slow clap for Truss and Kwarteng.
 
I must admit, I’m surprised at quite how hardline Truss is going with her economic policy. With such a small percentage of her own MPs on board (only 1/3 of them publicly backed her; Sunak won the MP portion of the leadership race by a relative landslide), I think she’s in quite a precarious position compared to past Conservative leaders.

I know she has her reasons, but if I were her, I’d have been compromising on some of the more extreme parts of my manifesto to try and get more people on side. I do fear that Truss adopting the mentality of “my way or the highway” with her hardline policies will turn off people who didn’t support her and make it more likely that we’ll have another leadership race in not too long. There are already no confidence letters going in after the overwhelmingly negative reception of the mini budget, and given bodies like the IMF have now formally criticised Truss’ policies, I think the number of no confidence letters will probably grow…
 
And here we are again. After a decade of austerity and Tory rule - the BBC are reporting the following:

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chris Philp, will write to government departments in the coming days about and identifying spending efficiencies and living within the spending review, a Whitehall source has confirmed.

One of the richest nations in the world, I give you the UK.

These Tories need ousting right away. Britain is a laughing stock.
 
Makes you wonder what they think they can cut further. Everything is already down to the bone.
 
Whereas Labour have a magic money tree.
Don’t get me wrong some of the ideas that Starmer has come out with this week I have been banging on about for years but I’ll tell you this for nothing, the pittance that the 45% tax band brings in won’t even touch the surface.
None of the politicians have a clue, they really don’t.
 
The government should have subjected the likes of Shell and BP to a windfall tax this autumn, then they wouldn't have so badly needed a magic money tree (more borrowing). There's just no reason that as people at the top of government you wouldn't have done it, unless you're in bed with them and there's something in it for you.
 
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