Logic according to Osbourne

[Wilbro]

I'm now going to follow Osbourne's logic. He stated that Austerity was a good thing as, although it stripped the NHS of resources, it saved the money so it could be used when the pandemic hit.

Right, so no more car servicing, no more oil replenishment, no tyre changes etc. I'll save the money and when the engine blows up, a tyre bursts or whatever I can replace the engine/car/pay fine for unsafe vehicle etc.

Where do these Tory idiots get their brains from? Do they hand in their God given ones on attending public school to be replaced with Tim Nice But Dim ones?

[niemeyjt]

Osborne the Idiot - the man who messed up both the rental housing market and senior doctors' retirement plans.

But his successor Philip, sorry Lord, Hammond has equally daft ideas about replacing workers with immigrants who will work for less to reduce inflation.

There is no situation that a politician cannot make worse.

[Char]

This lot seem to think it's a good idea to borrow more than you've got coming in.

[Chappers51]

But, sadly, I think there are many people who follow their ideas.
Many of us will remember the exceptionally high interest rates of the late 80´s early 90´s. I remember having negative equity when I moved from Cambridge to Lancashire, but I was prepared to, and did tighten my belt. I know of too many friends young and middle aged who still want everything.

[Char]

I remember Maggie trying to take my house away from me Mum said I'd bought property too young. Those were the days, going to work part time in the morning to do the bookwork for an old peoples home taking my little'un with me, evenings once OH was home to baby sit I was off to Sainsburys stacking shelves not easy when you're pregnant , and at the weekends I worked in the kitchen of a Private school out in the country side.
Still I learned you don't have to eat everyday
I just had hoped my children wouldn't have to go through the same thing, but hey ho, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as my Grandad used to say.

[niemeyjt]

With regard to housing, certainly in the UK the near-zero interest rates encouraged people (not just the government), to borrow more than they ought to have done - pumping up house prices.

Had interest rates been held at a more sane 5% (and I too remember 15%), then likely as not we would not see houses at the crazy prices they are now.

Instead, we had cheap money that people were able to borrow more of pushing up house prices. Now they have been bitten on the bum, so to speak.

However, going back to Char's earlier point of UK debt exceeding 100% GDP (and France is even worse) for the first time since 1961 - the thing that took the UK into this territory was the interest on the Government debt also rising in line with BoE interest rates.