Now is the winter of Britain’s discontent

So let’s put aside cancer and lower life expectancy as Johnson prefers and look at wage growth.

So wage growth is happening because of the lack of supply of Labour.

Easy innit - supply and demand.

Strangle the supply of Labour and employers will raise wages to try attract the employees they need.

But what happens then? What are we actually seeing in the economy?

Inflation- that old enemy that every government hates because it plays havoc with their voters cost if living. The housing crises will be exacerbated because the cost of borrowing will rise.
After the horror that covid inflicted on businesses they will find loans to help them over a sticky period will be more expensive making their businesses less profitable or they increase their prices.

But we haven5 just got demand inflation have we? We’ve got price led inflation as well from the rise in fuel and other commodities as the world opens up after cover.

So once again the U.K. is being hit with a double whammy not just demand led but price led inflation on top of it.

The natural outcome of all this steep rise in the cost of living will be that people demand higher salaries to keep up or see their standard of living fall. We then get into that old enemy of the wage spiral, cost of living rise=higher wages = businesses put up prices to pay for wage rise ad nauseum.

What does Johnson do?

Crow about that oh so clever rise in wages. With inflation at

I find it extraordinary that people keep saying "there is a shortage of HGV drivers in Europe too".
Indeed there is, but there are no shortages of fuel or empty shelves in shops (apart from Marks and Spencer in Paris).
It surely only goes to prove that the problem in the UK is caused by the consequences of Brexit.

Someone should tell Johnson that “levelling up” won’t happen when you tax the poor but the rich get handouts. Also that life expectancy going down in the poorest areas is not a sign of levelling up.

So far the 'levelling up' plan appears to be announcing impressive sounding sums of money (easy to do when he knows that people were fooled into thinking that £350 million pw was an astronomical amount) for a few projects while in reality there will be swingeing cuts to local council allocations and to all public services 'because (huge lie) we need to pay back the money we borrowed for covid'.

He's pulling everything to the front of the shelf to disguise the fact that there is nothing behind it...

MaizieD

So far the 'levelling up' plan appears to be announcing impressive sounding sums of money (easy to do when he knows that people were fooled into thinking that £350 million pw was an astronomical amount) for a few projects while in reality there will be swingeing cuts to local council allocations and to all public services 'because (huge lie) we need to pay back the money we borrowed for covid'.

He's pulling everything to the front of the shelf to disguise the fact that there is nothing behind it...

Much like the supermarkets then?

The one area that we know will not be levelled-up, is the pension. No one seems able to say just how wrong it is to take off the Triple Lock. Maybe it's another "I'm all right Jack" instance.

It is just so much the wrong thing to do. Yet again, it is bound to hit the poorest. The point of the triple lock was to raise the level of the basic pension to one closer to that of other rich nations. In fact, 5% more pension age people have fallen into poverty since 2012 - under this government.

We haven't seen the actual figures yet. If this means that the means-tested Pension Guarantee doesn't go up by the set amount, which seems likely, even more pensioners will fall into poverty. I know that SOME pensioners have done very well. However, those on Pension Guarantee will mainly be those who have been on low incomes all their lives or had some devasting event that has affected their lives. This government is now making things worse.

And who is to say they are not thinking of making the pension a means-tested benefit anyway. That was the intention of the Workplace Pension when it came in.

But all I hear is silence. I am afraid the campaign to set the young against the old has been very successful for the Tory Government.

This really is one are where you might time GNHQ might be asking questions about on our behalf.

It's a funny sort of person who can anyone truly say they don't care or bother about the PMs private life.

Surely how one conducts one's private life is an accurate indicator of their approach to life in general. I expect people to get the measure of me by how I behave towards my friends and family.

You have to have a particularly compartmentalized and blinkered view of things to be so narrow.

When people show you who they really are believe them. Johnson couldn't have shown us more what he really is.

Here's another tory Johnson mind reader interpreting the PM. A former cabinet minister, so ought to know ?
I'm afraid they've come to a different conclusion from his apologists..

“The trouble with Boris is that he’s not very interested in governing,” says one former Tory cabinet minister. “He’s only interested in two things. Being world king and shagging.”

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/03/tory-triumphalism-will-anger-voters-facing-empty-shelves-and-a-fuel-famine?__twitter_impression=true

You’re right PippaZ. I think it’s highly unlikely that they will even suggest means tested state pensions this parliament though, as they will alienate the majority of their voters if they do that.

I thought long and hard about the removal of the triple lock to a double lock, in fact I have been surprised it has lasted so long.It was a Conservative government that brought in the triple lock in the first place.Have to wait and see what the Autumn Budget brings and what guarantees are put in place to safeguard pensioners who live on the Basic Pension or close to it.

Casdon

You’re right PippaZ. I think it’s highly unlikely that they will even suggest means tested state pensions this parliament though, as they will alienate the majority of their voters if they do that.

Means testing is notoriously expensive and inefficient. Better to claw back through taxation.

The ending of the triple lock is being portrayed as being temporary because of unusually high cost of living increase this year. The prospect of the high %age increase being a feature for the foreseeable future, plus, of course, my extreme distrust of this government, makes me suspect that it won't be reintroduced until this government has gone.

05:49Mamie

Belgium is looking for 5,000 lorry drivers to prevent empty shelves
Friday, 01 October 2021

There are currently 5,000 job openings for lorry drivers in Belgium, which needed to be filled urgently to keep the shop shelves filled, says Febetra, the federation of Belgian transport and logistics service providers.

There is a shortage of lorry drivers in Belgium not just here then.

The trouble with listening to Johnson (on Marr) is that you can never be sure what he says is the truth or lies?

Everything he says needs to be checked which is such a pain.

mamie There are shortages of HGV drivers everywhere, I think that’s generally accepted.Many EU drivers went home when Covid struck and didn’t return, and some went home due to Brexit no doubt.However, many EU citizens applied to stay here ( around 5 million.)
We should never have relied on low paid workers working in poor conditions here in the first place, it was a huge mistake.

growstuff ''Cancer outcomes should be part of any levelling up agenda.''

indeed, and that is my point entirely. Especially at a time when more and more people feel they have no choice but to borrow large sums of money or use up all savings, to go private. As the NHS it being undermined hugely, and we now have a two tier system becoming the norm.

When the lack of HGV drivers and foreign nurses and doctors mean hospitals are now having to ration cancer treatment- combined with the supply of isotopes from EU becoming very real.

Any answer to labour shortage - apparently not.

Apparently we were living under a tired old economic model - who knew?

Marr calling him out for lying.

Johnson insisting that the poor are better off - who knew?

Marr's having him for breakfast.

Johnson is useless, is getting madder and madder and is being mauled by Marr.

Ohh, he's getting annoyed, isn't he?

Waiting for the "You can't handle the truth" moment.

What was good was that Marr stopped him from his silly waffle.

Blimey! He will be gunning for the BBC for sure.

Skirming and waffling ... nonsense.

Media causes so many problems. I read this morning about a terrible attack at a fuel station in which someone died, the report said it was not connected to the ‘fuel shortage’! There isn’t a fuel shortage, just idiots filling up when they don’t have to and creating the problem. There is plenty of fuel if people are acting normally. Reports of gas and electricity price rises and now snow on the way, such scare mongering. As my daughter says to her hyperactive dog, CALM, CALM,

That was the best end to a political interview ever, basically stop talking, I've had enough of you PM.

Fact checking, this will be good.

lemongrove

He was answering a question about the main aim of ‘levelling up’. I suggest you watch Marr tomorrow and see what the PM says then.

Are you watching? He is making you proud and optimistic?