Sunak will soon wish we were still talking about Johnson.

Exactly Germanshepherdsmum there is plenty of blame to be laid at the door of No.10 but interest rate rises is not one of them.

It isn’t ‘the brainless Tories’ who put up interest rates Daisy, it’s the brainless Bank of England, independent of the government thanks to Gordon Brown.

He can't even wear clothes that fit, nevermind run a govt. Those wee skinny legs with trousers at half mast are absolutely pathetic!!

Reduce the debt.

This year we saw the U.K. pay a huge amount towards our debt interest, which of course reduces the amount of money available for public services, and as we are not growing there will be no increased revenue to pay towards things like the NHS etc.
That money used to pay down debt would have been far more productive if it had been used towards growing the economy, and therefore future revenue etc. There is no money for the NHS.

There will be no money to reduce the waiting lists. The issue for the Tories, is that on these waiting lists there will be a huge amount of elderly patients many of the Tory voters, waiting for treatment, often for stuff that is blighting their lives. The strikes are of course increasing the wait, but the government is appearing simply willing to wait it out or incapable of dealing with the issue of pay. There just seems an enormous amount of inertia as far as our public services are concerned.

Social care (although there is nothing in the pledges) is another existential crises, causing huge pressure in the NHS and a scandal in our communities, with elderly bed bound being given the most minimal care.

winterwhite

Agree with Grantanow. What was absurd was implying that the ‘pledges’ could be met by the end of the year - surely he must have said/meant make substantial progress towards them.

Imposs to imagine that the tories will win the next election or that they will seriously try to oust Sunak before then. They are just trying to make life as difficult for him as they can through sheer spite.

So the question is who will be their next leader, in opposition?

Mordant. And she’ll make a good opposition leader. Just what the country needs. Governments and PM’s, (with the exception of Johnson and Truss) prefer to have good opposition. In the past people from both parties respected each other. Tony Benn told me that he and Thatcher respected each other. I very much doubt that anyone in Labour, SNP or the LibDems have any respect for the current government, with the exception of Conservatives such as, May, Elwood, Bottomley, Mitchell and a few others.

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

But we can’t possibly repeat the last 13 years. The U.K. will sink.

I agree, but honestly I have no idea if the Labour Party can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat

Wouldn’t be at all surprised to have a hung parliament after the next election, and unless they decide to work for the good of the Country, as opposed to their own self interests, cannot see a lot getting done.

I am totally disillusioned with the lot of them, I am holding out hope that we will get a local Independent Candidate (myself and many others are on their case to stand 🤞🏻)

How can Labour be worse than this government has been? What can they possible do that would make more people, including a whole generation, feel worse off than they do at the moment.

Many people are now scared they may not be able to pay their mortgage or their rent and in an increasing number of homes parents and children are simply not getting enough to eat.

These brainless Tories think putting up interest rates will "stop too much money chasing too few goods". Unfortunately, the areas where we have two few goods are food and housing. So it appears that their idea is to starve us and make us homeless.

Although I would have my worries about a Labour Party, if it were extreme, I really don't think a Starmer government could be any more threatening than this current one.

Agree with Grantanow. What was absurd was implying that the ‘pledges’ could be met by the end of the year - surely he must have said/meant make substantial progress towards them.

Imposs to imagine that the tories will win the next election or that they will seriously try to oust Sunak before then. They are just trying to make life as difficult for him as they can through sheer spite.

So the question is who will be their next leader, in opposition?

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

But we can’t possibly repeat the last 13 years. The U.K. will sink.

I agree, but honestly I have no idea if the Labour Party can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat

Wouldn’t be at all surprised to have a hung parliament after the next election, and unless they decide to work for the good of the Country, as opposed to their own self interests, cannot see a lot getting done.

I am totally disillusioned with the lot of them, I am holding out hope that we will get a local Independent Candidate (myself and many others are on their case to stand 🤞🏻)

You mean in the way that Boris Johnson devoted himself to working for the good of the country? Oh, and Truss/Kwarteng? Has any government caused so much damage in such a short time as Truss did?

Germanshepherdsmum

The end of the year is over six months away.

So he will have achieved them by then and we will all watch him do it ... or not.

The end of the year is over six months away.

Germanshepherdsmum

Current ONS figures for the economy only go up to March.
Ditto no up to date OBR figures but they have long forecast debt growing for the next few years due to demographic factors.
You know the plans for stopping the boats.
Difficult to reduce waiting lists when hospital staff are striking.
Inflation has reduced considerably.

How quickly do you expect these things to be achieved?

Is it down to us to decide when they will be achieved GSM? These were Sunak's "Five Priorities for 2023". There's a beginning and an end to 2023. He made them in January so it's reasonable to assume that he's expecting to complete them by the end of the year or do you doubt him?

Perhaps he shouldn't have made himself such a hostage to fortune.

I don’t know at all about the housing market - severe shortages of all types of affordable properties and Virgin Money has capped any new amounts on remortgages. So for example, my son is looking to pay £7k to Virgin Money if he wants to move to another mortgage company as he’s on 5 year fixed interest.
So the point is that in theory it should be easier to move from a flat to a first family home, the reality feels more like another omnishambles!

^ Inflation is remains stubbornly high, and interest rates are rocketing, which will affect those with mortgages or loans.^

Precisely. The Bank of England is contributing to 'hidden' inflation (because loans and mortgages aren't included in the CPI figures used to measure inflation. A large section of population will be badly affected by this.

Hard though it is for those who won't be able to sell at the price they bought, falling house prices cannot be all bad if it means that more people are actually able to purchase a house and it removes people who buy property for speculation from the housing market.

It should also be noted that business investment is low. Both domestic and foreign investment, I understand. Who is going to invest in a country where consumers have no spare money?

I agree Sunak is in the firing line having succeeded four of the worst Tory Prime Ministers since WW2 and leading a morally bankrupt Party which failed to support the Privileges Committee (about 220 craven Tories abstained). Meeting any of his pledges would be a struggle in the best of times. The interesting question is whether he will survive losing a GE and if not who will emerge as the next Tory leader.

So let’s look at the pledges. We all know them, he repeats them almost every time he opens his mouth.

The real issue is the fact that the economy is looking really unstable. Inflation is remains stubbornly high, and interest rates are rocketing, which will affect those with mortgages or loans. The housing market is in crises, and the housing values is expected to drop by at least 20% this year.

Real wages have not risen since 2005 - that is 20 years of stagflation.

Brexit is inflicting economic drag on the economy and Company liquidations have jumped 40%just this year, as a result of it’s effects.

Sunak’s promise to half inflation is a strange one to choose, as he has no real power to affect it one way or the other - it is the BoE job to manage inflation, except that he knew when he announced this so called “pledge” that the BoE was forecasting inflation to half by the end of the year - so a quick skip and hop and Sunak was on this particular bandwagon without actually lifting a finger.

So the first pledge simply isn’t his to make - and nothing the government can do will affect it one way or the other.

It’s quite important not to fall down the rabbit hole of ‘he’s only had six months’. He is a continuum of a government which has had 13 years.

Equally, he was an active, eager, contributor to the Johnson years, and some of his own policies as Chancellor are being shown to have failed (eat out to help out, cost of living payments not helping the poorest, and more).

Whitewavemark2

But we can’t possibly repeat the last 13 years. The U.K. will sink.

I agree, but honestly I have no idea if the Labour Party can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat

Wouldn’t be at all surprised to have a hung parliament after the next election, and unless they decide to work for the good of the Country, as opposed to their own self interests, cannot see a lot getting done.

I am totally disillusioned with the lot of them, I am holding out hope that we will get a local Independent Candidate (myself and many others are on their case to stand 🤞🏻)

But we can’t possibly repeat the last 13 years. The U.K. will sink.

I wish that I had an iota of faith in the current Labour Party to do any better when they inevitably form the next Government.

I can guarantee that Sunak will fail to meet any ofhis targets by the time of the next election.

Inflation reduction has nothing to do with any government efforts. It was inevitable given that it is only based on a comparison with a certain 'basket' of prices at the same time in the previous year. As inflation was mainly caused in the spring of 2022 by massive increases in energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine, with their knock on effects on supply costs it was always going to come down as this huge increase hasn't been sustained over the intervening 12 months. Any prices that have risen have done so more slowly, which automatically reduces the inflation figure. I trust that people can understand that (though the government is pinning its hope on people not being able to understand how the inflation figures 'work')

Of course, the Bank of England interest rate rises have been inflationary in the area of mortgages and rents, but these are not included in the 'basket' of items used to calculate inflation. It will also feed through to companies with outstanding loans, as they will pay more interest on them.

The other key point, that government is hoping that people don't understand, is that a lower inflation rate doesn't mean lowered prices.

So, all in all, government is flagrantly dishonest in trying to claim that it has made any positive effect on inflation.

You can cross falling inflation off your list of government achievements, GSM

Give him a chance he's only had six months and a lot of other in fighting and Boris to deal with.
The Greek's attitude to migrant boats can't have helped any country with migrant problems. What will that lead to?
Maybe he knew he could get on with more important pressing matters, by the numbers he wasn't really needed in the vote.

Sunak announced these pledges at the end of last year.

I ask you, what has he achieved to date?

That's true GSM It will take many years to achieve those goals.

Current ONS figures for the economy only go up to March.
Ditto no up to date OBR figures but they have long forecast debt growing for the next few years due to demographic factors.
You know the plans for stopping the boats.
Difficult to reduce waiting lists when hospital staff are striking.
Inflation has reduced considerably.

How quickly do you expect these things to be achieved?