Interest Rates At 1% Won't Make A Blind Bit Of Difference!

The Bank of England cut their headline interest rate by 0.5% today to 1%. In times gone by, when our economy was managed by cuts in interest rates that were designed to manage the inflationary trend of our economy, this sort of intervention would undoubtedly have done the trick and an almost immediate benefit to our economy would have resulted.



The problem we have today is not that interest rates are in any way the problem. Quite the contrary, and today's cut will only serve to penalise the millions of prudent savers with money deposited in banks and building societies - many of whom rely on interest payments to make ends meet.


Across the UK the problem faced by our economy is not the cost of borrowing - it is the reluctance of banks to lend!


Despite the taxpayer owning many of our banks it appears our government are unable to get them to relax lending criteria so that businesses can borrow to invest in our future.


Why? Simply because it is government policy that tells banks to pay us back as quick as they can and to reduce their exposure to bad debt as they do so.


So what are banks actually doing instead of lending to viable businesses? They are foreclosing on businesses in trouble and in homeowners struggling to keep up payments in compliance with government instructions.


In conclusion, today's interest rates cut will damage those who have done the right thing by saving and do very little to help those who need to borrow, because none of our lending institutions will take any risk. So despite hundreds of millions of pounds spent on bailing out our banks cuts in interest rates are simply not doing anything to help our economy recover.

Give Us A Break Gordon!

Today's newspapers are full of the Prime Minister promising to tackle the countries big problems in the same way as he has overcome big challenges in his own personal life.

No one has more admiration for the way Gordon Brown has tackled his partial blindness than me. As someone who was so active in sport at a young age the loss of sight in one eye and the partial loss of sight in the other must have been devastating. It takes someone of particular character and courage to be able to put this aside and battle to achieve in other fields and Gordon Brown's achievements, both academic and political, speak for themselves.

Nevertheless to be making claims of preparedness to take action in tough economic times and to be feeling our pain leave us with one big question. Where have you and your government been for the past 12 months?

The 10p tax debacle was of your doing, the credit crunch and failure to deal properly with Northern Rock was of your doing and the fact that inflation is crippling households and need an interest rate rise when the housing market needs an interest rate cut is of your doing.

It is very admirable to give us kind words and big promises but it you do want to help us there is something you could do for us NOW - CALL AN ELECTION!

Are Unions Set To Wreck Scotland?

With Unison having brought much of Scotland's local authority public sector to its knees yesterday, with a one day strike over the pay settlement offered by COSLA, it appears to me that Scotland's Unions are attempting to unsettle the governance of Scotland in a cynical attempt to bolster the Labour Party they are inextricably linked to.

Both Cathy Jamieson and Iain Gray, who are fighting for leadership of the Labour Party in the Scottish Parliament, turned out on picket lines to profess their support for those on strike. Unison, in turn, promised more misery for us all with a "rolling programme" of industrial action unless their inflation busting pay demands are met.

While I am no supporter or apologist for the SNP Scottish Executive I do think that the current public sector strike action is a Labour Party motivated plot designed to unsettle the governance of Scotland now that this isn't the sole preserve of Scottish Labour. It suits the Labour Party to have strike action that takes the political spotlight off the internal machinations and which provokes a thought process that a large section of Scotland's workforce are unsettled under a different administration.

So the message to Unison and Scottish Labour is we are on to your scam and are resolved to take Scotland forward in a positive fashion, not look to you for divine intervention. Scotland is a nation with hope for the future and you did nothing during your dominance of Scotland's political establishment to provide us with anything other than despair.

Families Bear The Brunt Of Labour Economic Failure

Today's announcement that the Governments preferred measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index, now sits at 4.4%, more than double its target rate, is a disaster for hard working families and those who can least afford big increases in their cost of living given the latest increase is driven by a record surge in supermarket food prices.

CPI inflation is now at its highest figure since 1997 and double its figure in January, while the Retail Price Index - including housing costs - rose to hit 5%, its highest level for at least 17 years.
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The Office of National Statistics confirms food inflation alone has spiralled to a CPI record 13.7% year-on-year, a massive jump from its 10.6% level in June. It appears this was principally due to a rise in meat costs, particularly bacon, ham and poultry. Meat prices rose 16.3% year-on-year, up from the 11.2% recorded in June.

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Essentials like breads and cereals saw an increase of 15.9% on the year. Vegetables, including my favourite potatoes, shot up to 11.1% up from 7.4%.

The Office of National Statistics believe someone spending £100 a week on food last year, will have to find another £712 this year to put the same items on the table. The Daily Mail's 'Cost of Living Index', which looks at a smaller basket of shopping basket essentials, now suggests they have increase by 25% over the past year, equating to a whopping £1,300 extra this year.

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If people can't afford food we are condemning our population to complete poverty and that simply isn't acceptable for any country let alone one of the wealthiest on the planet. To tackle this we must offer fuel tax cuts to our hauliers and ensure our supermarkets are not profiteering from our people.