Topic: The UK Economy - Is it the 1970's again?

[Dr. Beaker]

I always thought it meant 'fucking bastard'.

[Jiminy Cricket]

I always thought it meant 'fucking bastard'.

You are not alone.

https://tswriting.medium.com/fucktard-the-adjective-of-our-age-648d40b696f6

Maybe it is more obvious to me because of my time living in the US. Over there, 'tard' is used as a suffix to a number of words. But 'fucktard' is by far the most common. And 'retard' is still used there quite widely too. What I am saying is that it might have been more obvious to me because of my time living over there.

[PaulF]

Weirdly, and I'm effectively all UK, id assumed it was a portmanteau of fuck and retard. And despite having never used it is not have considered the connotations. Thanks for the education.

[Nobby Reserve]

Government giving £half a billion bribe to company owned by foreign billionaires to build a factory, and the foreign company gets to keep all the profits.

Nice racket...

[PaulF]

I'm assuming this is the jlr battery factory?

[Black Bull Nova]

Government giving £half a billion bribe to company owned by foreign billionaires to build a factory, and the foreign company gets to keep all the profits.

Nice racket...

I do not trust governments (of any shade) to put in place safeguards such that in 10 years time when the bribe has worn off, they close down and move to Italy or the like.


The Koreans used subsidies to establish their industry and force competitors (like the UK) out of the market, they are now using subsidies to fend off the Chinese. Industries with a high set up cost can use this 'protection' effectively'. Producing batteries is not high capital set up cost so they will flee when it suits them but this government will get a short term popularity boost in Somerset which is fully conservative but loseable.

[Nobby Reserve]

I do not trust governments (of any shade) to put in place safeguards such that in 10 years time when the bribe has worn off, they close down and move to Italy or the like.


The Koreans used subsidies to establish their industry and force competitors (like the UK) out of the market, they are now using subsidies to fend off the Chinese. Industries with a high set up cost can use this 'protection' effectively'. Producing batteries is not high capital set up cost so they will flee when it suits them but this government will get a short term popularity boost in Somerset which is fully conservative but loseable.

I've no problem with subsidies from the taxpayer - but the taxpayer should receive a share of the business in return (set up a JV company)

[Black Bull Nova]

I've no problem with subsidies from the taxpayer - but the taxpayer should receive a share of the business in return (set up a JV company)

I would agree but then the subsidies demanded would be higher, the private sector will want it's full share in order to give up it's cash, especially when they are setting up. I think its vital the due diligence is done to ensure such things as full payment of domestic taxation and minimising overseas sub-contracting are in place.

[Nobby Reserve]

Unilever’s 9.4% price rises helped sales to beat analyst forecasts and contributed to rising revenues. Operating profits for the first six months of 2023 rose to €5.5bn (£4.8bn), a 22% increase compared with the previous year.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/25/unilever-marmite-dove-maker-profits-price-rises#:~:text=Unilever%27s%209.4%25%20price%20rises%20helped,compared%20with%20the%20previous%20year.


As I've said - and backed up with articles that quote studies - there's wholesale price gouging happening, using the cover of the energy price spike and inflation generally. Of course their costs have increased - but they've added extra onto prices to scalp bigger profits.

Corporations are the c*nts driving inflation. For their own greed.

[Gerry Attrick]

Unilever’s 9.4% price rises helped sales to beat analyst forecasts and contributed to rising revenues. Operating profits for the first six months of 2023 rose to €5.5bn (£4.8bn), a 22% increase compared with the previous year.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/25/unilever-marmite-dove-maker-profits-price-rises#:~:text=Unilever%27s%209.4%25%20price%20rises%20helped,compared%20with%20the%20previous%20year.


As I've said - and backed up with articles that quote studies - there's wholesale price gouging happening, using the cover of the energy price spike and inflation generally. Of course their costs have increased - but they've added extra onto prices to scalp bigger profits.

Corporations are the c*nts driving inflation. For their own greed.

Agree, 100%. Supermarkets and food producers are some of the worst for it. Some items have increased by about 50% and got smaller. Where’s the justification for that? They’ve got the public held to ransom because they know if you want pasta or bread you’ll pay it regardless. Scum of the earth.

[Red-Soldier]

Agree, 100%. Supermarkets and food producers are some of the worst for it. Some items have increased by about 50% and got smaller. Where’s the justification for that? They’ve got the public held to ransom because they know if you want pasta or bread you’ll pay it regardless. Scum of the earth.

I agree.  They've got everyone by the balls and are squeezing hard.

[Nobby Reserve]

Agree, 100%. Supermarkets and food producers are some of the worst for it. Some items have increased by about 50% and got smaller. Where’s the justification for that? They’ve got the public held to ransom because they know if you want pasta or bread you’ll pay it regardless. Scum of the earth.

A couple months ago, someone from the apple grower's trade association was explaining on the radio how apple prices in supermarkets have risen by up to 46%, but growers were only receiving single-figure rises in what they were being paid.

It's gouging, pure and simple.

[Nobby Reserve]

Pontins down to just 4 sites now, with Prestatyn and Camber Sands closing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67589538

People who've visited Pontins in recent years say its just being run into the ground, which is sad but, when you realise who now owns it, is no surprise.

It's our 'friends', Britannia Hotels. The arseholes who have run - and are still running - the Adelphi into the ground.

Their MO is the same throughout all their hotels: buy on the cheap a struggling, once-very popular hotel that's ripe for refurbishment... but then don't refurbish and sweat the asset until it's falling apart, then sweat it some more. Watch the client-base shift downwards on the social scale until it's just young adults needing a place to crash whilst on a piss-up trip, plus people who live in Rotherham, Hartlepool, Stoke or Wigan (who all walk in a go "Ooooh! This is swanky!").

 

[rob1966]

Pontins down to just 4 sites now, with Prestatyn and Camber Sands closing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67589538

People who've visited Pontins in recent years say its just being run into the ground, which is sad but, when you realise who now owns it, is no surprise.

It's our 'friends', Britannia Hotels. The arseholes who have run - and are still running - the Adelphi into the ground.

Their MO is the same throughout all their hotels: buy on the cheap a struggling, once-very popular hotel that's ripe for refurbishment... but then don't refurbish and sweat the asset until it's falling apart, then sweat it some more. Watch the client-base shift downwards on the social scale until it's just young adults needing a place to crash whilst on a piss-up trip, plus people who live in Rotherham, Hartlepool, Stoke or Wigan (who all walk in a go "Ooooh! This is swanky!").

The Ainsdale one is fucking gruesome according to the reviews you read/stories in the Mirror. My missus stayed there as a kid and also in her early 20's and said it used to be nice.

[filopastry]

Not much sign of Supermarkets gouging in their profit margins anyway.

If you think food prices are bad here pop over to the US and have a laugh at what you are being charged.

[PaulF]

Sorry, are you saying food costs More in USA, which is less reliant on countries affected by Russia?

[Nobby Reserve]

The Ainsdale one is fucking gruesome according to the reviews you read/stories in the Mirror. My missus stayed there as a kid and also in her early 20's and said it used to be nice.

We had a school day trip there in the early 80's and it was a decent place.

Britannia are horrible. They've been voted the UK's worst hotel chain by Which? for 11 years running, faced numerous prosecutions for food hygiene failures and health & safety breaches, and its hotels are plagued with damp, mould, stained and threadbare carpets and furnishings.

Here's an article about it in The Post. This is a sample:

If you want to know what “tight controls” “cutting labour costs” and “keeping competitive” look like, I invite you to spend the night in room 428. My room, when I eventually force my way in, is a smorgåsbord of entropy. In an effort to stop me trying to drown my head, the wash basin has been boarded up. The MFI fire sale that passes for furniture is scratched and flimsy, and plastered with more mahogany varnish than the cast of Hollyoaks. But it’s functional. Which is more than can be said of the bathroom.
The door to the ensuite has clearly been kicked through and polyfillered back together many times. It’s hard to say whether previous residents were trying to break into it, or escape from it. When I try to run a shower I’m fairly certain it’s the latter. Only, it’s not really a shower. It’s a length of escaped metal piping that rears up like a King Cobra, spitting scalding water at anyone foolish enough to pull back the blood-stained shower curtain.

I despise Britannia and their vermin owner (reported to be worth around £240m)

[Boston always unofficial]

Sorry, are you saying food costs More in USA, which is less reliant on countries affected by Russia?

It feels like food prices go up almost every week here in Ma.Along with  poor quality and the downsizing of what ya get,i dunno how things compare to the U.K,but it the corporate greed is strong.  8oz of Cheese was 3.99 yesterday. Coffee creamer 32 fl oz was 4.99,bread el cheapo own brand 20 oz 2.50. Lot of stuff i don't buy anymore.

[thejbs]

Shrinkflation is more rife than any time I can remember. The supermarkets often still have the old sizes/weights stickered on the shelf. It’s not just dishonest but environmentally unsound. There should be regulation on it.

[filopastry]

Sorry, are you saying food costs More in USA, which is less reliant on countries affected by Russia?

Significantly so, when I was visiting last year, some crazy pricing, things like a tub of Philadelphia cheese nearly $6.

[killer-heels]

Saw that olive oil in Tesco is over £7. Mad. Was £3.85 last year.

[Nobby Reserve]

Saw that olive oil in Tesco is over £7. Mad. Was £3.85 last year.

All cooking oil skyrocketed in price after the Ukraine invasion - Ukraine was one of the main producers of sunflower oil (and the biggest exporter) in the world. That had a knock-on impact on all cooking oils.

Supplies have returned to normal, globally, but we're not seeing prices fall...

There's price gouging going on everywhere as the supposed free market fails.

[filopastry]

For Olive oil I thought it was just bad harvests in the Mediterranean

[PaulF]

Supplies have returned to normal, globally, but we're not seeing prices fall...

That's impresseive.  Do you know if it's mostly because supply routes from Ukraine are opened up , or if there are other growers?

[Andy @ Allerton!]

For Olive oil I thought it was just bad harvests in the Mediterranean

Popeye was furious

[Indomitable_Carp]

For Olive oil I thought it was just bad harvests in the Mediterranean

It is, yes. Ukraine was massive for the price of sunflower oil and vegetable oil. But olive oil is to do with bad harvests. Spain is the worlds largest producer of olive oil, and prices have spiked here as well. Of course, with climate change, harvests will only continue to get worse, as will the production (and price) of most foods.

[Nobby Reserve]

That's impresseive.  Do you know if it's mostly because supply routes from Ukraine are opened up , or if there are other growers?

Ukraine began exporting oil seeds again (the 'Black Sea deal' brokered by Turkey) but, more importantly, Russia ramped up its production in 2023

[Nobby Reserve]

For Olive oil I thought it was just bad harvests in the Mediterranean

Right on cue!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67565503

[PaulF]

Right on cue!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67565503

Ha ha , I saw that.  Looks like we might need to stock up on olive oil before the cheaper stock disappears.
£7 a bottle though !  I thought the £2+ for sunflower was bad enough.

Feel for some countries though, Turkey have got something like 40% inflation and interest rates to match.

[Nobby Reserve]

Ha ha , I saw that.  Looks like we might need to stock up on olive oil before the cheaper stock disappears.
£7 a bottle though !  I thought the £2+ for sunflower was bad enough.

Feel for some countries though, Turkey have got something like 40% inflation and interest rates to match.

I picked up a bottle of a special buy olive oil from Aldi a couple months ago when they'd reduced it.

Then found a litre bottle of plain old extra-virgin in the store cupboard when I was having a tidy.

Morrisons also recently had a clearance of some cold-pressed rapeseed oil. I picked up [the last] 2 500ml bottles of their own brand for 90p each from the local, plus some branded for £1.20. Then a few days later was in a different Morrisons and they had their own brand at 60p, so got another couple of bottles.

I'll save the olive oil for dressings, etc and use the rapeseed for cooking.

[Elmo!]

The olive oil prices are killing me.... go through litres of the stuff.

[Nobby Reserve]

The olive oil prices are killing me.... go through litres of the stuff.

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil (I don't mean bog-standard vegetable oil) is just as good for cooking, and is more than passable in dressings.

At present it's less than half the price (Aldi do a 500ml for about £2 IIRC)

[west_london_red]

Where’s Don Corleone when you need him?

[Red-Soldier]

The olive oil prices are killing me.... go through litres of the stuff.

What Nobby said. 

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil is nutty in flavour and is better for cooking, than olive oil.  It's also grown in the UK too.  Cheaper, healthier (it has a higher heating point than olive oil, so reduced chance of trans fats - the real killers) and less food miles!

Aldi and Lidl's are dirt cheap: £2.50 a bottle (formerly £1.69-99, I think)!

[Nobby Reserve]

A variation on 'shrinkflation' is becoming more normalised.

I got a pack of Fosters lager and it tasted different. Put it down to having a persistent cold these past few weeks but then noticed they've watered it down to 3.7%. They seem to have tried to mask the weaker taste by increasing the hops, and it tastes bad. Like, Carling bad. Totally lost that pleasant slight sweetness (the sort that the milder-tasting Spanish/Mexican lagers like Estrella or Corona have).

It's been a tactic of Carlsberg for years (they re-launch at 4%, then a year or so later, begin to water it down and water it down until it gets to 3.4% pisswater... then they relaunch). But Fosters has always been 4%, since it launched here in the 80's.

And there's also now wine.

Hardy's have watered their reds down now. All Hardy's Stamp and Hardy's VR are watered down to 11% (both from 13%). McGuigan have similarly watered down the 'Bin-' series to 11%, and their Black Label to 12.5%. I've noticed some of Aldi's cheaper glugging wines (their 'Grapevine' brand) also dropping from 13% to 11%.

I'd rather smaller bottles, than ruining the taste of the wine into a watered-down mess.

[PaulF]

Jeez Nobby. Are we really saying fosters is ever nice!
Carlsberg special brew or tenants super all the way 😊.

Anyway came in to say it looks like inflation was a bit lower than predicted, a bit of hope for those whose mortgage fixed rate ends next year.

[reddebs]

Isn't the lowering of alcohol % to do with the amount of tax duty payable as well as shrinkflation.

Talking of shrinkflation I got my usual meat order from the wholesalers yesterday and we're now getting roughly half the amount of bacon and sausages for the same price we were paying when we first moved here.

Don't get me wrong, it's still 100% worth it compared to the shite in the supermarkets and I can't afford what butchers charge even if it is tastier, which I doubt.

[killer-heels]

The Bank of England are a gang of c*nts. Apparently it’s wage growth that is causing companies to hike their prices. Nothing about them greedy companies trying to maximise its profit.

[Red-Soldier]

The Bank of England are a gang of c*nts. Apparently it’s wage growth that is causing companies to hike their prices. Nothing about them greedy companies trying to maximise its profit.

They're not going to start blaming their mates, are they?

[.adam]

The Bank of England are a gang of c*nts. Apparently it’s wage growth that is causing companies to hike their prices. Nothing about them greedy companies trying to maximise its profit.

I think the main issue is the economic badging of a "wage price spiral". This is a misleading term as it suggests that wage rises came first and caused all the price rises which, as we all know, is a load of shit.

A better term would be a "price wage spiral" as what has happened is people are demanding increased wages to maintain their purchasing power in the face of factors they had no control over.

The demonisation of this approach from workers and suggesting that we should all just suck it up and accept that we can't afford what we used to is a complete joke.