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The Euros are gonna fuck up the pre-season unfortunately.
Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water’s financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal.
Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election.
Officials in the Treasury and the UK’s Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK’s biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, “prolonged uncertainty” about its fate could “damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time”, with elections in the UK and the US later this year.
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed details of government contingency plans, known as Project Timber, to renationalise Thames via a special administration. This could lead to the bulk of its £15bn of debt being moved on to the government’s balance sheet. Thames’ investors have refused to pump more money into the struggling company amid a standoff with the water regulator Ofwat.
Some lenders to its core operating company could lose up to 40% of their money under the plans, a move that officials believe marks a careful balance between managing public outrage at the water company’s many failures and the need to sustain investor confidence in the UK.
Those contingency plans also describe a risk of “contagion” from Thames’s plight that could trigger a loss of confidence that feeds through to wider state borrowing costs.
In the aftermath of the Truss mini-budget in September 2022, UK borrowing costs shot up as government debt markets went into freefall. Her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s promise of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, the sacking of the most senior civil servant at the Treasury and Truss’s refusal to have her sums checked by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility spooked investors and sent the value of UK debt instruments, known as gilts, plummeting.
The pound hit a low against the dollar not seen since 1985, and the whiplash effect on the bond market damaged some pension funds’ investment strategies so severely that the Bank of England had to stage an emergency market intervention to maintain market stability. That crisis added billions of pounds to the UK’s cost of borrowing, as investors demanded a higher price to lend to it. British households experienced big spikes in mortgage costs, as banks and building societies passed on higher borrowing costs. Many mortgage offers were pulled overnight.
While Kwarteng’s successor, Jeremy C*nt, reversed the tax plans and stabilised debt markets, the UK’s cost of borrowing has crept up again in recent months amid geopolitical shocks, including the Middle East conflict.
The UK’s growing debt pile and sluggish economic growth have added to investors’ wariness to lend to it. The UK’s £2.7tn of debt stands at about 98% of GDP, and will continue to swell as the government needs to borrow heavily to overhaul its ageing network of pipes, cables, water and power infrastructure.
The global lender of last resort, the International Monetary Fund, has warned that the UK is among economies where “debt vulnerabilities continue to grow” as inflation remains elevated. “Globally, borrowers would find it harder to service debt, given higher bond yields,” it said this month.
Never seen this one coming
https://news.sky.com/story/captain-sir-tom-moores-home-where-he-raised-millions-for-nhs-is-up-for-sale-13122723
Yeah i'll chat to The North Bankit's really not complex, he's keeping up fine
You definitely need more. To be clear I'm not saying dont be excited about next season, football is (supposed) to be enjoyed but it's dangerous having that expectation. Football against a sportswashing regime isn't 'fair' and it steps away from what you 'deserve'. In a normal season where an injury or two can mess you up a little they can be the end when it comes to races against these sides which also comes with the realisation that if your squad isn't packed with decisive players, you have to rely on ridiculous luck to maintain the necessary pace. Take Rice and Odegaard out of your side for a month, who is stepping up and making up the difference. Maintaining the legs in midfield, defensive protection, creativity and chipping in with goals? Now take out one of the deputising options for 2 weeks. It sounds mad but it's entirely possible and that's not a worst case scenario. They have so much in terms of options it makes it so fucking hard.
Of course you can have huge luck injury wise, but your brand of football is quite taxing and it can increase the injury risk. Take it from a side who knows, we've been there and done it.
All this and I haven't even mentioned the mental side, it takes toll mate it really does