#CostofCameron More like #CostofMiliband

I Posted a few days ago about Miliband's ridiculous idea to make me change Bank Services Provider even if I am perfectly happy with who I currently use. I was wondering how bad for the Economy Miliband actually is so I thought I would look at the effects of his words.

The Twittersphere is awash with the #CostofCameron being pushed by Labour at the moment, essentially Labour pushing the myth that if they had stayed in charge then despite constant rises in the previous 13 years prices would have suddenly stopped going up somehow. And please don't be deceived in thinking that Labour want to keep down inflation, inflation in an economy is only used to reduce the size of government debt, therefore the party who is the biggest debt addict will also necessarily be the biggest inflation addict.

Anyway, as I said, I wanted to know exactly how bad Ed Miliband is for the UK economy, bear in mind this is only as "Leader" of the Opposition, Were Labour to get control of the economy this would only get worse.

Before Ed Miliband started to leak the details of his "Forced Bank Moves" policy then the UK top four Banks had a combined market capitalization of £617 Billion, After he had finished and the news had been discussed widely the Market cap had fallen to £608 Billion.

Therefore the #CostofMiliband is around £8.979 Billion per speech.

Now I know that many people may think that this is just the Rich being hit so why should we care, but don't forget that less than 1% of shares are held by individuals, If you have a pension, then Miliband just made you poorer.

Even more directly he has also reduced the value of the Government's investments (80% of RBS and 33% of Lloyds) the effect of Ed Miliband's speech on the coffers of the Government were:
Value before speech £38.533 Billion (Actually £38.533.518.240)
Value now £37.346 (Actually £37,346,059,216)

Therefore the Direct #CostofMiliband is £1,187,459,024 

To add some context, according to The Guardian this would be enough to build 23 Hospitals or 39 Secondary Schools - Or Heaven forbid, actually pay off some of the debt taken out by Labour in the first place.

So next time you hear that the #CostofCameron is £1,600 after three years in power, remember that Ed Miliband cost us all (Well anyone with a Pension, Savings or who pays Taxes) £8 Billion just by opening his mouth.

Just to make things more transparent, here are the figures I used.

What is wrong with the Press in the UK?

What is wrong with the press in this country? I listened to Nick Ferrari on LBC (97.3 FM) this morning on the way into work, he was interviewing John Redwood (Former Cabinet Minister, Current MP for Wokingham) and Ferrari was desperate to get Redwood to say that the coalition was in trouble, obviously Labour had been on earlier getting their political points in and trying to claim it signalled a general election around the corner but John Redwood was very level headed and simply gave his opinion this seemed to anger Ferrari who on a few occasions talked over him to try and bully (Which if you have ever seen John Redwood being interviewed you should know is nearly impossible.) to say that he felt that the coalition were in severe trouble. Now if you were to ask why he was so aggressive with him when he came on I am sure you would get the usual Press response. “It’s our job to hold them to account!” an interesting concept as surely isn’t the job of the press to actually report the truth? And as Ferrari is now a Talk Show host and not an actual reporter surely isn’t his job to facilitate a public discussion between alternate sides of a debate? Not to try and pick up some useful sound bytes?

This is not an issue unique to talk show hosts however as it would appear that an interviewer who does not attack his interviewee has failed his interview. Now I am not stating that we should return to the times where the interviewer was in awe to the politicians or even to a position where they were not allowed to go in hard when it is necessary, what I am saying is that it should not be the norm. It’s not that politicians need to be given greater respect, but that they should be given the respect everyone of us should be able to expect when being spoken too.

The other issue which the press bring up with our elected officials which has bugged me for a while (And which I may well have ranted about on occasion as well) is the way they attack politicians for changing their minds, the papers are full of stories of U-Turns and Backtracks as if the worse thing a politician can do is change their mind, now it may just be my naivety but personally I would prefer to have an elected representative who is willing to admit that they are wrong and make amendments to their policy than one who sticks blindly to their guns regardless of if the policy turns out to be wrong. This was typified for me in the debate about an Asylum cap before the last election. Cameron was pushed by Brown to give a number for the Asylum cap and when he said that he would have to work the figure out each year he was accused of weak leadership – for not giving an arbitrary figure. This was then repeated in the press so that a policy of having the right cap at the right time and for recognising that the world does not stand still (so what is right for 2010 may not be right for 2025, in fact I would say that it is highly unlikely to be.) was seen, rather than realism and a good policy, to be a lack of policy.

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Cameron

My Congratulations go out to Mr & Mrs Cameron on the birth of their forth child yesterday, After the heartache they experienced with the Death of Ivan it is nice to see some joy brought back into their family, not that I am in anyway trying to say the new baby can replace Ivan as after all, all children are irreplaceable. Conversation has switched now to what they will name the baby with Maggie being one choice put forward as a 50/1 outside Bet, Isabella is at 8/1 with last years most common name Olivia at 12/1 for the bigger bets Ladbrokes are suggesting Beyonce at 150/1 and William Hill offering 1000/1 on Speed possibly the least believable suggestion would be Harriet unless Mr. Cameron wants to honour one of the people that help make Labour such an unattractive choice for government.

The Big Society is Coming

Cameron today launched the “Big Society” today. I have been interested in this idea for a while as it is core to my own personal belief structure that the government should play as small a role in people’s lives as possible, and from what I had known about the Big Society Idea it appeared that the Prime Minister Agreed with me.

I believe that the plan suffers slightly from sound-byteism being a phrase that commentators can use and question without trying to understand, Nick Ferrari on LBC who tends to be quite cued up on these topics completely missed the point when he asked how the Big Society would help government force it’s will on a local council over refuse collecting, when it is obviously the exact opposite and will create more localism rather than more central control.

Having seen the PM setting out his “Great Agenda” I have to admit I am slightly disappointed, whilst I appreciate that to suddenly roll back the oppressive Labour regime would run the risk of leaving a power vacuum where people with no experience of fending for themselves are suddenly expected to start looking after themselves, however I did feel that the plan could stretch further than to 5 trial areas (Liverpool, Eden Valley, Cumbria, Windsor & Maidenhead and LB of Sutton.) The initiatives being championed include saving a rural pub, recruiting volunteers for a museum and attempting to increase local broadband schemes; and this is where I have the problem as these ideas are not a redistribution of power from Whitehall to local areas but rather government support for perverting the free market. A rural pub kept open by the state will only ever be a liability, if there is to be a pub that will continue and turn a profit then all it actually needs is customers, without which it will fail.

It is early days and hopefully this will not be the pick of the initiatives, perhaps some of them will actually involve a rolling back of government interference, so I am still optimistic and a supporter of the Big Society, just I will probably have to wait before I get too carried away.

Final words will again have to go to the former government, this time to Ed Balls (Labour Leadership Candidate and former Education Secretary.) who stated that Mr. Cameron should apologise to the people of Liverpool for stopping plans to rebuild 20 schools in the city. Once again this has made me shake my head in disbelief, that members of the last administration are so detached from reality that 1) They do not even know what topic they are being asked about and therefore seem to be bringing up random points that bear no relation to what is being spoken about; 2) They still do not understand that it is their fault, despite the fact that there is no money in the treasury (as admitted by Labour on their way out of power.) they still agreed to rebuild 20 schools and despite all of the extreme hardships THEY have inflicted on this country THEY still think they can sit around and whinge about their frivolous “vote buying” projects being cancelled. It reminds me of watching someone who is having a mental breakdown and is struggling to keep attached to the real world, a real heart break in an individual, but nearly disastrous in a political party.

Cameron Comes out Truthful on Hard Times Ahead

Cameron spoke today about the cuts facing the country, he has stated that there is no one in the country who will be unaffected by cuts or tax rises, they include cuts of 6.2bn this year. Unsurprisingly he blamed the former administration ( I Say unsurprisingly as it is the way of politics to blame your opposition – Oh and also it is their fault.)

It turns out that the last government tried to hide the fact that in five years time we would be paying more than £70Bn a year just in servicing our debts. More than is paid on Schools/Traffic and climate change. Obviously there was the usual outcry from the Unions; Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union) said the Prime Minister was “Trying to paint the public sector as a problem.”

Now whilst I agree that the Public Sector should not be made scapegoats, the problem is that almost 1 in 4 people work in the public sector, in fact I was reading a fact book last night which stated that last year people employed in the private sector would each have paid more into the pension of a public sector employee than into their own. Whilst I do not blame the civil servants (I blame New Labour and their “Job Sweetners” in exchange for votes.) clearly it is unsustainable.

Dave Prentis (Unison) said the speech was a “Chilling Attack on the public sector.” Saying “There was nothing in the speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.” Obviously a Union representative trying to make this a class issue is of no great surprise, and I am sure Mr. Prentis thinks that it really is as simple as taking all the profit from the banks and using to provide extra public sector posts, unfortunately that shows a complete lack of understanding how the world works. If you hit the banks too heavily they will leave the UK, the only ones who will stay will be the ones who have to (Basically just the High Street chains – and just the High Street Business the investment banks will leave as well.) and guess what 1) the High Street Banks do not make any money, 2) The Government are the biggest shareholders in the banking sector. So basically Mr. Prentis’ great idea to bring down net debt is to remove our highest earning sector from the economy and lumber the government with even more publicly funded loss paying businesses.

After all the blame is not entirely shouldered by the bankers, after all each loan deal has people on both sides, the people accepting credit they could not afford are just as guilty as those doing the lending, unfortunately in the nanny state we expected someone else to tell us if something was ok and we forgot to look at it ourselves. If anyone should feel hard done by it is someone like me who has:

a) Never defaulted on a payment
b) Only taken credit I could afford
c) NEVER VOTED FOR NEW LABOUR

Personally however I think it is time to stop trying to blame people and start looking at some facts.

FACT – The Civil Service Must be cut
FACT – Taxes must go up
FACT – it is going to be a very unpleasant time
FACT – if we stay focused we will get through it.


I will however let the last comment on this post go to the former administration.

According to the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasurery – Gaff Prone Liam Byrne,
"The coalition has inherited an economy that is growing, borrowing which is falling, and unemployment lower than in America or Europe,"
To me this seems a quite remarkable “rose tinted” outlook on the economy, which seems quite at odds with the note he left after leaving his office last month. ‘Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam’

The Coalition becomes clearer

Reading through the BBC News Website we have a lot more of an idea of the form the coalition will take.

Nick Clegg will become the Deputy Prime Minister, Vince Cable will work in the Treasury in charge of Banks and Business and Danny Alexander will take over as Scottish Minister.

From the Conservatives side Osbourne will be Chancellor, Hague Foreign Secretary and Fox as defence secretary.

The Agreed policy decisions are:

There will be Cuts this year to reduce the Deficit including £6bn of cuts this year, although out of a predicted 1.5 Trillion that we will be in the red this is unlikely to be enough.

Fixed five year parliaments so no more elections until May 2015 (So no more threat of another poll this year, would be very interesting if the coalition collapses.)

The Lib Dems drop the Mansion Tax in return for the Tories not changing the Inheritance Threshold - Personally I would be happy for both these taxes to have stayed but in reformed form.

They have agreed to scrap part of the "Job Tax" but will look to raise the income tax threshold. - This is good news for the economy but we will need to wait and see how affordable the income tax changes will be when the drains are up on the country's current account.

The lib Dem's will delay adoption of the Euro for at least one parliament, and agree to the Tory idea of a referendum on any future EU power grabs - Hopefully we will at some point be able to call ourselves a sovereign nation again at some point.

A cap on Non-EU immigration, another policy which without a proper understanding of how it will work it is hard to understand if it will be any good. But at least it is being considered.

Lib Dems will drop opposition to the Trident deterrent, this is unfortunate as this is pretty much the only Lib Dem pledge I agreed with.

A referendum on the Alternative Vote system, which is at least preferable to Proportional Representation. We will have to see how the public decide but I have a feeling it will get through.

I am sure a lot more will come out in the forth coming days and the budget which I am sure we will see soon enough.

New Prime Minister

So David Cameron is now the PM thanks to a helping hand by Mr. Clegg, I guess the real questions should start to be answered.

What role will the Lib Dems play in the government? Will Nick Clegg be Deputy Prime Minister? Will Vince Cable be taken into the treasury?

What has DC offered to form the coalition? I assume we will be having a referendum on Alternative Vote, ironically it will be promoted by a party who I would assume would then front the No campaign.

I am assuming that this will also put a stop to any chance to reduce the power of Brussels. The Lib Dems being very pro-Europe.

What else has been Horse Traded will show itself in time, but for now Prime Minister Cameron will need to take a look around and realise just how hard the task ahead is - I doubt that we have had the full skeletons out of the Labour Bank Statements just yet.