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The fundamental difference is, it’s not taxpayer money… I don’t care how ‘x, y or z’ businesses spend their money, if they’re unsuccessful, they’ll go bust. The public sector won’t and it’s money we all pay into. The private sector is bearing the brunt of the tax burden and its public sector...

Direct from Gov.uk, make of it what you will. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mass-cancellation-of-government-credit-cards-in-crackdown-on-wasteful-spend#:~:text=While%20some%20credit%20cards%20are,central%20departments%20and%20core%20agencies. A breakdown from the Telegraph...

Nope, the department for HMRC headcount has dropped by 2% and the DBT (business and international trade) has dropped by 25%. The foreign office has grown by 10% and home office 51%. Meanwhile, the Scottish government has grown by 42%, office for gas and electricity has grown by 163% and office...

So many sweeping statements here. The civil service has grown by 21%, the % of front line civil servants down to 54%, whilst salaries have increased by 27%. Non-departmental government agencies (i.e. quangos) have increased their headcount by 423% since 2019. Oh, and the amount of gadgets...

A simple yes or no answer would suffice…

Is it not? Why has chancellor called a Spring Statement that’s a budget in all but name within months of her autumn budget? Borrowing is on track to exceed £24bn, the gilts have increased (increasing costs to service public debt) and growth forecast have been halved before the headline...

Exactly, unfunded tax cuts costing £45bn caused a market reaction that brought down a PM. The lesson here is that if a government wanted to increase spending, on public services for example, it has to be ‘funded’ otherwise the markets will react severely. The gilts are already higher than at...

A bit of context behind Reece’s Spring Statement and why Labour are penny pinching.

Would that cause road closures to build them? 1 or occasionally 2 days week to close the roads for 1-2 hours for Aug-May doesn’t seem like a big sacrifice imo.

Liz Truss tried the kind of shock therapy you’re in favour of and she was outlasted by lettuce. I don’t think Starmer or Reeves wish to go the same way. Unfunded tax cuts of £45bn set in motion the events that ousted a PM. That’s the state of our public finances. The gilt yields are higher now...

Another routine win going through the motions!

Especially if they expand the Euros to 32 teams which is likely from 2028… that’s 58% of all UEFA members! The Nations League could be a brilliant way to revitalise the international calendar. Were you at the England games for the goals out of curiosity? That makes a big difference for me...

Major tournament football is top tier for me. I’ve not celebrated many goals as I did for Watkins and Plamer’s goals last summer.

Too many meaningless, mismatched games like tonight. At its best, there isn’t anything better than competitive international football, these games are a chore.

I made that mistake, but will contact the bank if it doesn’t come through after the transaction is completed.

Which quite a lot considering their economy is bigger, is growing more and their tax burden is around 10-11% lower than ours.

I’ve not had the cashback yet, but my transaction for the Hull tickets were debited by ‘CCFC’ so should be within scope.

If you click expand the data markers (see attached), it gives you GDP expenditure, even the link you supplied had Japan on 41.66% rather than 57% as you posted - which I assumed was a typo because it was same as Germany’s.

How sustainable do you think the post-WW2 settlement is in the UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy? All low growth economies with worsening public services. My answer is consistent across the board: no. All 6 of those countries have population time bombs and have identical issues with...

No, I said the civil service increased its headcount by 20% from 400-ish thousand to 550-ish and productivity hasn’t increased so clearly there is some wastage there. So the number I’m referencing is closer to 110-120k and nowhere near the 1.3m you reference. Hypothetically, if that many roles...