The Biggest Threat Is Within

It’s fair to say that property ownership is a big deal for us Brits……but so is property debt:

 

84% of all debt in the UK is mortgage debt.

 

Before the banking crises, total mortgage debt in the UK was the equivalent of 38% of the total annual money made in the UK. We then loosened the criteria for lending (you literally had to be breathing to borrow money – although I believe there were cases when even that wasn’t compulsory) and that figure now stands at 76%.

 

Mortgages are a big deal - interest rate rises are a big deal – monthly mortgage payments are a big deal.

 

This is why the biggest threat to the continued recovery of the UK economy is the housing market. The Bank of England / Government know this but they are powerless to control it as the banks hold all the aces.

 

We all have ‘some’ control over the interest rate we pay on our mortgage. But the window of opportunity is getting narrower and narrower……especially as the Bank of England warned last week that it could now be as early as Q4 2014 that rates rise.

 

You have been warned!

Independent Impact

There are many debates that Scotland’s quest for independence has thrown up, but one glaringly obvious omission is the impact that it will have on what is left of our Parliament.

 

Scotland are a big Labour supporter. The table below highlights the results from the 2010 General Election – Scotland still backed Labour at a time when they couldn’t have been more unpopular.

 

Take Scotland’s seats away from the political parties and there is the very possibility that Scotland departing the UK voting system will leave the remaining England / Wales / Northern Ireland Parliament with a Conservative Government for the foreseeable future – the very thing that they would have resisted.

 

 

There are far too many people in England that really aren’t that bothered about an independent Scotland. Well, they’re about to give you quite a leaving present that will last for many years.

U Kontradict In Plenty

If you stand for something, then stand for something……that’s unless you are involved in politics and it suits you to deviate.

 

Love or loath them, UKIP are turning into more than just a noisy neighbour on the political scene……and with their increased importance comes an increase in contradiction!

 

UKIP’s message is really simply……they want nothing to do with Europe. They have campaigned to protect British jobs, slash immigration and pull out of the European Union. Which makes it all the more interesting that:

 

1. Eastern Europeans were hired to hand out anti-immigration flyers ahead of European

    Elections.

 

2. Election leaflets were created and printed in Germany.

 

3. The model used in their poster campaign to represent a ‘British builder hit hard by

    unlimited cheap labour’ was actually an Irish actor.

 

If you are going to stand for something, then stand for something. There is no credit in contradictions.

 

I see a lively and entertaining build up to the General Election 2015!