The Month That Was……September 2021

September was always meant to be the month of children returning to school with new haircuts, shiny shoes, immaculate pencil cases, a chance to start again and reinvent themselves every year……and for parents to get angrier at their own timetable becoming boringly fixed around the school run and a growing chip on their shoulder at not also being able to reboot themselves. 

Instead, September seems to be a free for all for madness to run rife. Now I appreciate the past 18 months has been challenging on so many levels, but I genuinely think there is a certain level of madness that we all now accept. It’s as though we are punch drunk to lunacy.

After 18 months of confusing everybody with a travel traffic light system that scared the majority into holidaying in the UK, the Government launched a new system that is so easy to understand but yet  waited until the holiday season was over to announce it. Brilliant. And whilst we’re here……it’s not a bloody ‘staycation’……it’s simply a holiday in the UK……end of.

 

Insulate Britain (an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion) held sit ins on the M25 to disrupt traffic and gain publicity to call for the Government to insulate homes in the UK to help cut carbon emissions. But the paradox of ‘Insulate Britain’ is that if the planet is warming we need less insulation in our homes, not more.

The Government paid an American-owned fertiliser manufacturing firm tens of millions of pounds to keep production going and head off a crisis in the availability of carbon dioxide (vital to food supplies) on the same day that BoJo spoke at the UN on the importance of reducing carbon dioxide. You couldn’t make it up.

And whilst we’re here, BoJo thought it would be a great idea to humiliate the UK on a global platform when talking to world leaders using references to the muppets. “Kermit the frog said it’s not easy being green, he was wrong”. Stop it. Just stop it. If you haven’t seen it……it’s painful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBIZVOggxLI

 

Gavin Williamson the Education Secretary then got Marcus Rashford and Maro Itoje mixed up. One is a footballer, northern, tough upbringing, tattooed, short haired and campaigns for free school meals. The other is a rugby player, southern, privileged upbringing, long haired and campaigns to bridge a digital divide. It’s like comparing Bernard Manning with Lionel Blair. In an ideal world, the Education Secretary would be someone who isn’t profoundly stupid and he did extremely well to survive over 2 years in the role before the chop this month.

And whilst we’re here……along with a lot of people in Government I think “well, I might disagree, but I probably don’t know how hard it is and I wouldn’t back myself to do better”. But with Gavin Williamson, I would 100% do a better job than him. At anything. At any time.

Millions of people are facing soaring gas bills as their energy suppliers go bust as nobody thought to forward buy in case we might need some gas in the future…..like in the winter for example. Crazy.

HGV drivers have now become the new celebrity A listers……they’ll be opening supermarkets and appearing on Strictly before you know it.  

We were told by the Government not to panic buy petrol as everything will be OK. Which is absolutely the right reason to panic buy petrol. So we did. All of us.

There are empty shelves in supermarkets and warnings that products will not be available for Christmas. Yet fresh produce is rotting in fields because of a lack of pickers.

I don't know about everyone else but I think we were better off when we had food on the shelves and could afford heating. What a time to be alive.       

 

The Numbers

The UK economic recovery is stuttering and is being affected by a cocktail of factors, some of them global, some very much local. The global factors are well known: supply bottlenecks, sharply rising shipping costs and microchip shortages are affecting industries the world over, though not yet enough to derail the global economic recovery. Meanwhile, the Delta variant of the coronavirus has led to lockdowns being reintroduced in parts of the world. Then there is Brexit, our very own millstone.

The closely watched Purchasing Managers Index (and what an index it is……my personal favourite) tells a story of the stuttering recovery. Taking manufacturing and services together, the index has fallen to 55.3 this month, its lowest for six months. The Eurozone equivalent has held up well at 59.5, close to a 15 year high.

Employers added a record 241,000 staff to their payrolls last month, taking the total number to 29  million, above the level recorded in February 2020 just before the country went into the first Covid-19 lockdown. The 1,000,000 jobs unfilled in the UK highlights the continued recovery in the jobs market as the Government phases out the furlough support scheme.

More Europeans are looking for work in Britain since the end of lockdown restrictions, but job searches from the EU remain far lower than they were before the pandemic. The number of EU residents seeking work in the UK is still 48% lower than it was in August 2019. The trend is rising though.

Restaurants across the UK are struggling to hire staff, given this lack of EU citizens looking for work. Another reason is that catering staff were lost to logistics and delivery firms, who are offering £50,000 a year jobs. What a time to be a lorry driver. If you spot Gordon Ramsay at the wheel of an artic, steering up the M1 with his elbows while eating a pie, rolling a fag and swearing at passing cars, you’ll know why. A different type of arctic roll (I’ll get my coat).

Inflation hit 3.2% in the sharpest monthly rise on record and is expected to go over 4.0% over the coming months.

A 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy is to come in from April 2022. Wrap it up however you want, but it is the biggest tax rise in over 20 years designed to raise £36 billion over 3 years. From October 2023, no one starting care in England will be forced to spend more than £86,000 over their lifetime. The devil is in the detail……and the small print creates more questions than it answers.

It was announced that the contactless card limit is to rise to £100 next month.

Emma Raducanu earned £1.8 million in winning the tennis US Open, proving to Prince Andrew that not all Brits are afraid of US courts.

Trump of the Month

When you break two manifesto pledges on the same day after just 2 years of being elected, you deserve the Trump of the Month award. This month’s winner can only be……Boris Johnson. 

Political policies are always subjective and there will always be mixed views. But I just want honesty and compassion from Downing Street. I feel we’re in depressing times when it comes to the quality of leadership in the country.

On the back of last month’s Trump of the Month in which the guarantee of a triple lock increase to State Pensions was rumoured to be removed, BoJo confirmed this was the case. Clearly protecting the elderly and vulnerable is not high on his priority at a time of crazy inflation and soaring energy prices. A manifesto pledge broken.

And then came the next manifesto pledge to be broken……a rise in National Insurance to pay for a Health and Social Care Levy.

What is maddening is the lack of compassion, creativeness and fairness with the National Insurance rise. Landlords, investors and the over 65’s won't pay it and the self-employed will only pay half. The levy will also not be added to rental income, capital gains tax or inheritance tax.

So why not raise Income Tax? Because BoJo knows there is a total lack of understanding of how National Insurance works. Financial ignorance will allow the National Insurance rise without too much loss of political capital……which is really sad.

National Insurance is a lie, that cons taxpayers, misinforms voters and distorts our political debate about tax rates. It is time to be honest and roll it into Income Tax.

And the saddest thing of all…..BoJo justified it all by proclaiming that “covid was not in the Tory election manifesto”. Presumably it would never have happened if it had been.

It is all such total madness. Surely we have enough creative people at Westminster to create a fair system to fund the levy? Anything has to be fairer than this……surely?  

Trump Lunacy Rating: 10 / 10

 

And Finally……

If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.

Maya Angelou