The Month That Was……June 2022

I have apocalypse fatigue. I am tired of the looming apocalypse I am being brainwashed into believing is coming. But which one to pick……I am spoilt for choice! There are just so many horsemen thundering towards us……or at least that’s how it feels.

Yesterday’s newspaper alone had about eight different apocalypses in the first ten pages.

I’m not sure how much longer we can deal with these levels of anxiety. Everyone appears exhausted after five years of Brexit, Covid, the cost of living crisis, wars and political chaos. Our adrenaline levels are through the roof. The country is beginning to feel like four-year-old Prince Louis after hours of jubilee celebrations and sugar rushes……frazzled and mildly hysterical with too few grown-ups to calm us down.

We desperately need a mental rest from all of this……but that looks a forlorn hope. Even the idea of a holiday stirs panic. It’s not only 180p-a-litre petrol or a 17 hour snaking check-in queue at the airport, last minute cancelled flights, delayed passports or hours spent queueing at immigration control before finding that your luggage is lost…..there’s the cost of this winter’s heating to factor in before most people can book a break.

Almost everyone has a reason to be worried even though we are through the worst of the pandemic…..commuters must contend with a summer of strikes, families are struggling with childcare costs, the young with rents and the elderly with shopping bills.

The pandemic has also left scars. There are now two million people with long Covid and a terrifying backlog for GP and hospital appointments. Then chuck in bloody Monkeypox for good measure!

Ideally, of course, ministers would be there to reassure. The Education Secretary, instead of sending inane tweets to shore up his inept leader, would be focused on ending the strikes in universities, revising the exam system and looking into the 2 million children regularly missing school. The Health Secretary would be single-mindedly tackling NHS waiting lists rather than embarrassing himself defending BoJo. But they are all mired in their own crisis and in permanent campaign mode for a Prime Minister they know isn’t fit for purpose.

To end this age of anxiety, we are going to need dependable, decent and competent leadership. Is that too much to ask……it appears so.

In the absence of leadership it’s down to us to manage this apocalypse fatigue. Humanity is resilient. Civilisation is resilient. Fatalism is delicious but it is also lazy as hell. Remember that. Making us shriek when we could be problem solving is just a selfish grab for our attention.  

There will be no apocalypses. I’m almost sure of it……not even one.

  

The Numbers

A huge month of numbers for BoJo……he survived a party confidence vote…..just. The Prime Minister (at the time of writing) won 59% of the vote, meaning he is now immune from a Conservative leadership challenge for a year.

The vote share in support of BoJo was lower than the 63% received by former Prime Minister Theresa May when she won a party confidence vote in 2018, before resigning six months later over a Brexit deadlock.

Even by BoJo’s standards of uselessness, it is a remarkable ‘performance’ to turn a landslide win with an 80 seat majority into a vote of no confidence in such a short period of time. When 4 in 10 of your own MPs think the country would be better off without you, you have a problem.

Talking of problems……the Bank of England have one as they have simply not predicted or controlled runaway inflation. That problem is now our problem. Yeah, thanks for that Andrew Bailey.

Prices are continuing to rise at their fastest rate for 40 years as food, energy and fuel costs continue to climb. UK inflation edged up to 9.1%......the highest level since 1982. The Bank of England has warned inflation will reach 11% this year.

The Bank of England reacted by increasing interest rates from 1.0% to 1.25%......the highest level in 13 years. It's interesting that they've held back from rising by half a percentage point, which was what a lot of people were expecting.

It is also interesting to reflect on how out of touch the Bank of England has been……

May 2021: "Inflation will peak at 2%"

Aug 2021: "Inflation will peak at 4%"

Nov 2021: "Inflation will peak at 5%"

Feb 2022: "Inflation will peak at 7%"

May 2022: "Inflation will peak at 10%"

June 2022: "Inflation will peak at 11%"

I am struggling to understand the point of the Bank of England as an independent taxpayer funded entity. Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

The Bank of England reminded the public to spend any paper £20 and £50 notes before 30 September as they will no longer be legal tender. Presumably because they will no longer be worth enough to buy anything.

Surging inflation also increased interest payments on Government debt……a whopping £7.6 billion for the month (an increase of £3.1 billion for the same month in 2021). This is largely a result of higher inflation due to the interest paid on Government Bonds rising in line with the Retail Prices Index measure of inflation (which hit 12%).

The US central bank took a far more aggressive stance to tackle inflation with its biggest rate hike in nearly 30 years. The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.75%……the single biggest tightening in monetary policy since 1994. Now that’s action.

Fuel prices got really horrible this month and they reached another record high. The average car will now cost £100 to fill up. But what’s that made up of? (I hear you ask)

£16.67 is VAT

£32.74 is fuel duty

£35.84 for the wholesaler

£  9.71 is biofuel content

£  3.92 to the retailer

£  1.12 is delivery costs

Remember the above the next time BoJo wheels out one of his lieutenants to blame petrol retailers for not passing on this or that and that the forecourts are ripping you off. It’s utter tosh. 

I read an extraordinary statistic. In 2008 when oil prices peaked at $144 a barrel, no one in Britain paid more than 120p per litre of petrol. Today, the oil price is $113 but pump prices are 186p per litre. The difference is the collapse in sterling from $2 to $1.20.

The alternative to filling up your car is to go electric. However, a Government scheme that gave £1,500 towards the cost of an electric car or plug-in hybrid closed to new orders this month (without notice). Presumably petrol / diesel is now completely OK for the environment now we have inflation? Madness.

One measure that was a welcome introduction this month was the new national food strategy that confirmed a shift in emphasis to allow land management schemes to reflect “farmer demand”. The UK is hugely reliant on imports, producing roughly 64% of our food, down from 78% 40 years ago. The UK really needs to be more self-sufficient. 

Perhaps the most bizarre figure this month was that the US Navy had received a 500% increase in applications since the new Top Gun film was aired. Because nothing quite says “war looks fun” like a 59 year old actor full of make-up limping into a fighter plane.

 

Trump of the Month

The whole point of the Trump of the Month award is to recognise total incompetence to the point of lunacy……or to put that another way……acting and behaving like Donald Trump. 

I have yet to find anybody that has got close to The Trump’s consistent buffoonery……with one exception……BoJo. 

This month is a classic example of BoJo’s exceptional consistency and he was the only worthy candidate for the Trump of the Month award.

What to make of the party confidence vote. 211 MP’s thought he was doing a grand job (they are literally robbing a living) and 148 thought not. He survived.

Now consider this……there are currently 95 ministers and 41 parliamentary private secretaries who are obliged to vote with the Government in the House of Commons no matter what or they must resign. Therefore, there are 136 MPs that were handcuffed to vote in favour. That 211 looks a little flimsy now. 

BoJo’s response to the confidence vote that week was classic Trump stuff……

BoJo said that it was an “extremely good, positive, decisive” result. Really?

Then he bumbled along saying that he’ll make the NHS “a blockbuster health care system in the age of Netflix.”  

As far as I remember, Blockbuster didn’t fare too well after Netflix came along. Make of that what you will. But I mean, aside from anything else, that’s just a lunatic statement isn’t it? What does it even mean?

He then said the UK will have the worst performance in the G7 next year because "we came out of the pandemic first, so had a faster recovery". Errrrr……so we're doing badly because we're doing so well? Crazy stuff.

Then he said “we need to build 300,000 more homes”. Then he said “building more homes isn't the answer”. And then he said “we've never built enough homes”. And then he said “he was building more than Labour”……but then repeated that “building more homes isn't the answer”. Still with me?

BoJo said this was a “housing revolution”…..Shelter called it “baffling, unworkable and dangerous”. The loyal lieutenant Michael Gove called it a “marvellous scheme”. The New Economics Foundation called it “totally detached from reality”.

And that pretty much sums up BoJo in a nutshell…… totally detached from reality.

As I have said far too often…… one day we will look back and wonder how the hell did someone as inept and untrustworthy as Boris Johnson get the keys to number 10. The most important job in the country given to a man who is the epitome of what is wrong. Where entitlement and privilege replace talent.

Trump Lunacy Rating: 10 / 10

 

 And Finally……

 “Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”

 Mark Twain