The Month That Was……February 2025

My New Year resolution to get fitter and run more has (remarkably) got to a second month. I know…..go me! I have always run with headphones blasting out anything to help me to zone out and not feel the pain. However, the one downside is (all too often) not hearing a large moving vehicle that is quite happy to mow me down. It creates a scene not too dissimilar to a middle aged man dressed in dayglow lycra being caught in the headlights. It’s not pretty and near death experiences are very overrated. Reluctantly, I’m now a headphoneless runner.

Whilst cars are now more often than not dodged, it does permit my mind a regular opportunity to freestyle whilst I cough, splutter, swear and limp around another 10K course. And it is a very random freestyle. Very. This month’s highlights include:

- Nothing unclean ever goes into the cutlery drawer, yet it still gets dirty. Is the cutlery drawer where the best utensil parties occur at night? It’s one of life’s great mysteries.

- I still remember the phone number for swapshop……01 811 8055. Yet in an accident, I wouldn’t be able to give my wife’s phone number for emergency use……or any number in fact…… other than the direct hotline to Noel Edmonds and Keith Chegwin.  

- Is there a more ungainly activity than carrying the hoover upstairs?

- There is no longer walk in life than when a staff member shows you to an item on the other side of a big shop. Perhaps some prepared ramble for the walk would help ease the awkwardness. “I did have a good look, but for some reason, I just couldn't seem to see it.” Followed by forced laugh. “I did wonder if they'd maybe moved it to anoth..., ah, there it is. Cheers." That should do it. 

- And while we’re here……there is no longer wait known to mankind than people who get to the till and wait for all the shopping to be scanned and still haven't got their wallet / purse out. Let alone the compulsory fishing around inside said wallet / purse for the correct card or, worse still, pennies lying deeply buried for decades. Come on……life’s too short for such a lack of efficiency.

- Why is pancake day in March this year? You really can’t make this up. Who is deciding this rubbish? I’ll blame Trump.

- I’ll never understand the “Yorkshire pudding only goes with beef!” people. Imagine restricting yourself like that. Yorkshire pudding goes with everything. Free your minds.

- Why is it compulsory to announce that “you managed to find us then?” when someone visits your house for the first time? Stop it. Stop it now.

- Smoking must have reduced drastically because I can’t remember the last time I was asked if I had a lighter. Which means it’s been years since I have been able to apologise to a stranger for not smoking. In fact, I can’t remember being asked "have you got the time please" in years. It’s also a rarity now.

- Placing your head on a just flipped pillow in the middle of the night is right up there with the birth of my daughter. Such an amazing feeling.

- There are only two types of cats. Ones that like their tummy being tickled and those who will slice you like a confidential document shredder if you so much as brush past them.

Perhaps the safer option is to wear headphones and dance with the cars than let my mind freestyle. Perhaps.

The Numbers

Every so often a report slaps you in the face and provides a context to all that is going on in the UK currently. New World Wealth, the global analytics firm, produced a report that I found simply staggering……the UK lost 10,800 millionaires over the last year as the wealthy sort more stable politics and tax regimes.

Why so important?

30% of the total UK income tax was paid by the wealthiest 1%. 50% of total UK income tax was paid by the top 5%.

Millionaires leaving the UK is not good. You know the tax system is messed up when the proceeds from gambling are 100% tax free……whilst your life savings are taxed at 40% when you die.

Rachel Reeves is part of the problem not the solution until she changes direction. In the meantime, the impact of her thoughtless Budget continues to bite harder……

Food inflation is now expected to rise between 4.5% and 5.5% this year.

Why?

The Chancellor announced in the Budget that, from April, the threshold on employee earnings at which businesses begin to pay national insurance will drop from £9,100 to £5,000, the rate will also increase from 13.8% to 15%  and the minimum wage for over-21s is rising by 6.7% to £12.21.

These changes are particularly painful for retailers, which employ many part-time workers on low wages and for companies that produce fresh food, where labour comprises up to 60% of production costs. The rising of employment costs to companies will simply be passed on to consumers. And that’s inflation……something Rachel Reeves struggles to understand. 

It is no coincidence that consumer confidence has reached a 12-month low and the employment market is in its longest downturn since 2000.

There was no surprise that the Bank of England cut interest rates in February from 4.75% to 4.50%, the third reduction in six months. It also now expects the economy to grow by just 0.75% this year, half its November forecast of 1.50%. Interestingly, 2 of the 9 monetary policy committee voted to reduce interest rates by 0.5%, which is a striking summary of the state of the UK economy.

How’s that ‘budget for growth' working out for you now Rachel Reeves? Absolutely clueless.

My least favourite number of the month……£700,000……the cost of Keir Starmer’s flights to the taxpayer in 3 months. This is more than the 3 previous PMs combined! To be fair though, one of those didn’t even make it to 3 months!

And my favourite number of the month……80……quite a milestone for my favourite father-in-law.

Trump of the Month

I challenged myself this month to exclude The Trump from being considered for the award for dedication to lunatic behaviour. It’s no longer a challenge for him given that every day he raises the bar to a whole new level of craziness.

As he finished his first month in power, it is almost admirable that he can be so creative in finding new ways to shock and destroy common sense. Just look at his memorable performance for February……

- He called Ukraine's President a "dictator" and blamed Ukraine for invading Russia.

- Arranged Russian authorities to release a US national who was arrested at a Moscow airport for drug possession.

- Ended New York congestion charge and announced on social media that  "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD and Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

- Cut benefits for undocumented migrants and legal aid for migrant children.

- Snubbed G20 talks in South Africa

- Fired his top general for no reason.

However, my particular ‘favourites’ this month were……

Firstly, sign an executive order to reverse the Biden administration’s push away from single-use plastics in government facilities. “These things don’t work, I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode.” Explode? What on earth is he trying to drink?

He also reassured us that there would be no issue to the environment. “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect the shark very much as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.” Utter madness.  

Secondly, he expressed his desire to turn Gaza into Dubai…….but signed an executive order extending a halt to funding for the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, on the same day. "Executive departments and agencies shall not use any funds for a contribution, grant, or other payment to UNRWA," the order reads.

When questioned who exactly he was suggesting would live in Dubai-Gaza, The Trump said “I envision world people living there”. As opposed to……non-world people? Aliens?

He really is the dumbest and craziest President in history.

There is literally nobody that has come close to such lunacy, so that is why I set myself a ban on The Trump to find the best of the rest.

A worthy candidate was Mike Amesbury, the suspended Labour MP, who was jailed for 10 weeks after he punched a constituent in the street in an argument over the temporary closure of a local bridge. Interestingly it happened on a night out at 2.15am in a taxi queue. What else would you expect an MP to be doing on a Saturday night? Oh, yes……the obligatory kebab first. Crazy stuff.

Another MP, Andrew Gwynne was sacked over racist and sexist messages including one saying he hoped a pensioner who did not vote Labour would die before the next election and another for an elderly constituent’s death over a bin collections disagreement. The MP said he “deeply regrets my badly misjudged comments”. There’s an understatement!

Then there was Elon Musk, who always seems just a whisker away from losing the plot. He sent an email to all US government employees with a stark subject line: “What did you do last week?” He requested five bullet points summarising a worker’s achievements in the past week and gave them two days to respond. Failure to respond would be taken as resignation. Exactly who was going to read millions of emails and decide who achieved competent status still remains unclear. Absolute madness.

All three are worthy candidates for services to stupidity., However, the Trump of the Month award for February 2025 could only go to……Rachel Jane Reeves.

Aside from the mess of her Budget and subsequent fall out, it has been an interesting month for Reevesy……

It started with a damning report into Reevesy’s new brainwave……the Office for Value for Money. The report suggested that the office was “poorly defined,” runs the risk of “unnecessary duplication” and there was ‘no way to measure effectiveness”.

And it gets worse…… Rachie appointed David Goldstone as chairman of the Office for Value for Money. He sat on the board of HS2 and lead Parliament’s over-budget restoration and renewal programme. If anybody knows how to waste public money in bucketfuls, clearly it is this man who fails to know how budgets work……or what value for money is. You really couldn’t script it. 

Then all eyes turned to Reevesy to defend her overinflated CV. “I spent a decade working as an economist at the Bank of England,” she said in 2021. However, she didn’t……her CV is a work of fiction. It was picked up by someone (with less of a life than me) examining her CV on LinkedIn.

Surely the bigger issue is not the lie but why on earth is the Chancellor even on LinkedIn? Are there other Chancellor jobs she might be interested in? Is Italy on the lookout, maybe Luxembourg? Experienced candidate……good (ish) with numbers……maybe not with farmers though.

And none of this would really be a problem if the economy was behaving like we had a red-hot economist at the helm The current reality though, suggests the economy has pretty much been left to someone who blindsided HR about their CV.

And just when you thought she couldn’t inflict any more madness……we have Reevesy’s Spring Statement to look forward to on 26^th March. The joy.

Trump Lunacy Rating: 10 / 10

 

And Finally……

“Ability without honour is useless.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Month That Was……January 2025

Just when you thought January couldn’t get any longer, darker or more depressing, along came……

……the 47^th President of the United States of America.

The Trump’s first term was littered with total buffoonery and lunatic ideas but with little substance or actions to support his mouth (the US / Mexico border wall that was never built being a prime example). This time it feels different……very different. Yes, the same crazy and head-scratching ideas are aplenty, but he actually seems to be acting on them as well. In fact, he actually looks extremely organised to deliver his lunacy.

Everything you need to know about ‘New Trump’ was shown during his first week in office.

- The Trump claimed that he was “saved by God to make America great again” and promptly signed 26 executive orders.

- He declared a national emergency on the US border with Mexico.

- Announced 25% trade tariffs with Canada, China and Mexico despite them being the US’s biggest trade partners (they account for 40% of all US imports).

- He offered Canada to be part of the US, informed Greenland that he will probably grab that for the US as he quite liked it for their energy reserves and gave notice that he wants to control the Panama Canal.   

- The Trump gave a blanket pardon that effectively freed all the Capitol rioters from 2021 and erased the work of the largest criminal investigation in US history……an event that saw 5 people die!

- He signed withdrawals from the World Health Organisation and from the Paris Climate Agreement and eased restrictions on oil and gas exploration……or as The Trump put it……“drill baby drill”.

- The Trump announced that “we're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America”……and google maps duly obliged.

- He stated that he was confident that the Gaza ceasefire that ‘he’ created (a new one for me) will hold and then spoke about it as though it was a real estate opportunity…..“it has a phenomenal location, on the sea, the best weather.” Wow. Just the small matter of it looking like a war zone rather than a vacation hot spot might stop holiday makers though.

- He announced that “the US will now only recognise two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality". He then put all Government diversity staff on paid leave prior to the redundancy.

- The Trump called on Putin to stop the ridiculous war in Ukraine or Russia would face sanctions.

- He informed President Joe Biden that he would be prosecuted……with no information on exactly why……a technicality that he will make up later. He then repealed 78 of Joe B’s executive orders, including one which sought to reduce the price of prescription drugs for the poor and elderly.

That’s quite a marker to put down for your first week in office……even by The Trump’s chaotic standards. However you describe The Trump presidency…..it has certainly begun. 

The only saving grace I am clinging on to is that the 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution is clear that The Trump can’t be elected again having served two terms. Unless he rewrites the constitution……he couldn’t……could he?

The Numbers

The fallout from Rachel Jane Reeves first Budget in October is starting to look ugly. The premise of her Budget was to raise taxes by £40 billion and drive economic growth……the reality looks very different.

£25 billion that is to be raised from April through an increase in employer National Insurance contributions does not create economic growth. It creates a £25 billion cost that will be paid for by reducing staffing levels or increasing prices. Add to this the impending increase in the minimum wage and it is little surprise that 54% of businesses now plan to reduce labour. Official figures showed that employers are cutting jobs at the quickest rates since the financial crisis in 2009.

Business confidence slid to its lowest level in 13 months, driven by growing pessimism among retailers after the Budget. The Lloyds Bank business barometer has now dropped in 5 consecutive months since the Budget.

I have no problem in raising £40 billion, just don’t push this on the private sector and expect economic growth.

There is also the real prospect that interest rates won’t fall as quickly as expected, which is simply due to prices expected to increase because of the additional tax take. Some 61% of businesses intend to raise prices over the next year. The consequence is that we are saving more than ever as the UK bunkers down for prolonged inflation.

When 64% of the UK economy is based on consumer spending, saving more is not good for the economy. Low interest rates puts more money in our pockets and attracts spending. Economic growth can’t be created without cheap money and the prospect of inflation scuppers this.

There are always two very clear confidence markers that let us know what the rest of the world thinks of the UK (well, financially anyway).

Firstly, the exchange rate against the dollar. Sterling has weakened to a 15 month low against the dollar since the Budget (to $1.22), increasing the cost of imports as a consequence (another inflation contributor).

Then there is the cost at which the Government borrows money. The UK’s public debt interest bill already exceeds £100 billion annually. Such is the lack of confidence in Rachel Jane Reeves Budget, the cost for the Government to borrow money hit a 27-year high on 30 year loans and a 17-year high on 10 year loans. Or to put that another way……a further £7 billion of public money must now be found to pay for the increase in interest rates as we are deemed riskier to lend to……and this wasn’t factored into the Budget.

When Liz Truss threw an economic grenade into the economy in 2022 she did so without really knowing what she was doing or looking at the underlying figures. Rachel Jane Reeves studied the figures and still threw the grenade in……and her background is meant to be of economic excellence.

What an absolute mess……and yet Keir Rodney Starmer still has “complete faith” in her.

Little surprise that Rachel Jane Reeves headed off for some political flirting with China ……the 2^nd largest economy in the world and the UK's 4^th largest single trading partner. According to the Treasury, exports to China supported more than 455,000 UK jobs.

My own favourite number of the month……2……two continents in one city separated by the 1,560 metre Bosphorus Bridge. What a city Istanbul is! 

Trump of the Month

There was lunacy everywhere if you scratched beneath the surface of the media-addicted Trump coverage.

Peter Mandelson (remember Mandy?) was unveiled as Keir’s new US Ambassador. “The United States is one of our most important allies as we move into a new chapter in our friendship,” Keir proclaimed. Yet Keir chose someone who described The Trump as a “bully” in 2018 and "reckless and a danger to the world" in 2019. Read the room Keir.

It was no surprise that an adviser to The Trump called the incoming UK ambassador to the US "an absolute moron". I can’t disagree and the appointment lacks a lot of logic to embrace the special “friendship.” Crazy.

Keir Rodney Starmer wrote to the UK's main regulators asking them to come up with ideas for reform that could boost economic growth. We are 6 months into his term and he is already asking for ideas. Presumably he has no confidence in the Budget doing any good and has now run out of ideas. Labour have had over a decade to get creative and here we are with a Government void of inspiration. Moronic.

Suella Braverman said in a radio interview when discussing illegal immigration that she has "seen the wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey." Errrrr……I am pretty sure that they are 1,200 miles apart and don’t share a border. What next……geography lessons from the Flat Earth Society?

Perhaps Suella attending The Trump’s inauguration and seen wearing a 'Make America Great Again' cap explains her idiocy.

The most intriguing development was that of Tulip Siddiq. For all of the complexities and subtleties of the story (and there are plenty), the inescapable crux of it was something even the most polished public relations executive would struggle to add much gloss to. The investigation, by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission, is looking into claims Tulip Siddiq's family embezzled up to £3.9 billion. Tulip’s aunt (Sheikh Hasina) was the country's Prime Minister at the time of the embezzlement.

Tulip is the Economic Secretary to the Treasury with responsibility to drive anti-corruption……but is now named in a corruption investigation! You really couldn’t script it. Anti-Corruption Minister……perhaps Tulip simply misread her job title and thought she was Minister For Aunty Corruption. I’ll get my coat.

She is now the ‘former’ Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Awkward.

Clearly these are all worthy candidates for services to stupidity……but the Trump of The Month could only go to Donald John Trump……again. He simply takes absurdity to a whole new level……just look at his first week in office.

His craziness is summed up perfectly by his relationship with Elon Musk. Four minutes into the new presidency, The Trump invited the richest man in the world to speak at his inaugural parade event and Elon Musk gave a 'nazi salute'……twice……and The Trump never flinched.

Just the next 207 weeks to endure until this folly is all over.

Trump Lunacy Rating: 10 / 10

 

And Finally……

“History repeats itself and that's just how it goes.” J. Cole.