Britain stuck with high inflation, meagre growth..

[Paddy]

I'm starting to make the best of it; luxury cars are cheaper than ever, restaurants are offering good deals for the set menu and now that the rich babyboomers are getting too old to climb the stairs in their mansions, there are some very nice houses on the market at almost affordable prices. As long as you can stay in work, this recession thingummy can be OK. It is very boring to keep reading about it though.

Short term you may benefit. Long term it is bad for everyone. In the last few months various friends have lost their business. One restaurant, one florist, one car showroom (established 30 years) one coffee shop.

[OwlHoot]

We need a big "buy British" campaign, along with the support for manufacturing to make the goods to buy at a competitive price.

Jobs making stuff.
People spend the money buying stuff.

It wouldn't work - Most people are cheapskates, and to be fair there are so many things that need buying, that almost everyone will always choose the cheapest tat they can find. Inevitably even tat would be more expensive if British made, given the tax rates and energy costs.

[Scoobos]

Cut spending by at least 1/3rd
Possibly lower tax if possible
Slash regulations all over the board (particularly employment regs)
Abolish the BoE (money base to stay the same and the market to set interest rates)

Or in other words, sell the population out to becoming little worker bees for no reason other than GDP, of which they see a very small fraction. Oh hold on, that's what we are doing by lifting restrictions on various EU workers from struggling countries, and bringing them in to work for a pittance.

Cheap labour, marginalising the local british workforce and compounding the recession in the name of quick bucks for the proportionate wealthy few.

Inequality of wealth is now growing worse than ever. It's not just the gap between the absolute bottom of the working class and the upper that is growing now, but its becoming a 2 class country - those at the very top and everyone else.

In my local paper (im in surrey at the moment) I'm reading about Middle class repossessions going through the roof.

[Scoobos]

It wouldn't work - Most people are cheapskates, and to be fair there are so many things that need buying, that almost everyone will always choose the cheapest tat they can find. Inevitably even tat would be more expensive if British made, given the tax rates and energy costs.

It works in Aus, but they have a special kind of "20 years ago in britain" attitude IMHO.

[Mich the Tester]

True enough...

It's boring reading about it and depressing


Mind you - I can't say I'm any the wiser as to a solution after reading all those posts. You lot can't agree on how to fix it.

Dunno either, but I think a lot of very large businesses need to become much less bureaucratic, quicker and more responsive to customers. Sounds pretty standard, but I think a lot of corporates have become as slow and stodgy as government organisations.

[SupremeSpod]

The great British public would certainly NOT pay for goods manufactured in Britain. If we produced consumer electronics over here, there is no way in hell that we could afford to compete on price - our labour, energy and business costs are way too high.

We could match the quality, but not the price.

The Raspberry Pi is now manufactured in South Wales at a plant owned by Sony. Production was moved from China and the price didn't increase... It can be done...

[RasputinDude]

I think that the best thing our politicians could do is stop being so hostile.

Our culture at the moment is hostile to business, it is hostile to entrepreneurship and it is hostile to self reliance. We are culturally hostile to 'the Rich' and to 'the Poor'.

Until we stop being so hostile to everything that isn't the way that we think it should be and start bigging up successful business, supporting entrepreneurs and lauding those who set out on their own to be independent risk takers; until we stop throwing rocks at 'the Rich' and degrading those who need financial support from the state for some reason or other, then I don't think we will get out the mire that we are in.

[fckvwls]

I think that the best thing our politicians could do is stop being so hostile.

Our culture at the moment is hostile to business, it is hostile to entrepreneurship and it is hostile to self reliance. We are culturally hostile to 'the Rich' and to 'the Poor'.

Until we stop being so hostile to everything that isn't the way that we think it should be and start bigging up successful business, supporting entrepreneurs and lauding those who set out on their own to be independent risk takers; until we stop throwing rocks at 'the Rich' and degrading those who need financial support from the state for some reason or other, then I don't think we will get out the mire that we are in.

Let's all hold hands, sing kumbaya, get high, shag a lot and love everyone. Sounds like the makings of an economic wonder plan. Do we have to include George Osborne though?

[DimPrawn]

The actual answer is the previous growth and prosperity was an illusion based upon continuously borrowing from the future to pay for today, fractional reserve banking, ditching the gold standard so that money is not tied to value, etc.

There is no solution, this is the new paradigm.

So just enjoy what you have, party, have fun, smile, go out, travel, and stop worrying about it. You didn't cause the issue and you certainly won't solve it in your lifetime.



PS And whoever you vote for won't make the slightest bit of difference. They just want the credit bubble to pump up again.

[RasputinDude]

Let's all hold hands, sing kumbaya, get high, shag a lot and love everyone. Sounds like the makings of an economic wonder plan. Do we have to include George Osborne though?

You can mock if you want, but what I mean is that there is very little confidence in the country at the moment. We've had four years of continuing bad news and people with no confidence don't start businesses, innovate, expand or try to improve themselves.