The problem that Burnham has is that many of his backbenchers in Parliament are what is know as Corbynites (very left wing politicians) whose answer to everything is to ‘tax the rich’. Trouble is that the rich aren’t waiting around to be fleeced. This is a very typical Labour MP’s understanding of the bond market:
I seriously expect us to go running to the IMF for a bailout as we did in 1976.
Britain’s economy is on the brink.
Russia’s economy is on the brink.
China’s economy is on the brink.
Ukraine’s economy is on the brink.
Iran’s economy is on the brink.
Luckily the US economy is not on the brink, because we’re spending unimaginable amounts of money buying computer chips so we no longer have to think for ourselves, so we won’t know when we’re actually “on the brink.” It will just arrive, unannounced.
To say "Bond markets will have to fall in line " is incredibly ignorant. Barring Quantitative Easing (the Central Bank buying government debt) there is no way to force investors to buy government debt if they don’t like the low interest rates the government wishes they would.
Sorry!
Any politician who think they can force investors to “fall into line” is too ignorant of the bond market (and too stupid) to be in office.
Quite agree with this, but this is what we are stuck with at the moment. There are many Labour MPs who have the same view. Last year Starmer tried to push through some modest changes to welfare and ended up increasing welfare to head off a left wing revolt in his own party:
Keir Starmer has been forced to abandon the central plank of his welfare bill to get it past its first Commons hurdle, with a dramatic climbdown that meant he had to drop disability benefit cuts to avert a major Labour rebellion.
At the welfare payments in the UK exceed income tax receipts and Burnham, like Starmer, is powerless to do much about this. All the backbenchers in the Labour Party say is “tax the rich”, “bring in a wealth tax” or “put taxes up”.
This is why I think that the UK economy is particularly vulnerable at the moment. Many Labour MPs are members of the Fabian Society and just have Marxist economic tendencies.
The yields on our government debt are far higher than most other western countries and no wonder:
No other G7 rich nation pays as much as Britain to borrow. The ten-year gilt yield stands at more than 5.2 per cent and the 30-year-bond climbed as high as 5.9 per cent yesterday.
Bond costs gobble up chunks of tax revenues, push up mortgage costs and set the pace for commercial borrowing.
I’m glad I’ve got that gold and silver under the floorboards
In 1976 sterling was collapsing and the IMF bailout stipulated cuts in public spending:
In 1976, the minority Labour UK government of James Callaghan was ‘forced’ to borrow $3.9 billion from the IMF to stabilise the value of Pound. The loan was also accompanied with conditions to cut public spending and raise interest rates. It marked a symbolic break with the post-war economic consensus and was a reflection of persistent problems in the post-war UK economy. After the bailout, economic conditions turned around with an improvement in the current account, budget deficit and appreciation in Sterling.
This may be the only think that can save the UK economy at the moment. Burnham is between a rock and a hard place. I suspect that he is being told that he needs to curb spending but knows that he would not get this past Parliament.
The more militant sector of the Labour Party see growth coming from increased public spending:
Labour MPs have called for the Government to show less “caution” with the public finances and increase taxes on the wealthy.
In an intervention likely to pile more pressure on Britain’s bond market, a group of 100 Left-leaning Labour politicians said the Government’s obsession with debt and fiscal headroom is weakening growth.
Don’t forget that most of the US debt was caused by borrowing to fund big multi-trillion dollar tax cuts for the rich, and expensive multi-trillion dollar wars in the Middle East.
The Economy does not care what you spend on or why you spend, all it knows is Debit and Credit. “Tax cuts & multi-trillion dollar wars” are politics that get people elected and reelected.
Labour tax raids make US gas cheaper than North Sea supplies https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/09/05/labour-tax-raids-make-american-gas-cheaper-than-north-sea/ The cost of drilling and delivering new gas from the UK Continental Shelf is now about 50% higher than the cost of sending US liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe, according to analysis by Thunder Said Energy. This is despite the fact the American figure includes extraction, the cost of liquefaction and shipping the gas thousands of miles across the Atlantic.
Analysts at Thunder blamed the “totally crazy” oil and gas windfall tax first imposed by the Conservatives, and then expanded under Labour, for driving up the cost of production. This was discouraging investment and leaving the UK more dependent on imports…
Mass immigration that has led to the Balkanisation of many British cities. Large areas of some cities are like foreign enclaves. This is now moving into our political system:
Social tensions in some areas keep boiling up. We frequently get marches and trouble about things that are happening thousands of miles away. Here is a long list of pro-Palestine, anti-Israel marches in the UK:
Social tensions in some areas sometimes breaks out:
Disorder that broke out in Leicester over the weekend between Hindu and Muslim communities escalated as a result of social media disinformation and a distortion of facts, the city’s mayor has said.
Mass uncontrolled immigration over the past few years has meant that one in six people in the UK were born abroad. This has put an enormous strain on our public services, as well as contributing to social tensions:
One in six people living in England and Wales in 2021 were born outside the UK, according to the latest census figures.*
We have an open borders policy and so many from third world countries are coming here illegally attracted by free accommodation, mobile phones, food and a lot of other things all at the taxpayers’ expense;
These illegal immigrants are usually from countries that have totally different attitudes to women and children and this causes social tensions. Things are so bad that we have to give illegal immigrants leaflets explaining that rape, female mutilation and harassment is illegal in the UK:
At the other end of the scale young qualified Brits are leaving, just the sort of people the country needs:
As young people bear the brunt of a downturn in the jobs market, figures show a significant number are leaving the UK.
As explained above our economy is failing along with many other things in the country. Many areas outside the south east are now extremely poor.
Free speech is slowly being eroded:
A major free speech row erupted last night after it was revealed that more than 60,000 people have been arrested over the past five years for ‘communications offences’ – some as trivial as viewing disparaging TikTok videos.*
Two tier policing seems to be operating in the UK generally to the disadvantage of us white native Brits. Some say that this is not true but many believe it when they see police in action.
Christianty is under attack with the police arresting preachers for simply reading from the Bible:
Hate preachers of other faiths seem unaffected:
There is just a general air of despondency around the UK at the moment. going back to my younger days it seemed that life here would just get better and better, now the opposite is true.
I’m nicely tucked away in the countryside and quite well off so no worries for me. Younger members of my family will have to deal with what’s coming if they stay.
% of US that are immigrants: 15.4%
% of Canada that are immigrants: 23%
% of Spain that are immigrants: 20.7%
% of Germany that are immigrants: 26.3%
% of France that are immigrants: 13.8%
% of Great Britain that are immigrants: 19%
Yes, sounds like you are being swamped, with a situation that is totally anomalous with the rest of the world.
Or perhaps you’re being gaslit by politicians who are using a vulnerable population to score points among the racist and frightened voters. Dunno, hard choice.
The numbers alone don’t mean much. Much more important is whether they integrate or they try to impose their own culture. Don’t like it here? Go back where you came from!
I highlighted impose because bringing in new ideas is good, trying to impose them is not. Melting pot works, invasion does not. From what I have heard, Britain has capitulated to the invaders.
The real problems will start if there are serious economic problems. These frequently lead to social problems and in a highly fractured society like the UK these will be exacerbated by the current divisions.
I heard much the same thing years ago when I was told Vietnamese wouldn’t be assimilated and grouped together in clusters in some major cities. And I am reminded that there are several areas called Koreatown around the US, not to mention a myriad of Chinatowns in almost every major metropolis.
Ther is always the problem of “other”, it’s tribal, it’s a human instinct to trust the clan, and distrust the foreigner; it’s as old as the Bible - both Old Testament where you’re told to kill them, and New Testament where you’re told to feed them.
As far as a “fractured society”, I’ll just note that in the UK, about 84% of the populace sees the country as a divided nation, with 70% of the people think it is on the “wrong path.”
In the US, by contrast, 80% sees the country as divided, and 71% thinks we’re on the “wrong path.” Quite a difference, eh?
As for those who think Sharia law is going to take over, there is no evidence that such a thing is anywhere on the horizon, not even close, but it’s a terrific gaslighting tactic, being used by racists and morons both here and abroad. I note that they did the same thing with Mormons a century ago, and gypsies a century before that
It’s quite normal for people in a strange land with strange customs to hold dear to what they know; research conclusively shows that the next generation branches out, and the one after that is fully acclimated. Is it possible that isn’t always true? Sure. Look at Orthodox Jews in New York, or the Amish in Pennsylvania.
Somehow the Republic survives these terrible onslaughts.
Good lord, man, do you know why these people have immigrated and what they had to go through to do so? Hint: they didn’t leave their homes because they had a good life, with safe and prosperous economic opportunity.
No, it was bombs.
I don’t want to move out of my home because I’d have to clean out closets and box everything up. But let the bombs drop and I’d be carrying what I could on my back to wherever would take me. And so would you.
So, maybe it’s pesky wars that rich and powerful wage on the poor?
