As you’ve probably noticed, there’s been a 2½ year gap since my last post. I shan’t go into detail, but suffice to say that I’ve had many more important things to do, unfortunately. I’ve also moved the blog to another platform, which should make it easier to manage and post to, even from mobile devices. Such is the power of Android.
Very little has changed in the meantime, except that the country’s on its knees, thanks to the Labour Government’s mismanagement and “light touch” regulation of the financial services industry. Not that the Conservative Party would’ve been any better – indeed, they were pushing for even less regulation. That’s conveniently forgotten about these days. Few would’ve thought that over the past three years or so that things would end up this bad.
I’ve always wondered if David Cameron or Nick Clegg anticipated that we’d see such a large decrease in living standards (or that incomes remain static or even fall, as household costs rise). While the economy was discussed during the leaders debate, as far as I can recall nobody admitted that the economy would end up in such a mess, and that the vast majority of the population would end up shouldering tax hikes and enjoying a severe reduction in public services, while CEOs and directors creamed even more money out of publicly-listed companies, and ditto senior bank staff looting from the state-owned banks we had the misfortune to bail out.
In better economic times, we’d have looked back at the premiership of Gordon Brown with humour; sadly, we don’t have that luxury. It was a time of abject horror, and this has become even more apparent in the 18 months since, not less so. His one saving grace was that he kept the UK out of the Eurozone; however, this is more likely to be due to accident rather than by design. A case of incompetence having a fortuitous outcome for once.
