GDP Quarterly Growth +0.2%

harryhound

I can remember buying petrol at 4 gallons to the pound and I think I got "Greenshield" stamps as well.
My dad used to get 5 gallons for a note, when he was trying to teach me to drive.
Mind you 15 quid a week was an average wage in those day - you could switch those numbers round if you worked in a Coventry car plant., (Wots one of those?)
But you had to fail the aptitude test to qualify for the job.

Sir_Humphrey

I remember when I used t' ride me mule downt' pit. She ran on nobbut bailo' hay, a farthing a day.

I allus remember time we 'ad her put t' sleep. Paid 5 bob fer 'er by local glue works.

(sorry).

WTF?_2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Don't be so bloody patronising. I know from bitter experience exactly how grim the 80-82 recession was and I hope this recession is not as bad as that.
The early 90's recession from my experience was no-where near as bad.
Maybe that was because i was not unemployed at that time and not a homeowner.

Perhaps for pedants out there, I should have said that it feels like we are at the start of a recession. It is usually only 6-9 months after the recession started that you can say that the textbook definition of a recession has arrived.

I never take much notice of what I read in newspapers but I know that thinks are already bad in construction & transport. Will things get worse? - without a doubt.
Will manufacturing suffer a recession? Possibly not.

I really can't believe that anyone who lived through the early 80's recession would want to put interest rates up at this stage of the economic cycle.

Well we are at the start of a recession. The country is screwed no matter what the government does next. Waaaay to much debt extended that will never be repaid.

This certainly doesn't 'feel' anything like the early 80s recession that I remember as a kid, or the early 90s one that I experienced as a fresh graduate looking for work but of course you only noticed it back then once it was all underway and actually affecting you. There wasn't the internet to inform yourself, nor media looking for TV slots to fill. And of course things are just underway - in a year's time I think it will 'feel' much more like my bad economic memories.

We currently have media overkill on the bad news aspect - because the media has decided to make the oncoming recession a big story and these days the pressure is on to present a film-like 'story'. However, there isn't (yet) the spectre of mass unemployment or poverty that is actually going to cause real pain for the masses.

Of course if people clued themselves in on the story behind the story (or the media would tell them), they'd be feeling a great deal more apprehensive. There are plenty out there who still seem to think that we are in a sort of temporary blip and all it is going to take is a quick change of government or policy to get back to 'normal'. :rolleyes:

All we can hope is that the government don't implement inflationary policies that get out of control because I have no doubt that they will try to inflate their way out of trouble and make the population as a whole suffer to bail out the financial system and themselves (massive government debt). It's the easy, short-term 'answer' and there is an election coming up which the government will do anything to win. Not to mention plenty of interest in indebted people wanting to see their debt eroded by inflation.

bo_drinker

Gordon Brown is finished, never really started. If Labour would do anything to win the election they need Brown out. The blokes a control freak, only trouble is it's all out of control now and he's no chance. No other political party would want to take over in the current climate. Time for change maybe, the best MP the Conservatives have is Brown, he can't dig the hole fast enough. I think I read somewhere he plans to spend his way out.

WTF?_2

bo_drinker wrote: »

Gordon Brown is finished, never really started. If Labour would do anything to win the election they need Brown out. The blokes a control freak, only trouble is it's all out of control now and he's no chance. No other political party would want to take over in the current climate. Time for change maybe, the best MP the Conservatives have is Brown, he can't dig the hole fast enough. I think I read somewhere he plans to spend his way out.

It's not just Brown - Blair was just as bad. In fact, the entire New Labour ethos seems to be 'we know best'.

Getting rid of Brown won't help them in the least. People are starting to get the sense of the problems behind the superficial facade of 'economic success' over the last few years. They're also sick and tired of seeing the amount of social breakdown and I'd like to think., have had enough of the increasingly prying 'surveillance society' that has crept in.

The only problem is that the Tories are likely to be just as bad, if not worse when it comes to just about everything. Cameron strikes me as a total populist, saying and doing anything to court public approval. Once they are in power, who knows what damage they will wreak?

bo_drinker

Couldn't agree more. It is frightening that there is nothing between the parties any more. When I was a kid they were miles apart. Jobs for the boys now. Never mind the state of the country.

Tassotti

Well, this is house prices forum, not politics forum.

But as we are here, they are all useless. If the treasurer has no qualifications or any understanding of finance, then help us all.

Ade able-finance

BTLNEWbie_3

!!!!!!? wrote: »

The only problem is that the Tories are likely to be just as bad, if not worse when it comes to just about everything. Cameron strikes me as a total populist, saying and doing anything to court public approval. Once they are in power, who knows what damage they will wreak?

You are right but remember Blair doing the same before he got elected,what was that song.................Things can only get better!
Whoever gets in power they are all the same, only thinking about themselves and what they can rip off the general public.

Treadmill

Shame Barack Obama is running for President of the US and not the UK. I'd vote for him.

bo_drinker

All part of the same s.hite. Tell them what they want to hear etc etc.