For the first time for many years, I will now be living in a constituency with a Labour MP – in Eltham and Chislehurst. This is not just because of the swing to Labour on the national scene but because of boundary changes. The typically true blue Chislehurst residents lost out to those in the poorer suburbs of Eltham.
Can’t say I am weeping over the loss of Liz Truss and Grant Shapps (an incompetent Minister) but the removal of Jacob Rees-Mogg removes one of the wittier MPs.
Reform actually did reasonably well with 7,000 votes in Eltham and Chislehurst but the lack of a proportional representation system meant that many voters are effectively disenfranchised. When will we get reform of our electoral system? Reform obtained many votes on the national level but only ended up with 4 MPs at the time of writing.
At least Nigel Farage got elected but as one Tweeter commented, this is like letting the fox into the hen house. He should stimulate debates.
The stock market is calm after the Labour victory. A period of economic stability is clearly anticipated. My main concerns are the likely future attacks on inheritance tax and capital gains tax. Removal of business property relief on AIM stocks would seriously damage the AIM market where I have a number of holdings. Not that I bought them because of the IHT relief but because I wanted some small cap stocks. But clearly others did and they along with some IHT funds might dump their holdings. This could be very damaging but also an opportunity to pick up some more shares at cheap prices. Something definitely to monitor closely.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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None of the Parties has mentioned inflation in their manifestos.
I have bitter memories of “The Wilson Years” when the old rogue talked about the “White Heat of Technology” and hinted that a Briton “could be the next Head of Opec”.
Instead the benefits of North Sea Oil were squandered, taxes rose (an eye watering 98% top rate on unearned income). Near Hyperinflation, strikes galore, the Foreign Secretary lying drunk in the gutter and a cabinet minister (John Stonehouse), who afterwards was found to be passing secrets to the Russians, doing a disappearing act to avoid paying his creditors. Britain was accurately described as “The Sick Man of Europe ”. The Inflation was merely blamed on Greedy Capitalists and the Gnomes of Zurich.
Which their lavish promises, Weasel Words on How it will all be paid for abd on everything else, I fear hisory is anout to repeat itself.