UK fastest growing major economy in the developed world

It's smoke and mirrors bullshit !

But the economic indicators aren't always positive are they?

I'll believe it the day we close down the last of the food banks , because they're not needed anymore.

Fair enough if you don't believe the figures but even if the economy is growing at 3 or 4% pa, it doesn't mean that some people won't need to use food banks.

That's my point. The economy's growing (and I believe it is) so where is the money going?

to the rich

Hmmm I remember the last time we were outperforming the rest of Europe....saying that Germany should copy our economy...a couple of years before the crash I think.

This economic growth figure is relevant to who?, not  the bloke working 60 hours for minimum wage and still having to claim benefits to get by.

Are food banks needed?

913,138 people received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks in 2013-14 compared to 346,992 in 2012-13
Figures are ‘tip of the iceberg’ of UK food poverty says Trussell Trust Chairman
83% of foodbanks report ‘sanctioning’ is causing rising numbers to turn to them



It would appear we do !

The UK has the third best chance in the western world of getting an Ebola outbreak, according to the BBC.

One way of reducing the annual benefits bill.

Tbh, I'm as concerned about TB as Ebola

Tuberculosis, once eradicated, made a welcome return to east London about 6 years ago, but keep it quiet.
Mentioning those that bought it in may be deemed as racist.

London is the TB capital of Europe and I'm pretty sure Newham has the highest rate in London

It must be clear now just what an economic plus immigrants are to the uk.

as I keep saying,    #recoverymyarse

i_agree_with_nick    08 Oct 14 16:57 
London is the TB capital of Europe and I'm pretty sure Newham has the highest rate in London

If it hasn't, get your money on Tower Hamlets (next door to Newham) it's a 2 horse race with 28 other Boroughs who are 66/1.

I think we are experiencing a recovery - of sorts.

I suspect it's being fuelled by low interest rates which makes consumers more inclined to spend on credit and dip into savings. This in turn, fuelled by rising house prices, leading to consumer confidence.

As it happens, yesterday I was looking at a table of average property prices in London.

Newham was second lowest and only just ahead of Bexley. Lowest was Dagenham and Barking.

One of the things rising house prices achieves is higher rents in London first, followed by the rest of the country, which puts the housing benefits bill up.

If you were an employer, would you pay your staff a proper living wage?
Or let the taxpayers pick up the bill, who are currently paying £28billion a year paid in Housing Benefits to working families?

Facts 08 Oct 14 12:51 Joined: 05 May 03 | Topic/replies: 15,351 | Blogger: Facts's blog
I'll believe it the day we close down the last of the food banks , because they're not needed anymore.

  They will be needed as long as we are in the EU and not in control of our borders.

i_agree_with_nick    08 Oct 14 17:38 
As it happens, yesterday I was looking at a table of average property prices in London.

Newham was second lowest and only just ahead of Bexley. Lowest was Dagenham and Barking.

Because, despite the fact they call it a London Borough, it's not in London, and the prices reflect that. 

We paid £300 a week for a small family house in Newham while waiting for our house sale to finalise. That was because it was a short term contract, we were there for a few weeks only. But that was 9 years ago. Proper cost is probably the same now.

Yep.

Leaving aside the debate about whether or not it's in London, I assumed Newham's prices were inflated because of it's fairly close proximity to the City, Docklands and central London.

Our first house in Newham was a 100 year old Victorian terraced property for £80k. It would have cost more but I bunged the bloke in the estate agents to put everybody else off by telling them all there I was a higher offer.
Sold it for £132k.
Next one was a larger and newer property for £140k.
That sold for £245k.
That was all in just over 5 years, and in 2005 we left London, this time for good.
The bloke who bought it sold it about two years ago, despite prices slowing down, for £320k.

You can imagine what this would have cost at the start, and made at the end, in a rich borough.

For example: the floor space in the Sultan Of Oman's flat near Hyde Park was a lot bigger than the floor space of our 4 bed house and the garden.

83% of foodbanks report ‘sanctioning’ is causing rising numbers to turn to them

What is "sanctioning"?

Stopping somebody's benefit.

The way I see it the only way a homeowner in London will see any benefit from rising prices is if they sell and move to a less expensive part of the country. If I owned a house in London and wanted to stay there and at some point upscale I would want to see property prices falling. It would mean the house I might want to move into would fall in price more than my existing house.

paddletoe
08 Oct 14 19:14 
The way I see it the only way a homeowner in London will see any benefit from rising prices is if they sell and move to a less expensive part of the country.

And that's exactly what hundreds of thousands have done.

Sounds like "win-win". Money in the bank and getting out of the hell-hole called London.
I know families who have done exactly that and now can't believe the difference in quality of life away from the capital.

For functional purposes food bank use now is down slightly since 2006 ( when lending was booming and the recession hadn't yet arrived ).

Surely the supply of foodbanks goes a long way towards creating the demand for foodbanks.
Why bother buying food when someone will give it to you.

Where can I place my order to get some of this free food? I'd like some smoked salmon, fresh osyters and a nice bottle of Bolly. None of your cheap muck. Ask em if they do deliveries.

I saw a smart move by Tesco a few weeks ago where they had allowed a food bank to set up a stall for donations just outside the shop. The posters encouraged shoppers to do their normal shop plus a few extra items for the foodbank to be donated on the way out.
No doubt Tesco didn't part with a penny but had the benefit of extra sales.

I but extra tins of cat food for the Cats Protection league

They sometimes do this at my local Sainsbury's

there are only a few people in this country making any decent cash and it's normally the least deserving in bullsh^t jobs .

those poor buggers who work really hard and do something for the country rarely see the benefit .

beautiful  country is England ,but spoilt by a few grabby handed weasels

Since the dawn of civilisation there has never been a political system which has worked to the satisfaction of all the people. Facts and his left wing idealists frequently complain about how unfair life is in the UK but which country, past or present, got it right and where would anyone like to live now for political reasons, assuming of course that another country would let them in!

I'm saying any country that has capitalism at the heart of its government is failing the vast majority of people in that country.

So which country's political system would you have here if you could?

On a slightly different note and without taking sides I would suggest that the "poor" in this country have never been so well off. The current situation is far from ideal but it is not that long ago when poverty really did exist here. Anyone who watches "Who do you think you are" on TV will be aware of this. Last night's version with Twiggy showed her relatives in court for begging because they were starving. Fortunately some kind soul let the children have a cup of water and a piece of bread.
My own father used to tell me of not being able to go to school because it was not his turn to wear the only pair of boots shared between 4 boys and having to spit on his food to stop the other kids stealing it.

Yes Facts and the other left wing sympathisers please tell us which non capitalist country's government you feel has got it right. It's one thing constantly bleating "it's not fair" but give us an example where non capitalism works. North Korea perhaps?
Only joking.

The UK economic recovery is as believable as the Tesco annual results.