A letter to the chancellor
So the Governor of the Bank of England has to write a letter to the chancellor explaining why inflation has breached its 3 per cent limit.
This morning we want you to write your own letter to the Alistair Darling about your money situation - are you feeling poorer? And what do you want him to do to help you?
We'll send your letters on to the Chancellor and see how they compare with Mervyn King's letter.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~46~RS~)
Comments
Dear Darling,
You keep putting money into the economy and you are surprised when inflation measured by the fraudulent CPI.
Is it any wonder that my utility bills are so high. Every time somebody squeels you give them more money.
Next year I will be getting the winter fuel payment. Why? It would be better if the utility companies had price controls placed on them. If the price goes up and the pensioners suffer you give them money. Stop the prices going up.
If you give us money it is the job of corporations to take it off us.
Do you know what this is ridiculous. Why am I telling you that we are now paying the price for your predecessors 'prudence'.
We are not heading for stagflation we are heading for the repeat f the Great Detpression of the thirties.
Surely when prices start to fall, as they will, then we are heading for deflation with all the problems which that brings.
Best wishes
T A Griffin
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meant to type in after CPI continues to reflect price increases. What about the RPI, the real measure of inflation.
Sorry about that,
T A Griffin (Terry from Exeter)
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Dear Mr Darling
So the Governor of the Bank of England has to write you a letter because he has been naughty and let inflation rates go 1% over the target rate of 2%.
No loss of bonus for the Governor or any other personal sanctions then?
I couldn't see Sir Alan Sugar letting Mervyn King get away with just writing him a nice little letter because he has failed on his allotted task.
Meanwhile, don't you worry about us 'hard working families', I am sure we have all got an abundance of shares we can dispose of, or perhaps sell that 4th car that we never really use just to keep tabs with inflation which, you know very well, is way about 3.3%
Please, no porkys - tell us how it reallly is!
Marc in Maidstone
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Mine should have read:
"..Inflation.. is way above 3.3%"
Do I need to write you another letter for this little indiscretion in my original posting? You just can't get the staff eh, Alistair?
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Dear Chancellor
Over the past ten years when ordinary people have found the cost of living increasing at a level of double percentage points, New Labour must be congratulated on holding ‘inflation’ at figures such as 2% and now only 3.3%.
Whatever the term ‘inflation’ means to anybody, by falsely presenting it as a guide to economic performance, you have succeeded in emulating your esteemed predecessor in peddling an enormous lie to gullible and profoundly stupid journalists, especially those working for the BBC, knowing they will swallow it hook line and sinker. Thereby propagating the myth to the general public.
You have confused the confused eminently well. Those who actually have to pay their own bills are not baffled – except at how so many can fall for it. Still, as Hitler said ‘tell a big enough lie and people will believe it’.
Congratulations on being a true New Labourite.
Yours fauthfully
Brian Parsons
Gloucestershire.
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Dear Mr Darling,
I am sorry to say inflation has increased above the 3.5% limit, but in my opinion the actual level is 10.5% so as long as we keep telling the general public that it is under 4% we might just get away with another cover up. I think it may be a good plan for you and Gordon to have a go at me which will take the pressure off of you guys.
Perhaps increasing MP pay or exspences to cover the inflation may have problems with the public.
Yours sincerely
John Parsons
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Dear Mr Darling
I'm writing to you about the retrospective increase in vehicle excise duty that the government is planning to introduce for higher emitting CO2 vehicles registered on or after March 1st 2001.
I am someone who cares about the environment and with dwindling oil supplies and the debate over climate change, I can see the logic in applying higher VED rates to higher CO2 emitting vehicles at the point of purchase, therefore allowing someone who is purchasing a new vehicle to make an informed choice in the light of these higher rates. However, to apply these rates retrospectively is disgraceful.
It's hard to believe that a British government would apply retrospective taxation. It goes against all notions of natural justice. Car-buying decisions aren't made lightly, but to tell someone years later that he or she made the wrong choice and that you’re now going to cripple them financially is criminal.
When I purchased my current car, climate change was far less of an issue, so I made my choice accordingly. With mortgage payments, fuel and food costs soaring, I can't afford to buy a cheaper tax band, newer car. And even if I could, the prospect of these higher rates has at a strike knocked £thousands off the second-hand value of my current vehicle making it even more impossible for me to do so. Besides, as I’m sure you’re aware, a large proportion of the total CO2 emissions of a vehicle results from its manufacture; forcing people to sell perfectly good vehicles (even if they are higher CO2 emitters) to buy new ones will actually produce a larger carbon footprint overall.
In recent weeks, the government has claimed that it is listening to the pain of its people and trying to help them. If this is the case, I urge you to scrap these penal VED rates for older cars, which will hit many people who are least able to afford them and do absolutely nothing to help the environment.
Finally I would like to add that I have been a lifelong Labour supporter, but for me, this issue will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. If you implement this disgraceful tax rise, I will never ever vote Labour again.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Hamilton
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Hello Darling,
All that extra tax you took off me. Can I have it back please?
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Ok, I have studied maths but I am wrestling with this one and would appreciate some help from you Victoria.
On the radio (4 / 5-Live) this morning, we have heard the following;
Fuel - up 20%
Food - up 7-8%
Energy - up 14%
Interest rates are also higher than year ago, and yet inflation (according to the Bank of England) is only running at 3.3% !!
Help !!
What else do the politicians think we are spending much of our money on ? - can anyone throw some serious light on the government assumed "pie chart" of consumer spending please.
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My dear Darling
Like your predecessor, the last 10 years or so were good to me. Full employment, decent money coming in, low inflation. That sort of thing.
Unlike your predecessor, rather than spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave right through the good times, I’ve tried to put a little away. That's because, although I might not be smart enough to be Chancellor, I know that the good times never, ever last. So at the moment the current economic downturn hasn’t affected me as much as many of my fellow binge drinking, gadget obsessed, credit addicted citizens. In fact, my savings are attracting much better rates. Even the banks have remembered that customers that save need love and attention just as much as those that spend.
My advice would been to ride this current situation out as best you can and, when the good times return, try and put a little back for the bad times.
Chin up Darling!
Regards
Kev
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For the Attention of Mr. Darling
Dear Sir,
Here we go again.
As issued today,
Fuel - up 20%
Food - up 7-8%
Energy - up 14%
Fuel Drivers strike for increases in wages to £36,000.
This will then result in further strikes by other Unions, wanting a fairer share of the industries "profits".
An ever increasing spiral.
My income is £7,000 a year.
I still have to pay the same as everyone else for the above commodities.
HHHHOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW ??
HELP !! HELP !! HELP !! HELP !!
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hi chancelor we are the highest in eruope for fuel tax aslo road tax is going up every year even for small car why not do away with road tax and have some otherwayes of getting revune i work in the hotel industry the wage isnt great not as much as most industry some are getting three time my anuly salery u never here of hotel staff going on strike
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Dear Darling,
I am depressed. I woke up this morning to the news that the UK housing market is in free-fall. Apparently our houses have lost 2.5% of their value in just the last month alone, being the seventh month in succession that house prices have fallen. So, I’ve just had more value knocked off the house than I spent on the new kitchen and bathroom. Great. Just great.
And, of course, this all happens at a time when the oil price is going mad. It is SO bad that I am actually in two minds as to whether I can afford to go to work. Seriously. I have a fifty mile commute. That’s four hundred miles in a week (I work from homes on a Friday). And with the cost of Super Unleaded at something like £1.29 a litre and a fuel performance of around 20 mpg or so……
Thank goodness for the tanker drivers' strike or I would have been bankrupted already.
I know I could get a more fuel efficient car than an Audi TT but I do have an image to think about. And, there have to be some perks to all my hard work over the years! Now don’t all you planet huggers and eco-terrorists start on me when I’m feeling down. And, no, public transport is not an option. I live in rural Cheshire (the bit with the M6 motorway going through the middle of it) and the nearest bus service is a good two and a half miles away. The bus only runs on a Tuesday. And, it doesn’t go anywhere that I would want to.
Added to that, another joy of living the rural dream is that I now have to worry about the threat of someone breaking into my home heating oil tank and syphoning it all off. The cost of home heating oil (kerosene) has almost doubled in the last twelve months and it seems to have sparked a min-crime wave. We are not connected to the gas mains so we have no choice but to use oil. So, I can’t afford to go to work and I can’t afford to heat my water or my home!
So, we are economising. Economising mostly involves sacking (”letting go” was the term that my wife used) our gardener. The efficient and reliable guy who has mown our two expansive lawns and trimmed our hedges. Instead, this has become my job. So, a new petrol powered lawnmower (more bloody fuel cost) has been purchased and two hours or so of my life every other week or so will be given up to putting fresh stripes on the garden.
Indeed, we may well have to turn the side garden over to vegetables. Either that or try and sell it to the government as a site for one of their new nuclear power stations….
I can’t afford to drive. I can’t afford to pay someone to cut the lawn (please God don’t let the window cleaner put his prices up!). I can’t afford hot water or heating. And, it is becoming increasingly hard to afford to eat. Sure, rice, bread, and pasta costs seem to have also rocketed around the world. While the good old potato is being touted as the planet’s saviour, I am not allowed to eat them because of my summer diet. “We” are concerned about our bikini figure. And, thanks to bloody Jamie and Hugh I am now so emotionally scarred that I can only eat organic free range chicken from the Dali Lama’s personal petting farm, at the cost of an arm and a leg. If it wasn’t for Waitrose’s wine offers we’d be destitute…..
So it looks as if I have to sell the car, give up work, buy a shotgun with which to guard the oil tank, wrap myself in a Waitrose Bag for Life just to keep warm, and dig for England. It’s probably no bad thing. If you believe the other news headlining today, if I ever did step outside the front door I’d probably be attacked by a ten year old knife wielding crack addict! Always look on the bright side, eh?
Love
Middleman
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Dear Darling
You want an explanation why CPI inflation has broken the 3% level? Apart from imported higher commodity and energy prices you don't have to look any further than the actions taken by you neighbour in No10.
He destroyed pensions and savings leaving property speculation the only investment in town, leading to a bubble housing market.
He over saw an economy built on binge credit, where debt was underwritten by the bubble housing market, and the inflationary implications of this were only negated by the deflationary imports from China, though this gave us record trade deficits in the order of £80 billion a year.
He bloated the money supply figures by massive state spending and borrowing while the economy was already suffering from a credit binge . He also failed to get any sort of meaningful productivity gains from all the state spending.
If this wasn't bad enough he has loaded on costs and inefficiencies on the private sector with his never ending desire to meddle with the tax system, and your Governments desire to load costs onto businesses.
In other words our non imported inflationary problems has one source and its name is Gordon Brown.
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Dear Gordon – sorry – Alastair! (force of habit)
As requested, I am writing to you to let you know the reasons why the economy has all gone a bit Pete Tong lately. Although of course, you are the chief of a major Government department full of pointyheads and forecasters who probably know more about it than we do, frankly, and if you get stuck, then I am sure Gordon won’t need much urging to pop back from next door and micro manage you through it.
Well, it all started with a load of guys in the US selling mortgages. Nothing wrong with that, except that their customer base consisted of old guys sitting in cabin porches playing banjos, whose only collateral was a houn’ dawg (whatever one of those is) and a pickup truck.
So, it all got a bit scary for a while, especially when they tried to sell those debts on to the Northern Rock, as you know. We all fully supported you in your steely determination to ensure that the government didn’t bale out lame ducks (well, until people started jumping off windowledges in key marginals, anyway)
Then there’s the oil. Somehow, despite our brave lads going over there and helping George Bush to invade one of the most oil rich nations in the world, we’re paying £1.30 odd a litre for diesel while Americans are driving round at 55 cents a gallon and consuming the stuff like there’s no tomorrow. Which there isn’t. And that’s before Sheikh Mahboob and Sheikh Rattel-el-Roll got in on the act.
So nowadays, Northern Rock are selling mortgages just to people who want to fill up their car, let alone buy a house. Mind you, it’s an ill wind that has no silver lining, at least you are raking it in on tax and duty, AND you get to dress up the shortage as a green measure.
Fortunately, your government had the vision and foresight to press ahead and invest to give people a truly integrated world-class green transport system with lots of alternative ways to get to work that don’t use up expensive dwindling fossil fuels. Er, you did do that, didn’t you? Oh. I see. Well, yes, the Olympics are important, and swimming certainly will be vital in the future, especially if global warming carries on the way it is. And yes, I admit that the tax take from the present arrangement is certainly coming in useful what with wars to fight and ID cards to print…
Finally, I gather I have also got to tell you in this letter how long I think it’s all going to go on like this. As you know, I couldn’t really give a stuff because as I have said before, unemployment in the North of England is a perfectlay acceptable remedy as long as we can still have honey for tea in Surbiton. Which is just as well, because I haven’t got a scooby how long all this is going to last. How long does it take to weave a handbasket anyway? Should we put interest rates up, or down? Anyone got a coin? Oh… er
Yours ever,
Mervyn
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So Mr. King states "The Economy must slow to bring inflation back to target". Well at least we won't have to wait too long then!
The reality is that the BOE's MPC, by hiding behind their 'inflation management mandate' are going to sit on their hands and allow this economy to go into the deepest and most substained recession in living memory.
If they truly believe that their control of interest rates has an effect on inflation then they should all resign as they have clearly failed in their job. If, like anyone with a midicum of common sense and the slighest understand of the current economic situation, they admit that whatever they do they cannot influence this supply driven inflation, they should cut rates and cut rates aggressively.
It is just laughable that they sit there waiting for some sort of miracle. No one can pretend that a cut in rates will help mortgage rates come down quickly as the credit crunch is likely to continue but it will give the econmomy as a whole some chance or re-adjustment.
If the MPC thinks that they will gain any success or credibility by allowing a crashing economy do there job for them on the inflation front then their thinking is verging on the criminally negligent.
As for the chancellor and his completely discredited predessesor............haven't they done enough damage? There is a term for it as I recall. Oh yes! DO THE HONOURABLE THING!!
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Dear Darling,
Look you have to understand that wars cost money, lots of money, and we know of no war that has not resulted in inflation.
Those terrible foreigners are fighting an economoic war against us, and this is another war which we just must win.
So, every time Gordon Brown reads out the names of the dead on Wednesdays just remind him that nothing comes cheap.
Apart from the moral cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq we are now paying the economic cost.
T A Griffin (Exeter)
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Dear Victoria
i would just like to endorse all of tyhe comments made in Andrew Hamilton's email of today.
I am a pensioner in just such a situation, I drive about 4500/5000 miles a year and will be expected to pay £400 road tax on my car which I purchased 3 years ago.
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Dear Victoria
i would just like to endorse all of tyhe comments made in Andrew Hamilton's email of today.
I am a pensioner in just such a situation, I drive about 4500/5000 miles a year and will be expected to pay £400 road tax on my car which I purchased 3 years ago.
My neighbour drives 40000 miles a year in a older V6 Volvo and will NOT be subject to the £400 bracket.
WHO IS CREATING THE MOST CARBON IMMISSION ?
Derek Holdaway
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Dear Mr Darling,
Reading the comments already posted I think you have some work to do. I don't believe telling people you are trying to help them and not supporting it with action is going to work. I live in Fife, the PM's constituency, and have voted Labour all my life, no more. If you cannot see the direction that this Labour government is driving the country then you are either blind or foolish, I do not think you are either. You have already backtracked on one of the PM's mistakes, the 10p tax, and I believe that you can see many m,any other that need addressing. You will not be in power come the next election and I feel that the SNP will only strengthen it's hol;d in Scotland at the next election. Over the last 3 years this goverment has driven the NORMAL WORKING man to poverty while providing the slackers with everything they need to live their happy lives. The benefits system needs a massive overhaul to stop all my money going to people who contribute nothing, be brave and leave a legacy. I cannot afford a holiday, although I work all year.I have a car that I cannot afford to run because as an oil producing country we are paying the highest duty in the world but we are also paying tax on top of the duty, TAX on TAX the Labour way? I find it laughable that countries like Australia pay less for fuel than we do and they import it all!!! With the credit crunch and the high cost of everything from fuel to power to food to clothes, I would like to know what EXACTLY are your government doing to HELP us.....here's an idea. Why not drop interest rates by 1% and take 2p off tax, reduce the duty on fuel, and pull some of our troops out of Iraq. The knock on effect of this would be a stronger economy as people would have more money, helping small businesses, creating employment which generates more tax, stop benefit after 3 months, there are jobs make people work, more workers more tax. As usual all of these comments from all the people will be ignored, you will decide what is right for me whether I agree or not, you will continue with your plans with my money. I just want to remind you that your job is to serve to people of the country not bankrupt them.
Yours sincerelly
Potless
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Dear Alastair
I hope you are well. Tell me, are you still having difficulty with the neighbours at Number 10? I know he's made a lot of trouble for you but he means well.
Before I go onto the main subject of this letter may I say how much I enjoyed your portrayal of Miss Fitton, the Headmistress in the film The Belles of St Trinian's. You really must do this more often as it'll help you take your mind off things. If you don't mind my saying you've looked a bit peeky of late.
Now, you may have noticed that the CPI is running at 3.3%. I do not mind admitting that like you I was shocked by such a high rate of inflation. It occurred to me that the most likely explanation for this figure is that it is a typing error but my secretary tells me that 3.3% is accurate and has been typed correctly.
My colleagues and I are now at a loss for an explanation.
Mrs Murgatroyd, the tea lady, tells me that when her husband inflates it's because he's eaten too much, but I doubt that this can explain the CPI and in any case all the members of the MPC belong to weight-watchers and I am a regular attendee at 'bums and tums'.
A number of commentators have made reference to parallels between the current situation and the 1970s but as I have pointed out the comparison is a false one. The comparison would be valid only if Harriet Harman and Caroline Flint were to start wearing hot pants, and on the evidence to date I think this is very unlikely.
Yours sincerely
Swervin' Mervyn
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The banks letter to HMG should be.
Dear Broooon and Darling
your policies are making it impossible to keep inflation under control and we suggest you two twits resign
MK
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Dearest Darling,
So, inflation appears to have gone a teeny weeny bit above target. Not to worry - I have a solution!
When RPI got out of hand we created CPI. Now CPI is making us look a bit incompetent, so I propose we create the NPI... No Prices Index.
This time we'll take out food prices, fuel prices, energy costs... it a winner, I'm telling you!
I'll announce it as a more sensitive measuring given the current economic climate.. blah blah.... If we talk about it enough eventually it will become standard, CPI will become a distant memory, it'll look like inflation has dropped and I'll stop writing you love letters!
Hugs and kisses,
Magic Merv
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Dear Chancellor
I am utterly appalled at the shameful state of this country's economy and the false reassurances given in your budget speech, which I believe could be extremely detrimental to anyone who believed them.
We cannot put all the blame on the US housing market when our own was allowed to balloon out of control, buoyed up by the toxic combination of overly low interest rates and reckless bank lending, leading to rampant property speculation and misery for millions who were priced out of owning a home or else took on mortgages they couldn't afford. Now the market must be allowed to find its own level, which will be painful for many.
And to think that Gordon Brown promised an end to property booms and busts. It is widely accepted than all booms are followed by busts. Many learned commentators warned of the danger of the overheating UK property market, as early as 2003-4, but I cannot see that the government did anything to help matters.
I also note that most people talk of the US property market collapse as if it was a surprise but it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. In 2006 a friend of mine was advised by an IFA to invest in a US REIT and he's now thanking me for warning him not to. Yet I am a medical data analyst, not a finance professional.
As a saver and pension fund manager (of my own SIPP) I am fed up of being ripped off with low interest rates for the last 7 years. In 2001, my UK bank interest was cut by more than 50% - how would you like a 50% pay cut? Thank God for high-earning foreign currencies, especially now ours has been trashed. I am about 10 years from retirement and the cash in my SIPP is earning next to nothing, but it's risky to invest in the UK stockmarket now. Thank God for the foreign stockmarkets.
I don't even feel my cash is safe in the bank - why were they allowed to lend so recklessly? Why are they still making relatively high LTV loans in a property market that is so obviously in freefall? Don't we have the FSA to protect us from that? Even if my money is safe, what will it be worth in 10 years' time? And don't get me started on fiddled inflation measures...
I hope to hear back from you
A Saver
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Dear Mr Darling,
The government seems intent on controlling the economy using only indirect taxation and interest rates. It's rather like a car driver refusing to use the brakes. Why not use direct taxation to reduce the heat in the economy ?
This would not penalise the poorest but would reduce demand until the better times the Bank of England predicts
come around. The constant increase on indirect taxes - such as the silly fuel price increase must be seen as fueling
inflation, and taxing the poorest more proprtionately than the richer.
International bankers demand we reduce direct taxation - it's time to stand up and use all the armoury of the taxation system
to control the economy
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Dear Chancellor,
I am 67. I live alone on State Pension alone. I find it difficult to make ends meet. I eat little. I need more heat for my health.
I have had angioplasty and cardiac bypass surgeries over the last eighteen months. But I am still unwell and will be entering hospital again next month. Social services are of no help. Living alone is not helping my recovery.
Could you kindly increase the pension and lower food and fuel prices without delay please.
Why are you and the Prime Minister so cold to the plight of the vulnerable?
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Two comments,
1,.This so called government insists on using their own definition of inflation, the CPI( 1997), to lie to the country about the expense (s) of trying to live here. The real people know that we have above 10 per cent inlation. It is time that the Government realised this.
2. We are,at the moment, self sufficient in oil and gas. So why does this "government" ( small g) allow the cartel of OPEC to exist. Speculators are making a fortune out of crippling the finances of countries such as ours. The dollar is weak, so why should we pay. Recently, Supermarkets have been found guilty of price fixing, how does Opec stand and indeed our "government" in this respect.
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Dear Mr.Darling,
What are your thoughts when the voters,egged on by the sheep in the media who are on a current rabid anti Brown feeding frenzy,have been given the impression that oil prices,the US created credit crunch,prices of our privately owned utilities are somehow caused by goverment policies.
And as these problems are being felt in mainland Europe as well, would it be wise to tell the populations of those countries that it is not Gordon Browns policies that have caused their current plight.
I wonder if the goverment,or the media (nah, no chance ,the question's too obvious) were to ask Mr Cameron how he could have stopped oil price rises etc what his answer would be.
Methinks the Goverments 'spin doctors' 'gurus' or 'advisors' are crap.
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Dear (ex comrade) Mr Darling
See what happens when you and the other turncoats sitting in the cabinet abandon the socialist beliefs that brought you into politics in the first place.
When you act like a Tory you get classed as a Tory and the fact that a Labour government is bearing the brunt of this crisis of capitalism is exactly what was planned back in the 80's and 90's when the likes of Murdoch's media pretended to change and support 'New' Labour because it knew that the natural party of capitalism, the Tories would eventually be crushed at the polls as they were in 1997.
Now of course, (read the blogs above) the Tories are reviving, not because of their own policies but because of the failure of them continued by Labour; a key one being the surrender of monetary policy to the Bank of England and a monetary committee full of free market sympathetic gurus accountable to no one. Not even the Thatcher government had the courage to do this.
Now the ramifications are coming home!While Karl Marx pumps billions of pounds into the banking system to make it appear the neoliberal free market system is working, the elected parliament sits meekly throughout and totally impotent.
Due to you and your colleagues having completely capitulated your only means of winning credibility is to succour up to the financial press and fat cats even more by becoming more Tory such as blaming higher inflation (which is in fact stagflation) on higher wage demands and public sector worker militancy when in fact it is the very nature of the global profit system itself that is causing those higher prices!
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Dear Darling
Though our relationship is only a recent one, you have given me the push I have needed.
I can no longer rely on low interest and low prices to maintain my lifestyle. My debts have mounted, bills increased and I am no longer living the easy life.
I have to make sacrifices, compromise on some of the little things (and a lot of the little things).
What shall I do? I have supported you throughout my life, and now I find myself wandering. How can you say you support me? I am one of the working class, I have worked all my life and for what? Increases, debt and extortion at every turn.
I could cry at my loss, should I go to another? I cannot betray my roots and cannot cross the line, so I shall abstain from the next election.
Yours,
C. Hardy
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