I wish this U-turn had been for the right, or for even vaguely altruistic reasons. For instance, ‘we’re using those funds to pay for a bit of social care and free-up some hospital beds, treat refugees vaguely humanely and triple-lock increases to benefits as well as pensions’. It was forced upon them, of course, by the many MPs, especially the Red Wall brigade, terrified of losing their seats having heard the PM’s disastrous interviews with local radio stations in the run-up to the conference (well worth a listen, the lesson being ’never assume’). Kwasi’s hob-nobbing with City types in the aftermath of the announcement last week didn’t help the cause, but perhaps they weren’t that bothered anyway, as markets rose rather than fell when the reverse-gear-change was announced. A silver, or perhaps vaguely bronze, lining.
“Bank of England holds rates steady at 5.25% as inflation concerns persist”
So interest rates are staying up here, and, as importantly for us, our investments and the rest of the world’s economies, in the US as well. Accentuating the positive, they haven’t gone up and consensus is that they have peaked and may well start to come down at some point this year. In an election year governments.
