The ‘meets expectations’ is the key here. The BofE feels obliged, as it’s their ‘job’ to keep inflation under control, to keep pushing up interest rates until it is. Removing your leg will eventually sort out your dodgy knee. Carpet bombing will eventually win a war. And making companies with borrowings have to lay off staff who can’t buy stuff anyway because their mortgage and rent have become so expensive, means in theory prices have to come down otherwise no one can sell anything. But at what cost. The next election, most likely. There has, surely, to be a better way.
“UK energy and food prices push inflation to 41-year high”
My memories of 1981 are of a great year, full of discos and Greek sunshine and friends. That was not the case for many others, who’ll remember riots on the streets of many a city, soaring unemployment and misery, particularly in the then-industrial north.
