Is the UK going into mass decline?

No no no.

M&S are very, very far from making a loss.

In April this year they announced a profit for the year 2006-07 of £926 million. Even though the High St is slowing (but still growing nonetheless), M&S growth is still ahead of the High St average by about 50%

As for manufacturing - yes it is a shame that it has declined, but what's the point in having one just for the sake of it? None of us wants to pay five times the price for consumer goods that were made here in the UK when they're cheaper to import from abroad. It's not Blair or Thatcher's fault, it's everyone who's ever bought a Japanese TV, German car, or Swedish furniture. Economies are not fixed, they grow and develop according to needs and demands.

At the risk of being lynched by most on here, I don't think the Tories are entirely to blame for the "evils" of capitalism in this country. The 20th century seems to show that Marx and socialism got it wrong: the growth of capitalism didn't lead to the workers rising up and overthrowing the middle classes but instead the working classes are a lot more happier to try and get in on the wealth that capitalism creates, as they ought to be. Too bad the poor buggers who sell the Socialist Worker haven't cottoned on yet.

A few weeks of warm weather and a good start to the season by Tarn and the UK will see a lot happier again.

(pint)

 

well said that man

cannot do with moaners and groaners who will always be unhappy with the country,we are in relatively prosperous times,work hard,play hard and enjoy the riches that come with it,get on with it,this is 21st century Britain,stop the moaning and learn to live with it!!

 

Prosperous?

Interesting word that. Doesnt it mean successful? I assume this is financially. How much damage this short term obsession with wealth is causing we can only speculate. Personally i think there is more to life than a semi detached house, a Honda Civic and a Plasma screen TV but maybe thats just me.
Oh and not everyone is so prosperous. A third of the people in the UK are receiving some kind of benefits from the Govt in an attempt to keep up with living expenses.

 

You are right

There is more to life than a semi detached house, a Honda Civic and a Plasma screen TV.

A detached house, a BMW and an even bigger LCD telly!

 

Youre words of wisdom

Have changed my life!!!

 

The big problem is the fact that all these consumer goods, loans and mortgages are stacking up a massive amount consumer debt. Not so long ago it broke through the £1.5 trillion mark for the first time (£1,500,000,000,000). That's an awful lot of money that should the economy go into a slump at some point will have to be paid back to the banks. Given the fact the national economies are so intrinsically linked into the global economy that slump doesn't have to come through a 'problem' with the UK economy.

What goes up, must come down............

As an aside if you have the time id recommend watching this video about money and its history in the US and the role of the privetely owned Federal Reserve. Amazing stuff.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay...486&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

RE: Im no economist but

T E S C O

 

RE: Prosperous?

Rich Man's Blues

Got a twenty room mansion with my own drinks bar
a private pool and a dozen sports cars
but my life's all empty and im all confused
i just dont know why i got these rich man's blues

i own a yacht in bermuda and a private jet
i once lost a million on a race horse bet
i throw expensive parties to dine and smooze
but i just can't stop these rich man's blues

i drink pink champagne and snort some coke
from a crystal goblet and a fifty pound note
im as high as a kite but i ain't got no clues
as to why i've got these rich man's blues

now my gal's eighteen and a beauty queen
she ain't got no brains but she sure is keen
to max out my card on clothes and shoes
maybe ths is why i got these rich man's blues?

see i got everything i want but nothing i need
just addicted to spending i can't stop this greed
so i took me a holiday down to Santa Cruz
but even that couldn't stop my rich man's blues

when i got back home i found a letter on the floor
was from the bank and said i couldn't spend no more
cos my card they said had been way over used
and that this might end my rich man's blues

so they reposessed my home and took back my yacht
and the shirt on my back was just all i had got
then my gal she left when i told her the news
and now im poor and lonely but i lost those rich man's blues

 

Call centres are all coming home now...its the next big thing...

 

Thing is, you cannot compete as a business to Chinese wholesalers. As for protecting English business's, remember 1929....

 

RE: well said that man

Damn right, as Mancunian Tyke says - Marks & Spencers are on the up - and who could care anyway? If you can't afford M&S get down to Tesco, George or Primark - I'm sure the five-year-old kiddies who stitch their clothes for a bowl of rice a day really "enjoy the riches that come with it", eh?

Imagine all them young lads and lasses out in Iraq getting shot at or blown up so as McDonalds can open yet another f**kin' drive-through - I'm sure their families were thrilled about the equitable share of wealth that capitalism brings when they heard the announcement today that there's no money for the county coroner to help speed-up the inquests into soldiers deaths. Heaven forbid we might bring forward the closure that might provide the only consolation such families could hope for when we’ve an Olympic sized gravy train to subsidise.

I've no doubt they'd love to get in on the 'wealth that capitalism creates' (or the opportunities that soldiers getting killed create for capitalism, perhaps?) in order to provide flak jackets or the foam padding that prevents helicopters blowing up whenever a crow gets lost and flies into them.

I'm sure the Kwik Save employees will be thrilled at the prospect of not getting paid for a months graft especially when they consider the f**kers on the board there will be in a nice little directorship by Christmas. Meritocracy, y' see? You run a company into the ground and defraud a group of ordinary folk and it's a sure sign you deserve to get ahead! Trebles all round for the captains of industry, that’s what I say!

Or we could talk about house prices and how those who do jobs that are really important like advertising cereal or bankrupting minor African states for profit struggle to afford a cardboard box in the town they were born and bred while parasites like nurses, bobbies and binmen splash out on second homes in gentrified spots. Places where, fifty years ago, the middle classes would disguise themselves had they had to visit but now are all the rage (except amongst the natives, of course, who can’t afford them). Hang on, though – I think I may have got a bit mixed up there, someone help me out…

And to Mancunian Tyke's final rejoinder - I'm no Marxist but surely you remember "we will give them social reform or they will give us social revolution"? The Tory party's rationale for their support of the NHS / welfare state? We may well have rose up had it not been for such reforms yet, ironically, these reforms were a huge factor in some people's belief of their "middle-classness" (i.e. take away free schools, health care, etcetera and that middle-manager's wage packet doesn't seem as bulky now, does it?) - only sixty years into the "Real Labour" project and the government are already doing their best to turn these institutions into capitalistic, paying concerns with the support of the very people they have benefited the most and would suffer the most were that to occur. Lets see what the country looks like after the economy’s grown and developed in that direction even with a few weeks of sun…

And lest we forget those that really, really get left behind…

And to think McCarthy suggested that there was an “I’m alright, Jack” attitude prevalent today. Shame on him, eh?

 

RE: well said that man

(clap)

 

RE: Simple answer would be

Xerxes think you need to go and have some basic economics lessons on the problems that prohibitive taxes and your other suggestions cause. I think you'd find that in a couple of years we'd be in even more crap.

 

no, .....

....they lend nothing for money!!!!

 

I work with construction

companies and there are an awful lot of polish and east europeans in it now...cheap n cheerfull ???

BT

 

RE: well said that man

What do you suggest then?</p>

</p>

 

RE: well said that man

Would that be the qwik save employees who reviced their back pay this week?

 

Yes. it's a **** hole.

Developing economies move towards a tertiary economy anyway, but the way this has been handled in the UK has led to a very divided society. We've given young people the aspiration to work in a call centre or a life on benefits. Unless their parents can afford to live in the catchment areas fopr the 'better' schools - but of course Labour promote the comprehensive system. ********.</p>

The prevalent attitude is that it's always 'their' responsibilty to look after us down to telling us what to eat. if we get fat then it's not our fault. The Great British public by an large are a set of ignorant selfish *****. The children of Thatcher are now in a society with no standards and are loving it. </p>

We need an armed coup and establish a benevolent Monarch in charge and rid the country of the left of centre right on ******** that's ruining the UK.</p>

 

This has nothing to do with TARN.

It's an important time for TARN, when all TARN fans just want to know what's going on with the TARN.
Coming on here spouting off about non-TARN related rubbish only upsets the die hard 4.0 TARN fans.

Only post stuff about TARN.

I use cabbage as socks.

I worship the order of the toaster.

I hear voices in my head & they go quiet when I try to listen to them.

I own 4 paint rollers.