Rolling UK Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

No, I'm just bored of your doom and gloom.

Fair point. Though you maybe should expect a little of that on a thread called 'rolling UK economy into the shitbin thread'

the 'Rolling Street Style / Fashion Blog Thread' is quite cheery at the moment though, that is balancing things out somewhat

Is Thomas Cook a public company? If so they have an obligation to say things are going tits-up if they are going tits-up.

It's something of a red herring anyway as people won't stop booking holidays until things begin to bite, and they haven't bitten yet. And even then, holidays aren't the first thing people tighten their belts on unless they're actually made unemployed. I see no reason why holiday bookings wouldn't be holding up at this point in time (especially as this statement is retrospective anyway).

This is true, its more that im interested that their model survives when people can book things separately

Is Thomas Cook a public company? If so they have an obligation to say things are going tits-up if they are going tits-up

working a treat for alliance & leicester!

"england's second-largest widget retailer says customers abandoning its useless widgets in droves"

I believe Glen Campbell had a song about that, "Widget Alingment"

"Widget Alignment" even

And even then, holidays aren't the first thing people tighten their belts on unless they're actually made unemployed

Really?

i haven't been on holiday since 2005. this isn't really a money thing, more a being mental thing.

I'd say so - people tend to to value holidays very highly in this day and age. Your average family, if tightening the purse strings, is more likely to tighten them elsewhere so they can still afford a holiday ("we can wait for that new furniture?", "do we really need another TV?").

Of course, they may book cheaper holidays as well but Thomas Cook can still spin that as 'number of bookings remains high'.

(This is only true up to a point of course, but I don't think we've got to that point yet)

Unfortunately most families can't wait to pay those steeply escalating electricity, gas and council tax bills.

I aim for at least four holidays a year.

Thomas Cook can still spin that as 'number of bookings remains high'.

Is Thomas Cook a public company? If so they have an obligation to say things are going tits-up if they are going tits-up.

EXACTLY

though 'spin' isn't really working for Bradford & Bingley right now

We go on The Sun holidays - £38 for 4 nights! It is the ONLY thing The Sun is good for. Laxalt - you're right - why do I look at this thread? The same reason I pick up the Express sometimes - just so I can tut tut I suppose.

Your average family, if tightening the purse strings, is more likely to tighten them elsewhere so they can still afford a holiday ("we can wait for that new furniture?", "do we really need another TV?").

these are all things that have been increasingly paid for with credit. those lines of credit are being withdrawn quicker than harry kewell on a match day right now

Bradford & Bingley evidently didn't take hedge ineffectiveness into account(s).

Laxalt - you're right

No he isn't! He did the same "We're all doomed" routine, on the Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread! And they weren't all doomed!

Look no one's saying everyone in the UK is going to be sacked and we're about to enter a Great Depression where we have to huddle together for warmth and eat rats, they're just saying lots of people may be laid off, the economy might slow or perhaps shrink and we'll be through it after three years. Jesus.

that is exactly right

even the head of the bank of england is saying it. depends on your definition of 'shitbin' i suppose.

I meant he was right about the title being indicative of its content.

I think also that 'shitbin' offends me. It reminds me of all the HYS posts that start "This country has now officially gone to the dogs".

would you prefer "the dumper"?

dunno about 3 years, most other times its really been more like 5 (though the periods of 'technical recession' are often around 2 if you don't count below inflation growth, which is still pretty poor). i think it will be worse this time as the credit expansion period has been longer and fuller, but whether this means a heavy short(ish) recession, or a longer less immediately sharp one, only time will tell

No, what's going to happen is that everyone in the UK is going to be starved in order to subsidise the lifestyles of hedge fund managers and shareholder pension fund subscribers and then made to eat rats in the workhouse. Jehovah.

I think also that 'shitbin' offends me.

merely copying the US title. i wouldn't have chosen that word either, otherwise

Will they be eating these rats on their holidays?

'Rats abandon failing Britain'

Quipped Geldof at Gatwick: "Too much f***ing tax!"

but if anyone doesn't like it, i think maybe we should start a list of things that are good about the uk economy

1. Whiskey Distilleries

i'm going to need your help for the others:/

or, if we can't manage good things...how about 'things that are more promising here than in the USA'? i'm stumped

Where do they distill whiskey in the UK? Norn Ireland?

Biosciences and shit will probably be okay.

i think we kind of are in the shitbin; HYS talks about symptoms mostly, but it's a country with a now very wide gap between rich and poor, a middle-class living on credit based on their overvalued houses, and with a public sector now insanely in hock (enron style, off the books) to its private-sector 'partners' and consultants.

What is HYS?

Technology sector will probably be hit less hard as well, especially if not too reliant on the consumer or individual big business customers.

(xpost - BBC Comments Box mentalists innit)

have your say -----> I think also that 'shitbin' offends me. It reminds me of all the HYS posts that start "This country has now officially gone to the dogs".

-- Ned Trifle II, Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:46 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Where do they distill whiskey in the UK? Norn Ireland?

scotland? ok i was clutching at a straw

Whisky!!!!!!!!!!

oops!

"Shitbin" was first used to bash the Bush administration = it is an liberal word. Official right-wing parlance is "hell in a handcart".

Since most of HYS is written by a curious alliance of ILxors and bored BBC staffers I don't think we need to pay it too much serious attention.

Have Dolcis gone under? Or are they being taken over?

Are they one of those companies that are to pricey to be budget, but too cheap to have cachet? Would think such a store should do ok in middle england though, all the same.

Into administration: "the first big high street casualty of the credit crunch".

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article3228324.ece

"The writing was on the wall when the foreign rubbish started to flood in and shoes gave way to trainers, it all seems like "LIFE ON MARS " now the end of another British era.

Steve, coventry, uk"

That Poles Depart story (do you see what I did there?)

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=98895&in_page_id=34

There was a time when East European migrants looking to boost their finances felt Britain's streets were paved with gold.

But now it seems these shores have lost their economic lustre and the Poles are going back home.

Our weak pound and failing economy combined with a boom in Poland is tempting many to head East, say Polish economists.

The news came as the Bank of England predicted a tough year ahead with growth slowing dramatically and inflation remaining high.

'Many Poles left for Britain when British salaries were four times higher than Polish ones. But now they are only twice as high,' said Alfred Adamiec at Poland's Noble Bank.

A mass exodus was unlikely, but the Poles are going rather than coming, said Dr Jan Mokrzycki, head of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain.

Those who failed to save up money in Britain can now return home without the 'stigma of failure', said migration expert Pawel Kaczmarczyk.

But it's not all about the money, reckons Adam Pniewski, 28, who returned to West Poland, this month.

He said: 'I've had enough of doing nothing but earning money. It's more important to live among people that love you.'

An estimated one million Poles have come to Britain or Ireland since 2004.

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02/PolesAN_175x125.jpg
Fewwer(sic) Poles now check the small ads

Sales of M&Ms and Coke remain strong.

Credit crunch not really all that relevant here - Dolcis has been struggling for years and had zero brand equity anyway. People don't want shit mid-market when they can go to Primark, or whatever the equivalent for shoes is.