Black Tuesday

Black Tuesday

Last night that pervert Iain Dale, the so-called number one political blogger, wrote a post about fingering a government minister. He got the story from the BBC website, where it was suggested that a minister has claimed he is prepared to resign. At ten I went down to watch the BBC news, it was all about banks collapsing in the U.S., and the power sharing deal between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. Then the BBC went to other news and there was a very brief mention about the possible resignation of a minister of state. Newsnight also led with the financial crisis.

For breakfast I had the last two rashers of bacon between my last two slices of bread, and made a cup of tea and noted that the milk use by date had expired by 5 days. All day I rolled my cigarettes from my emergency ration, a pack of Rizlas that had somehow got wet and all the gum had disappeared from the fag papers. For tea I heated up a tin of beans and noted that that best before date was two years old, and the milk had still not gone off so I had another cup of tea. The day before, I found some old ham and pork dog food in the freezer, so Rocky is surviving the state of emergency. As yesterday was the 15th of the month, and the Direct Debit of £17.98 for my internet connection was due, missing this means that the bill is outstanding and NatWest will charge me £28 for not having the funds in my account. And another £28 for being overdrawn. Yorkshire Water will take another £20, plus I will still have to pay for the internet connection, I make that £94 out of my £110 of my state benefit on Thursday is already taken care of leaving me £16 to last 2 weeks!

A friend brought me £20 around 9pm. I gave him 4 jars of home made blackberry jam. At £5 per jar, I suspect it was more expensive than Harrods.

I spend more than I earn. This leads to debt.

Obviously, I think about the state of the economy and The Great Depression of the 1930s, and the present financial climate, what with Britain's number one political blogger not having his finger on the political pulse.

I go into Tesco and buy 2 packs of 20 frozen sausages for a £1 each. Lay on the floor again to reach a loaf of bread right at the back of the bottom shelf. Buy some fresh milk. Then walk up and down the aisle muttering "I don't believe it!" several times, when I discover Tesco's own brand 100g coffee has gone up from 37p to 51p! In protest, I don't buy it on principle. Then I buy a 5 pack of Rizla for 86p saving 29p. The luxury of having gum on a Rizla for a change.

Why does the government need to borrow money if it collects taxes? Because its public expenditure is higher than its income of taxes. The rate of inflation is, in effect, an invisible extra tax. In the same way that my borrowing money only increases my financial deficit, so too with the government and its fiscal deficit. This only leads to financial instability.

This country is now financially in the worst position since the end of World War 2. There again, we can look on the bright side, as Iain Dale reports the BBC is reporting that a government minister of state is about to resign...