I think it is great that, even though many of us are going to struggle to keep our businesses going forward, pay for heating, afford the new mortgage rates, put food on the table, that we are now going to pay out other countries again for historic events linked to climate change.

Who saw that coming!? grin

I did say the monetising push of the green agenda would be in full flight once they realised the people had got bored of Covid and the war.

Oh, and the Universal Basic Income conspiracy...

EXCLUSIVE: Rishi Sunak urged to examine universal basic income to protect Brits from future crises

Had a rather interesting discussion with lots of retailers yesterday, the situation is looking very, very bleak for many.

Mortgage rates for many of us are based on a tracker, around 3.5-4.5% above Libor rate.

Most have seen an increase of around £10,000-15,000 so far, and a few considerably more, lots of the southern retailers are seeing 30,000 increase.

Energy is a big worry. Quotes are getting stupid, some are being quoted close to £2 a unit!!! These same people were paying around 10-12p 12 months ago.

People don't know what to do. Many don't want to commit to next season so have decided to have their January sale and close the doors. These are ... were ... good businesses.

We have jumped from £8100 interest pa to £17976.

Energy up from £4000 to £12000 when we come off our deal.

Oh, and another thing, business in retail has dropped off a cliff this week. Everyone is saying the same.


I spoke to a few car dealers this morning, suddenly died last two weeks. Bubble has burst.

One has been slowly reducing prices on some of the most sought after cars, the ones that everyone was desperate for, the ones with 18-24 month new wait times, he said they have reduced some of those by 25% now and still no bites.
He said the worst is that the 4 and 5 year old cars that before Covid would retail for 30-50% of new list, that have been selling for 70-80% of new list are falling back to where they should be and bloody fast. He said there are going to be a hell of a lot of dealers getting their fingers seriously burnt.

I offered £33k on a 997.2 Porsche 911 with 64k miles on it 3 weeks ago, and he laughed at me. He said it was a £40-45k car all day long and wanted £38k absolute minimum.
Well, it is now on the forecourt at £33995 and I can get it for is £33k, and now think that is too much. It has sat there for 2 weeks.

Also my autotrader I have had 2 or 3 pages of cars saved over the last 3 months and every day 6 or so cars get sold, with none of them on there for more than 2-3 weeks.
The last week, not one car has sold, they are all still on there.

A 991 911 that was £54.950, which is the oldest on there, 5 weeks or so, is now at £46,948 (god knows why 948? grin).
At £54950 it was too expensive imho, and in others eyes it seems too, but I would have been interested at sub £50k. Not now.

A private sale 997 at £28k now down at £23950. Seems like a massive price reduction, which tells me not a single call or all calls of offers in low 20's.

I was offered £29k on a 2016 Macan in August from WeBuyAnyCar, and £31k from Porsche Norwich.
WBAC had that at £26k two weeks back and now at £22800 today.

For now I am sticking with my older, paid for cars, that owe me nothing. I'm sure many will be doing the same, it may happen over the next 12 months or so as it hits home personally, but I'm sure it will happen.

Now I understand that this is first world problems and all that, but the reality for many is they are talking about simply not being able to afford any car, or needing to get out of their financed car that was 40% overvalued and they are now stuck.
We are a debt nation (world even) and many are going to struggle with their debt going forward.

We really, really need to start listening to all the retailers and those in hospitality, because every single economic crisis that has been before has always been forewarned by these sectors, we see it first, and it is always ignored.

I'm in the extremely fortunate position that I have enough money sat there to buy my commercial property outright avoiding the huge monthly increases, and I have been able to pay off my mortgage into an offset savings account, left £30k short as they still take monthlies and want access to the money if needed. But many, many more out there are not in this position and are seriously, seriously worried how long they can hang on for.

We need to start talking about how we can make life easier for people here, in the UK, not how we are all going to suffer for 'the greater good' for some event that might happen in 50-100 years. People need to feel secure, and now.

I think it will all be OK, but we mustn't wait till it is too late for many as we usually do, we need to start acting now.

No Darling, I've had it months!