The UK is dependent on the kindness of strangers, they or more precisely foreign investors buy 25% of government debt and it seems we don’t know why.
We like to think they are all long term investors like pension funds with an abiding faith in the stability and prospects of the UK economy, plus a deep regard for our political system. Or, they could just be spivs taking advantage of higher UK interest rates who will sell up at the first sign of a crisis.
The situation is not helped by the fact that the government is borrowing billions at the same time that the Bank of England is trying to get rid of the billions of gilts it bought to fund the credit crunch.
I suppose we just have to hope that such investors don’t know where Rwanda is or care about the Star Chamber, or Suella Braverman.
These things matter, although to be honest they didn’t used to matter before 2016. Before the Brexit referendum basic honesty, common sense, reliability, and trustworthiness, were taken as a given in the UK. The swivel eyed loons were kept safely locked in the attic.
Since Brexit the Conservative party in particular has turned from a broad church into a whole series of schismatic cults, willing to believe ever more ridiculous things, able to ignore real facts and data, to undermine the law and the constitution and all for impossible fairy tales.
I have seen Jenga towers that were more stable than this lot.
We must just hope the strangers stay kind to us, or maybe pity will be enough..
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media