In 1989 you could get (and I did) 17.5% interest for money on deposit at your High Street bank. The Bank rate was 25%!!!!!! and it was like that for nearly a year. What that re-affirmed was that do not borrow from a bank, any bank, unless you have a strategy or get-out.
With base at 0.5% this recession is somewhat less frightening. But it is true today as it was back then, if you borrow a £1 you will have to pay it back eventually. With interest. It has been proposed that we should tax on what we spend and not on what we earn. I think that is an excellent idea as I have a reasonable income. However it will not happen. A person on £400 a week will spend most of that £400 on living. A person on £1200 a week may or may not spend the 'extra'. He/she has a choice. HMRC do not like this. HMRC wants that money. So 'government' of all colours is fixated on taxing you on what you earn.
Years ago Maggie T was going to reduce the price of diesel to match much of Europe. This suddenly changed, I suspect, after the then equivalent of HMRC pointed out how much it would cost the exchequer. Now we have diesel costing some 8p/l (36p/gallon) more than petrol. This has little to do with cost of production.
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