Boris Johnson - Page 4

If you lived in the UK you would realise the government is doing a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances - I spent time in Spain at the start of your lockdown - it was horrendous - then came back to the UK at the start of ours - we all behaved ourselves here without dozens of police patrolling - our figures are very little worse than Spain and we are a much more congested country with huge populations in the major cities. As for the population being confused - our politicians are treating us like intelligent adults - not locking us up like school children !!

. . . . . . . ahora, muy silencio ó Mattéo. . . . . 

pero no hay silencio de mi parte 😂

I’m sorry ... what planet, exactly, are you living on? Or should I be asking what you are imbibing? Because your post is really NOT an accurate representation .... this is borne out by recent poll figures that show 58% of people in UK now believe the UK government has performed abysmally, and BoZo the clown in chief now has a negative overall rating for his performance during the crisis.  UK is also ranked alongside the US as one of the countries that has demonstrated the worst handling of the virus.  Couple that with the UK now taking the “lead” for most amount of deaths per head of population, and I’d have to suggest that maybe your lenses are a tad rose-tinted ... just a tad, mind you ....

This government is a laughing stock all over Europe, their handling of the crisis has been abysmal. Are you by any chance a mate of Dominic Cummings?

Brilliant!

I couldn't care less what anybody in Europe thinks of the UK government - thank goodness we're out of the EU now. I think you might find things get very expensive for you now that we're not paying our contribution and Germany is borrowing billions and billions to cover EU overspending and corruption. Really hope your "wonderful" government manages to get your economy off the floor - I know ours will here !!

Newsflash! PN. The UK is still in the EU. Didn't anybody inform you?

You really ARE on a different planet!! I take it you haven’t seen the FT report today showing UKs economy is expected to perform worse than anywhere else in Europe.

Spain’s just been granted a rather large multi billion € boost for our economy by EU - 71 billion € if I recall.  Yes.  Glad UK is out of EU - they won’t have to prop up the floundering UK economy!!

The only reason UK government will get the economy “of the floor” is so they can flush it down the toilet!

Enjoy your privatized, sold-off-to-the-Americans NHS (and the lack of EU Doctors and Nurses to staff it), Chlorinated chickens and lowered food standards won’t you?

Now I am certain your a mate of Dominic Cummings, how’s his eye sight these days !

Correction to my post, it was The Times giving the OECD report, not the FT.  Article here, my thanks to Chrisso50 for the full article:

~

Britain will suffer the worst recession of the world’s 37 rich nation economies as GDP shrinks by up to 14 per cent this year and one in ten workers are left unemployed.

In its latest global forecasts, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks Britain alongside France, Italy and Spain, saying that all four countries will lose more than a tenth of national output to the pandemic in 2020.

The OECD, a club of wealthy nations that includes all the major economies, modelled two scenarios. The first assumes that the virus recedes and the second models a second spike in the final three months of the year.

In the benign scenario, the UK suffers the deepest recession of all OECD members, just ahead of France, as the economy shrinks by 11.5 per cent in 2020 and unemployment jumps to 9.1 per cent from 3.9 per cent at the last official reading.

In the double hit scenario, Spain and France fare slightly worse as UK GDP falls 14 per cent and unemployment climbs to 10.4 per cent. Germany and the US shrink by just short of 9 per cent in the worst case scenario. All countries recover some of the lost ground in 2021, with catch-up growth under both scenarios.

A second spike is judged to be just as likely as the virus remaining under control. Both would mean the deepest UK recession in three centuries, worse than the financial crisis for GDP and jobs. The jobs outlook is particularly bleak, with unemployment in 2021 still more than double present levels in both scenarios.

“The UK is one of the hardest hit OECD countries for three reasons,” Jon Pareliussen, head of the UK desk at the OECD, said. “It is heavily dependent on services, it was hard hit by the disease and it imposed strict containment policies.”

The developed world will bear the brunt of the economic firestorm this year. Globally, GDP will shrink 6 per cent in the benign scenario and 7.6 per cent in the bad one. Global growth rallies in 2021, by 5.2 per cent in the single hit scenario and 2.8 per cent in the worst case.

“By the end of 2021, the loss of income [globally] exceeds that of any previous recession over the last hundred years outside wartime, with dire and long-lasting consequences for people, firms and governments,” Laurence Boone, chief economist at the OECD, said.

“As long as no vaccine or treatment is widely available, policymakers around the world will continue to walk on a tightrope. Both scenarios are sobering, as economic activity does not and cannot return to normal under these circumstances.”

Growth does bounce back fast in 2021, by 9 per cent and 5 per cent for the UK in the single hit and double hit scenarios respectively, but the OECD assumes a level of permanent economic damage that goes beyond recent outlooks by the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Government borrowing spikes to 14.2 per cent of GDP in the double hit scenario this year and 12.4 per cento of GDP in the single hit one, delivering the largest deficit since the Second Word War in both cases and taking debt to 100 per cent of GDP.

The deficit only slowly improves in 2021. The OECD urges the government to protect growth by rolling into 2021 temporary universal credit changes, at a cost of £7 billion this year, and by investing in green and digital infrastructure.

To help businesses, future rises in the national living wage should be postponed and fast-track debt resolution schemes should be established. In the event of a second lockdown, “the government should stand ready to extend the furloughing scheme”.

As the economy reopens, the government needs to “tilt the existing policies in a different direction that recognises not all businesses will be viable in future”, Mr Pareliussen said. “You can’t keep companies artificially alive for ever.”

The report added: “While the government’s job retention scheme will preserve some jobs, it will probably not be able to fully offset lasting effects on employment.”

Eventually taxes will have to rise to repair the public finances, with the OECD recommending “increasing carbon taxation, reducing the tax wedge between self-employed and regular employees”.

Brexit remained a downside risk if a transition or a basic trade deal is not struck, but Mr Pareliussen said: “Compared to Covid-19, Brexit risks are fairly minor.”