How much it costs to rent a one bedroom flat in London? A British pensioner cannot afford it.

 

Today´s state pension can be about 1,000 Pound a month. The rental price of a one bedroom flat is about 1200 Pound, minimum. Then you have to account for other expenses apart from rental payments. So, really, the state pension does not allow pensioners to rent a one bedroom flat anywhere in London, capital city of the United Kingdom,

It usually assumed that by the time somebody retires the said person would own his or her own accommodation. This is not the case and it will increasingly not be the case as more and more people cannot afford to buy property and would have virtually no assets. This a ticking bomb. It is not by chance and/or by choice that more and more adults do not leave the home of their parents. Marriage as an institution if vanishing. Today, more and more parents are not married. It is also the case that vegetatve growth is below replacement rates. There are less and less children. Coupled with unemployment is the fact that there are less and less active workers and more and more people depending on welfare payments.

Monies to pay for pensions are disappearing and pension payments are not enough to have proper living standards. Once again, the clock is ticking. A consumer market that does not have spending power, combined with businesses that do make enough to manage to stay afloat with increasing taxation and other rising operational costs is not the way to Paradise. In spite of annual adjustments, retirees are getting a lot less in terms of that whey need to keep living standards.

Everybody should be talking about these issues, but most people live in cuckooland, oblivious in terms of what lies ahead.

Labour Tax: More and more tax as an alternative to less and less economic activity?

Lord Kinnock, former Labour Leader, tells Andy Burnham to get 12 Billiion Pound more by increasing tax. The former Leader, known for having celebrated electoral victory on the very evening when the Labour Party was crashed on the polls, is now suggesting that increasing the burden on wealth creators is the solution for a battered economy and exhauted Treasury. So Mr Kinnock´s solution to cure the patient: Kill the patient.

Britons have less and less disposable incoe or afraid to spend whatever they have left. Caution when it comes to spending is justifiable, especially when more and more people are losing their jobs or can hardly get a new job.

When businesses scale down their operations is not due to increased optimism, but to growing uncertainty. With so many unsolved conflicts and more conflicts on the horizon. When Autum comes, energy consumption will go up at a time when energy prices go up and down. How can you foresee what is happening next? 

We heard the headlines about "we are gong to do this, we are going to do that". Can the new Labour government deliver? Right at the time when Andy Burnham was appointed Prime Minister, pundits were saying "He is Labour´s last chance." Having obtanined a historical majority in 2024 with a lower percentage of the votes, Labour appeared to be an invincible force. A series of mishaps and bad decisions, brought down Keir Starmer, the leader that got the said historical majority. Andy Burnham will be touring across Britain in an effort to gather support, but he is starting from a very low point. He was not chosen by the Electorate in a General Election. He was appointed after winnng a local election. 

The Autumn Budget could prove to be the downfall of the Labour government. With limited options, under pressure from a very demanding and impatient Labour Party, every decision the newly appinted Prime Minister takes is bound to be controversial. 

 

 

Britain - July 20th 2026 - Business as usual or the start of major changes?

 

Prime Minister Andy Burnham?

Will July 20th 2026 mark a new beginning or the beginning of the end? Much has been said, but nothing has been confirmed. It is just words in the air. We know practically nothing about what the direction of travel will be. We are being deliberately left in the dark and this is never reassuring.

Uncertainty and fear and little hope. Once the limelights are no more, we have landed down on the same political realities. Expect no miracle. Expect a lot of pain. Much more pain that you thought that you would have to bear because there is not a chance that in the short or medium term economic prospects will improve.

Keir Starmer left having brought British Steel into the public sector. Andy Burnham is planning to bring all railway transport into the public sector and is talking about re-industrialising Britain. But he does not go so far as talking about bringing all utilities into the public sector.

Is this the image of the next British Prime Minister? Andy Burham´s massive challenges ahead

Was Keir Starmer naive when he believed that offering Andy burnham a seat in the Cabinet was the way to prevent a leadership challenge?

It is being reported that even people who were not Labour traditional voters decided to vote for Andy Burnham as a way to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. Whether this is true or not, the fact remains that Andy Burnham got about 55 per cent of the votes in the by-election in Makerfield. 

He even used the name of the town linking the name to what he intends to do. Despite all promises, the choice of advisers might indicate that he will travel along ways that his now enthusiastic supporters might not like. The name Goldman Sachs is not usually associated with policies supported by the Labour Party. How much of what he said was electoral talk and how much is part of his real intentions when he enters Number 10?

For the moment, Keir Starmer is still at Number 10 and some said that a leadership election is necessary to validate Andy Burnham as new Prime Minister, that the transfer of power should not happen without such election. Whether this is or is not a formaly remains to be seen.

Butter or Cannons - when it comes to beefing up Defense something has to give. Cuts in other areas will have to be made to provide funding for Defense. Is this going to be a popular move amongs Labour supporters?

At the moment, he is very popular. This is called a Political Hnneymoon. How long will the political honeymoon last? Promising is one thing. Delivering is a completely different matter.

Civil War: expression mentioned ever more often, apparently related to social instability and economic uncertainty

In the everyday language of political discussion, the words "Civil War" appear ever more frequently. What would be the tipping point, the trigger, for such an event? Discontent and grudges are the way up for a wide range of reasons. People do not need to be on the same wavelenght to get involved in marches and demostrations. In fact, when you ask those in attendance what led them to participate you can get different answers.

The common link is anger about something. Marches and Demonstrations are therefore an opportunity to vent anger, discomfort, frustration, et cetera, and everything comes as a package.There might be other factors involved and this includes emotional issues. Some people who face isolation in their private lives are desperately looking for meaning, a cause that will make them feel better about themselves. In societies in which people increasingly live alone and often deprived of human contact, it is not unthinkable that somebody might join a certain group of people merely not to feel isolated, cut off, abandoned.

Birthrates are falling and this might happen for a vast number of reasons. Inability to have meaninful social interactions can be one of them. Some say that ordinary people are increasingly having better relationships with electronic devices than with other human beings. Are we becoming dehumanised? When even creativity is being left in the hands of software programmers (Artificial Intelligence), it comes as no surprise that social functions are being distorted.

In the past, there have been Civil Wars, but I assume that everybody involved or affected by Civil War had an understanding of the reasons why. Today, many things will happen in the open and many other things will happen even subliminally. Many people will be acting, driven by motivations that they might not even be aware of. 

Messiahnic leaders? Whoever leads the Labour Party, internal divisions will stil be around

 Makerfield: Beginning or End of a Political Era

Disappointment led to a categoric defeat for both Labour and Conservative. Three political parties benefitted from it: Reform, Greens and Lib Dems.

In Lambeth Borough Council, a council that used to be a flagship of the Labour Party, the Green Party is callenging the Labour Party and on June 1st 2026, the Green Party might fundamentally change the way the council is run by getting rid of the cabinet system. This means that the Labour Party will no longer be able to use a small team to control the way things are done and decisions will be taken not just by a few, but by the whole ensemble of Councillors elected to represent Lambeth residents.

This is a major change and we wait to see if similar changes happen in other local authorities.

Now, going back to the issue of the by-election of an MP in Wakerfield, there are several possibilities. Andy Burnham is elected MP or Andy Burnham is not elected MP. If Andy Burnham is elected MP, he will have to have enough support in a leadership challenge to unseat Keir Starmer. Then again there are two options: he manages to win or he fails to get enough support.

If Andy Burnham is not elected MP, then we go back to square one and talk about other contenders within the Labour Party. There are other issues like who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Is it Rachel Reeves or Ed Milliband? Would Keir Starmer choose to negotiate a new Cabinent to appease his opponents?

Of course, there is also the issue of who is going to be the new Manchester Mayor as Andy Burnham stance to become MP has left the Mayoral seat vacant.

Now, lets think for a moment that Andy Burnham manages to get elected MP and manages to become Prime Minister. From the start, he would face enormous challenges inherited from Keir Starmer's administration. Iran, Ukraine, energy crisis, illegal immigration rising unemployment, high taxation, health, education, and so forth. Changing a Prime Minister does not mean that automatically everything will be sorted. Troublesome relationships will have to be dealt with. Will Andy Burnham be a better communicator? Will he be able to control Labour factions? If he cannot succeed then, without expectations and hope for an improvement, the panorama for the Labour Party will be even worse.

https://www.meetup.com/nwo-chat-room/events/315057056/?eventOrigin=home_next_event_you_are_hosting

Rachel Reeves and the 5% for Defence expenditure

 

Having seen what we have seen until now when it comes to monies and politics, can you trust the British Prime Minister and his promises about Defence?

I asked and asked again. Can we trust statements made at the latest NATO gathering? Political speeches and posturing do not pay for massive investments and massive borrowing and massive borrowing is already an issue when Britain´s credit rating is at stake. If things become any worse and interest paid on public debt keeps going up, how long before we head for a financial crash?

Any reforms are now compromised for the duration of the present administration and strikes are just beginning. How long will Rachel Reeves be able to keep the boat afloat? There are three ways to get resources and each has a price. We can raise taxes. We can borrow. We can reduce services. For each of the three there is a political cost to pay. Raising taxes can be popular with the left of the Labour Party, but deeply unpopular for the business community and, ultimately, will lead to higher prices of utilities and goods. Borrowing will lean to higher interest paid for public debt. Cutting services will not be popular with members of the public. None of them will be a vote winner in the present environment. 

But what that means for British standing? How reliable can a country that cannot pay its debts be? If one of the core members of NATO cannot afford to deliver what it promises, what does it say about NATO itself?

The War of Words is what comes before the Physical War

People must understand that the War of Words is what comes before the Physical War, when bombs fly and people die. Any war is a financial affair. In fact, there is always a financial reason for wars to happen. 

At this point in time there are economic rivals fighting to prevail and this is accelerating to the point when there will be a point of no return. We know how wars begin, but we cannot foresee how wars will end. This sort of wars have happened in the past. The Mighty Roman Empire saw the sacking of Rome by invaders. So the success of the so called West is by no means guaranteed.

Going into the not so remote past, we must remember the history of Europe. There was a time when the Moors (Arabic Invaders) and the Turks took over entire regions of Europe by force and kept them under their rule for hundreds of years. The naive belief that demographic changes will occur without consequences is dangerous. Peaceful colonisation will suddenly turn into a more violent expression of colonisation as foreign populations grow in numbers inside the so called West.

A New Political Era for Europe: Germany falters

The announcement that the German coalition headed by SPD has collapsed leaves in power a government headed by a political party that in three recent state elections failed dramatically to capture the public imagination. In three consecutive elections, Grüne barely managed to get 7 representatives out of 88, 119 and 88. This is how bad things are and they are bound to get worse. Support for the war in Ukraine has banrupted Germany and attempts to increase borrowing led to a political showdown leading to the end of coalition that was unsustainable from the very begining.

FDP and Grüne are exact opposites in various ways and such agreement was bound to end in tears. Can a Federal Election clear the air? Such election would take place in March 2025 and not in September 2025. Germany has been leading and financing the European Union. Changes in German politics are bound to have a significant effect in terms of German leadership and of the survival of the European Union. Talks about increasing defence expenditure are bound to go anywhere as Germany tries to sanitanize its own finances. Job losses already announced are not going to make the present coalition popular amongst voters.

Who could be the real winners in March 2024? There could be three potential winners: CDU, a new political party that had success in recent state elections and Alternative für Deutschland. The one party that has a real project for Germany is Alternative für Deutschland, a project that takes care of Germany´s energy needs and of migration - a subject that is a major concern in many European countries, including Germany. 

Here came the budget: Main target NHS and Second target the economy and particularly interest rates and growth.

The general thinking is that the Labour government will inflict pain earlier with the hope that near the next General Election the numbers will be much better to produce good feelings amongst voters. But this is a gamble by a government that publicly stated that if they had not inherited interest rates that were already going down the present announcements about borrowing could not have been made. 

Everything is based on the presumption that the economy will improve, that interest rates will go down and that repaying the borrowing will become easier. Another factor is promised improvements of the NHS. If the economy does not improve and if improvements promised regarding the NHS are not delivered then this would be a double political wammy that could bring down the present government at the next General Election.

The hope is that no crise like the Covid Pandemic or the energy crise generated by sanctions implemented against the Russian Federation or anything of the sort happens from now until the next General Election. Anything that would require much more borrowing and generate emergency conditions, negatively affecting. the economy, is not welcome. 

Et ceteris paribus? All other things being equal? Expecting that nothing will happen along the way that could change or derail present plans is a very negligent attitude. Things are bound to change. There are crucial ongoing conflicts and the seeds for more conflicts are being planted.

Now, lets have a look at potential trading partners. What is the situation in Europe? What is the situation in the Americas? What is the situation in Africa and Oceania? What is the situation regarding new players that are rising and increasing mutual cooperation?

The belief that new global associations will remain focused on the East and will not spread towards the West is extremely naive. We now live not in a bipolar world. We live in a multipolar world. In which direction the Americas, Africa, and Oceania will go is not a given. But present trends indicate that BRICS is making inroads. Those joining BRICS happen to be the most populous countries in the world. They also happen to be those which tend to have more resources in terms of raw materials. 

Founding countries? Russian Federation, China, India and Brazil. While the main Western countries have been involved in a rising number of conflicts, China has been spreading financially and economically across key regions of the world. The impopularity of the Western approach when dealing with conflicts is spreading and such impopularity does not benefit Western countries. China has not been involved in any major conflict. In fact, it is gathering more and more influence in countries that are far away from China.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick: Conservative Party has demolished stereotypes

 

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick

The British Conservative Party has demolished all stereotypes 

In a few years, the British Conservative Party has demolished all stereotypes and offered the country a wide range of choices, both in terms of ethnicity and of political beliefs, going much farther afield than any other political party, destroying every tool in the Labour Party's workshop. The traditional left used to dress itself as the representative of ethnic minorities and talked a lot about gender. The traditional left has been totally and utterly defeated and can no longer use the race card nor the gender card.

Kemi Badenoch, married, mother of three is an engineer that has held several high positions in government. Robert Jenrrick, also married, father of three, also University graduate and has held several high positions in government.

Both of them have been described as Far Right of Extremist. Really? I suppose that having family values, solid education and professional careers, caring more about the country in which they were born, it is easy to understand that those bent on destroying family values and British identity would certainly see them as something to be afraid of, especially when none other than Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, does not know what a woman is.

Political commentators who oppose them say that they might become leaders of the Conservative Party, but would have no political future in terms of leading the party and winning the next General Election.

One can never foresee what the future will bring. Suffice to say, that in recent by-elections, 14 Labour seats were already lost, after a disastrous beginning for a political party that had recently won a General Election with an outstanding majority. We haven't even reached the first national budget and there is already infighting within Labour ranks. 

We await the first national budget with trepidation.Already several MPs decided to become Independent and major figures of the Labour Party were literally pushed out of the Labour Party. It can be literally said that the present Labour Party won the General Election under false pretenses. Major policies that helped them win the election have already been thrown out. No more taxes? It seems that there was one Labour Party before the General Election and another, different, Labour Party after the General Election. A combination of lies, deceit, and miscalculation. 

Britain: long before the first official budget is published, announcements are not encouraging

As part of point scoring, two digit salary increases are announced for public workers and Union workers while, at the same time, measures to support pensioners are discontinued and new increases of utility bills are announced.

Presumably, in october, we are going to be told about a tax shower. So get your spreadsheets ready because it is going to take some time to calculate how much ordinary britons are gong to be hit with a barrage of taxes and utility bills that sooner than later are going to be reflected on the cost of basic items of the family basket. Nominal values might be going up but real values are going to make you poorer.

We are really and truly talking about a new period of austerity, but this time under a Labour government. The Labour Party played a new version of 'read my lips, no more taxes' and the gullible fell for it. People are going to be taxed to the hilt and beyond. Let's look at rental prices. They were already beyond reach for a growing number of peoples.

If you are going to have even less disposable income, things can only be worse and one of the most worrying bits for any economy is a massive reduction of consumption. Using Covid as an example, if people - deterred by rising taxes and rising utility bills - start consuming less and less then already struggling businesses will go out of business pushing upwards unemployment numbers.

In any case, get your spreadsheets ready. 

Labour government: Public sector pay promises that cannot be delivered will be the beginning

 

Is the edifice already starting to fall apart? Rachel Reeves promises of public sector pay rises have already backfired with Unions told that what they were promised is not affordable.

Winning an election acting under false pretenses is not a sign of political stability.

The 2024 September Budget will be crucial to know if this is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end for the new Labour Administration, and this without taking into account dangerous statements that could take Britain to war in Europe, a war that will transform the Britain mainland into a battlefield.

Labour Administrations have a tendency to get Britain involved in disastrous wars. In 1997, Tony Blair won a historic majority only to get Britain involded in two major military conflicts that spelled absolute disaster. If Keir Starmer follows suit, the consequences for Britain would be catastrophic.

Rachel Reeves: Do you increase salaries across the public sector without raising taxes?

 

Just hours ago the Labour Party launched an attack against Conservative policies regarding National Service and possibly concription because of the cost of such policies. But after that, Labour Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves stated that a Labour government would increase salaries across the public sector. Well, how much will it cost to increase salaries across the public sector. I reckon that it would be a lot more than National Service or Conscription.

Right before an election the mountain of contradictions rises on a daily basis. Just before Rachel Reeves spoke about salary increases in the public sector, Keir Starmer said that he would not get rid of the two children cap when it comes to Children Benefits in spite of the fact that he would want to do so. I guess the Labor Leader was thinking about cost of getting rid of the two children cap.

Services are necessary, but services cost monies that need to be paid with higher taxes at a time when interest paid on public borrowing is extraordinarily high. Labour says that it will not implement austerity, but you cannot promise to pay high interest on public borrowing and raise salaries without increasing taxes. And if you start increasing taxes, you can guarantee that companies that pay higher taxes are going to turn those higher tax payments into higher prices to balance the books. There is also the danger that higher taxes will lower consumption thus affecting the monies that the state can collect as taxes. Higher rates and lower amount of monies coming to the Treasury. And what about companies that are struggling to make ends meet? Less customers coming through the doors and higher taxes pushing up prices are not a recipe for success.

This is the way it works. If you collect 100 Pound as taxes and suddenly prices go up, then you will collect 100 Pound as taxes but only nominally. You are going to be able to buy less with your 100 Pound. State employees will be getting salaries that are worth less money in spite of nominal increases.

If you are paying 2500 for rent and suddenly the cost of renting goes up to 3500 then your salary has actually been devalued. Nominal increases will make things a lot worse.

USA or Latin America: Migration will generate huge changes in the way see the American Continent

 

USA or Latin America: Migration will generate huge changes in the way we see the American Continent

It is just a matter of time and it cannot be reversed. USA and Canada will soon be part of Latin America. Financial and political crisis in Latin America, much of it owed to USA foreign policies regarding Latin America are turning the USA into Latin America as what started as a drip is now a flood that cannot be stopped. Latin American don't have to fly across the oceans. They are just walking into the USA and no closure of borders can prevent the exodus into the USA.

In demographic terms countries like Brazil are already competing with the USA and others are not far behind and this is also something to take into consideration.

In more than one way, the USA is also importing social issues from Latin America that added to existing issues in the USA can turn the American Dream into a nightmare. Extreme wealth combined with extreme poverty is not a recipe for success. How can things be turned for the better for all concerned? The tragedy is that problems are not due to lack of resources, but to lack of human intelligence to use a massive amount of resources for the common good.

Using Argentina as a example, Argentina's problems are not due to lack of resources. They are due to corruption and bad management. Argentina's enormous potential has been repeatedly wasted and the same can be said when talking about other countries including the USA.

 

The Money Bubble: Why politicians are completely out of touch with peoples' everyday realities

When peoples are more familiar with spreadsheets that they are familiar with ordinary people bad things happen. Look around the cabinet. What do you see? They don't have a clue about what it takes to live the life of ordinary individuals that always have be chasing rabbits, always living with the uncertainty of being able or not being able to pay bills.

Because they are totally out of touch with realities of John Smith and Mrs Smith they go around talking about policies that are good for posturing and self-adulation instead of getting to grip with the real needs of those they supposedly stand to represent. By elections will be lost, local elections will be lost and ultimately a General Election will be lost. If you trully believe that falling into desperate situations and having to live on the streets is a 'lifestyle choice' then nothing else needs to be said about how out of touch you are.

Housing lists for social accommodation get longer and longer, the cost of rented accommodation is beyond most peoples' means as are unaffordable mortgages. Then you decide to throw people a few bones to supposedly allow them to cope with rising utility bills and consider that by doing so you are some kind of Robin Hood. No wonder qualified and newly qualified teachers are leaving the profession. They are supposed to be employed to teach and end up having to cope with worsening social situations in the classroom.

I can't wait to see a new General Election. I want everybody to get in touch with reality. As I have stated in many articles, I keep asking about the Dream. What is the Dream? All we get is procrastination, posturing, self-adulation and false promises.

Coming to the issue of migration and processing of applications, is there a backlog when dealing with applications that leads to all kind of irregularities? Don't have enough staff working at the Home Office? What are you waiting for? When will you employ enough staff to deal with the backlog when things get worse and worse? If you don't have the will to do what needs to be done, step aside and allow somebody else to do it.

HS2 Fiasco: Message to China - Britain is falling

 

HS2 Fiasco is a direct message to China: Britain is falling and is incapable of building a high speed railway link, apart from other deficiencies that are by now pretty obvious.

1. Britain is incapable of patrolling and controlling its own borders.
2. Britain is incapable of having Armed Forces big enough and equipped enough to handle a real military conflict.
3. Britain does not have the military complex to be seen as a serious military contender.
4. Britain's nuclear deterrent is limited in its reach and is not even British.

Britain's standing in the world is based on myths that can be easily shown for what they are. Britain should not be worried about spies in the Houses of Parliament telling the world what is happening in Britain. To know what is happening in Britain you don't need spies and/or any kind of advanced technology. What is happening in Britain is pretty visible for all to see and it is absolutely lamentable.

The education system is not just in crisis because of lower education standards. The education system has been turned into an anti-Britain movement that is eroding the foundations of Britain as a country.

 

William Hague: Pensioners, economy or complete disregard for older people?

When priviledged politicians like William Hague that are all too willing to find monies for white elephant projects talk against looking after pensioners that get three times less than the minimum salary in retirement, the said politicians show their true colours. I guess he did not protest or felt unhappy when he himself got huge increases as Member of Parliament or Cabinet Minister. 

Traditionally, old age people and pensioners have tended to support the Conservative Party. Maybe they should stop supporting the Conservative Party if individuals identified with the Conservative Party show such disregard for some of the most vulnerable people in society. But what does the Leadership of the Labour Party show? They could not care less. Regarding things that matter so much they keep their mouths conveniently shut because they merely playing politics and could not care less about the elderly.

If the so falled mainstream political parties don't care, somebody else has to care and so much is going on that mainstream political parties cannot or don't want to deal with. It was goes to the root of how the political system works. 

He is a runaway train. People like him are runaway trains. They have a license to abuse the system and they use it. They spend their lives milking the nation and with the hypocritical ways they criticize those who have less.

UK: the eve of an absolute financial nightmare

Mortgage payments increases and a whole set of new environmental taxes implemented by local authorities will push hundreds of thousands of families over the edge. If something is not done urgently, the financial crisis of years past that compromised the financial system and forced the Labour government to take extraordinary measures to rescue financial insitutions will be nothing compared to what is coming.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown had savings and the economy in general was in pretty good shape. The same does not apply now after Covid and lockdowns and consecutive rises generated by energy cost rises. If families are pushed into default, the impact felt by financial institutions will be massive. The definition of what is affordable has been changing at every faster pace. 

For many, once we take all increases into account, disposable monthly income for food will be limited or non existing. The choice will be between having enough to eat and having a place to live in. Whoever is in power in the coming months will have to design alternative ways to deal with inflation. Government and Parliament will have to do the unimaginable to keep things under control. Market economics will not be nearly enough to prevent widespread unrest.

UK Happy New Year: The threat is that the New Year will bring more industrial unrest with foreseable and unforeseable consequences

If the Lockdown can be blamed for the loss of economic activity, endemic strikes will cause untold damage to a weak British economy and the chances are that inflation will then skyrocket with rates of inflation not seen for ages or ever happening in the United Kingdom. You cannot have a national budget in times of significant economic losses. How can you predict how much you are going to spend if the very same day in which you announce the budget the indicators used to calculate your budget have moved upwards. 

Put it this way. You plan to spend X amounts of Pounds for Health. Inflation will eat away whatever monies you invest in Health. If you say that you will invest 100 Pound and then inflation eats away 20 of the 100 Pound, the actual investment will fall from 100 Pound to 80 Pound. If inflation keeps going up and you end end up with an endless series of strikes with people demanding a series of increases just to keep up with inflation, whatever monies are given as increases will never be sufficient. You cannot go on borrowing indefinitely.  Other countries have tried to survive such a cycle and have ended up defaulting and Britain is not big enough not to fail. Given the size of the British economy, there isn't a single institution that could supply the amount of funding necessary to keep Britain alive.

No government could break such a cycle and the moment the country becomes literally insolvent we are going to lose many of the advances made in many areas including Health and Education. This has already been happening when you look at the number of vacancies that remain unfilled. Immigration will make a bad situation worse because the issue is management and not lack of resources and this is very much apparent when you look at other areas like Tertiary Education. If we keep pumping resources to produce things for which there is no demand then we are going to lack the necessary resources for things for which there is demand. The aim for many years has been to increase the number of those attending Universities without thinking about the kind of degrees we really need. The natural consequence has been rising student generated debt, degrees that end up in a drawer without ever been used in the real world and drop outs. The inconsistencies are pretty obvious but political correctness stands on the way of decision makers. As if this wasn't enough, those in charge of managing the budgets of education centres don't mind accepting students for courses for which there is no future as long as they keep getting funding.

We know that there are issues to deal with but there is no political will to deal with them and status quo sustains a permacrisis.

Strikes generate enormous losses for the economy by paralizing the country. As always, the ones who will suffer more because of strikes are the most vulnerable.