Looks very likely ... and hardly surprising, when your main customer (Europe) is bankrupt, and ALL the loony Unions are clamouring to grab what they can get - and sod everyone else !

After the petrol drivers fiasco (which took billions out of the economy) now the train drivers !

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17831178

Add to that the fact that virtually every day between now and winter is a Holiday (and those that are not "officially" Bank Holidays will be taken off by people wanting to watch EuroJubilympic rubbish) - and I wonder whether there will be any economy left at the end of the year ?????

Here you can see when it started to go wrong for the britisch economy: in mid 2010:



Hardly suprising, indeed, but for different reasons:

"Consumer spending which underpinned economic growth during the goods years, is being suppressed by falling incomes and stifling household debts. Add in the cuts in public spending, and the banks’ failure to lend money to the real economy, and it’s clear that the domestic economy is unlikely to lead us into recovery. Business investment, another potential route out of the crisis, is being crippled by a lack of confidence and weak demand (...) the biggest factor in the GDP contraction was construction. But this should surprise no-one - we already knew that domestic spending was going to be weak, that the government is cutting back investment"

This double-dip looks like a trade problem

In a few months time I expect it will be reported that, after seasonal adjustments, we were actually in growth!
After watching the Dominic Sandbrook doc on the 70's, I wonder how my parents coped in 1973/74 - the global malaise seemed much heavier.

Funny you should say that Foz; I watched it too and wondered what all the fuss was about. Admittedly it was a very successful decade for me but I remember one rolling in money!

All that graph says to me is that the economy is stagnating, probably because of a lack of capital investment from government!

Foz wrote:
After watching the Dominic Sandbrook doc on the 70's, I wonder how my parents coped in 1973/74 - the global malaise seemed much heavier.

Quite right, Foz.
I remember mortgage rates hitting 15% - and after they dropped I carried on paying at that rate as I thought, well, if I've managed it for the last few months they I'll be saving interest by continuing at that rate (also a couple of pay rises meant it was not so much of a blow as it had been).

Did Dandbrook mention all HP agreements needed something like 1/3 deposit too?

The difference between our parents and todays people is they got on with it ... this lot just moan and want an increase in benefits.