Editorial

Officially the UK entered into recession around 12 November 2024 when the IMF and the Bank of England claimed that the UK was "very likely in a recession". 

Three months on from this declaration we have seen the parts of the capital become like a ghost town, the number of unemployed jump to 6.1% - well above the rate the economy can safely sustain when the economy is growing at normal capacity. This indicates that as well as suffering fast rising unemployment we have entered a period when the rate of growth in average earnings will start to fall.

John Philpott, Chief Economist at the CIPD said:

"The autumn saw a surge in redundancies even before the spate of widespread job cuts that started to hit the headlines this month. This is in line with the CIPD’s expectation that the total level of redundancies will reach 300,000 in the first quarter of 2009, with the economy set to shed at least 600,000 jobs overall during the course of the year."

Walk up Regent Street one of London's iconic roads and you see Zavvi or the former Tower Records store closed, with other stores with CLOSED clearly on display.  The Icelandic Bauger group which owns some of the UK's largest stores like Hamleys called in administrators this last week, which may result in more Londoners made redundant.

This is no recession, listen to what the Chancellor Andrew Marr:

"If the banks are proceeding on the course that they apparently are proceeding on, then I think we should actively look at a cap."  In other words we bailed out the banks, the leadership have not listened to what the government wanted from them, all the "stimulus" packages proposed have not worked, and we have not got a clue what to do.

To add insult to injury at a time when the capital should be using all of its leverage and credibility in the world to attract foreign investment, the snow totally shut London this last week.  A laughing stock around the world with TIME Magazine in a recent story leading with the headline "Snow business means no Business in London", the Italian news agency AGI "SNOW BRINGS LONDON TO STANDSTILL, NO BUSES OR SCHOOL".  Mayor Johnson and City Hall have been damaged by the failure to co-ordinate properly the capitals response.

Moreover if after three months of this recession the economy has in effect come to a stand still in London what happens when this continues for another 12 months?  As they say in Greece "Gamiseta" look it up.

photo credit: London Daily News - black cab protests