UPNetwork  

Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > The Misc

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 05-01-2020, 03:35 AM   #1
Doppleganger
我が名は勇者王!
 
Doppleganger's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Emina Isle
Posts: 14,198
Send a message via AIM to Doppleganger
Has the sun set on the UK?

Yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell announced a 66% dividend cut, the first since World War II. Shell had previously been the largest dividend play in the UK (and Europe).

Along with a lot of other British-based companies in banking and telephones, this is gutting pension income that has been stable for two generations.

Combine this with the travel moratorium and Brexit, and things look very bad for the UK. I'm skeptical that the British economy can recover from this, the double whammy of a collapse in industry, limited job prospects for the youth and limited funds for the elderly.

So what comes after this?
__________________
あなたの勇気が切り開く未来
ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望
今 信じあえる
あきらめない 心かさね
永遠を抱きしめて
Doppleganger is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2020, 11:56 AM   #2
Concept
Archbishop of Banterbury
 
Concept's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Nipple-Hunting with Elsie and Kairne
Posts: 7,030
Send a message via Skype™ to Concept
You're ~65 years late on Britain as a leading world power* and ~40 years late on the collapse of industry, youth job prospects and an affordable decent standard of living**, Dopp.

Being less flippant; Britain's decline on the international stage was inevitable in a post-colonial world in which we (rightly) stopped occupying foreign nations and calling it an empire. We managed to mitigate it somewhat through the EU - the EU does have the clout to stand on the world stage with the likes of Russia, China and the US and being one of the three leading nations in it (alongside France and Germany) we had a fair amount of influence on it. Brexit has of course buggered up our last vestige of international relevance. A significant portion of the British population seem to think we still wield the same clout we did when we ruled a third of the world. This is delusional.

On the home front, Thatcher killed off first class living standards by making us more American. The post-war consensus had its issues certainly - unions were far too powerful by the late 70s - but Thatcher threw the baby out with the bathwater insofar as in order to take on the unions she intentionally gutted the communities where their roots were. Many of them still haven't recovered. To escape blame, the political right blamed the damage they themselves did on immigrants and the EU (hence Brexit). Unfortunately she set the consensus that both major parties have worked from for the last forty years.

The one thing I'd disagree with you on is concern for the elderly. A Tory government will slash funding to the NHS and whatever other social programs they feel like to bolster pensions - even as austerity was taking an eaxe to the rest of the economy in the early 2010s, the coalition introduced a "pension triple lock". Year on year state pension growth has significantly outpaced wage growth and inflation for a decade now. Pensioners vote Tory after all.

*Suez Crisis
**Winter of discontent and election of Thatcher
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by PTerry
What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the reaper man?
Concept is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2020, 12:53 PM   #3
Doppleganger
我が名は勇者王!
 
Doppleganger's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Emina Isle
Posts: 14,198
Send a message via AIM to Doppleganger
Quote:
Originally Posted by Concept View Post
The one thing I'd disagree with you on is concern for the elderly. A Tory government will slash funding to the NHS and whatever other social programs they feel like to bolster pensions - even as austerity was taking an eaxe to the rest of the economy in the early 2010s, the coalition introduced a "pension triple lock". Year on year state pension growth has significantly outpaced wage growth and inflation for a decade now. Pensioners vote Tory after all.
But the funding they'd normally get for the NHS comes from tax witholding on ordinary income. RDS-B used to pay out Ł1.98B in dividend income and 20% of that goes to the crown. With the dividend cut, Ł396M becomes Ł174M, and Shell was one of the few companies to maintain its payouts. Banks like HSBC gave it up altogether.

Sure there's corporate tax on gross receipts, but given what happened to oil and travel, that's going to get hammered as well.

Then to top it all off, the Saudis who caused this chaos bought up billion dollar stakes in Shell and BP, meaning money is now leaking out of the country and into the hands of the instigators of the oil glut.
__________________
あなたの勇気が切り開く未来
ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望
今 信じあえる
あきらめない 心かさね
永遠を抱きしめて
Doppleganger is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Lower Navigation
Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > The Misc


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:56 PM.


Design By: Miner Skinz.com
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.