The Next Two Years in Thanet
Written by Matt B · first published 15/10/2008
It's two years until we get to vote for a new council. What might happen in that time? What are the full implications of the mismanagement of the banks and the resultant devaluing of the pound to cover these losses to us in Thanet? We take look at the likely outcome for the next year or two and what we in Thanet can do about it.
It might seem that those of us who vote hold all the power but public opinion here and abroad is rapidly reaching the conclusion that we voters don't mater half as much as some other groups.
It seems to many these days that the most important entities in the UK are not voters or health workers but banks and finanical institutions. Why, ask so many, when we cock up we must pay but when they cock up we must pay twice?
This undefined "many" had their worst fears confirmed when in an act potentially aggressive enough to start a war Gorden Brown (ab)used anti-terror laws and seized Icelandic assets in the UK. Unsurprisingly those whose country just had it's assist annexed are less than impressed with us.
You can read more about the seizure of Icelandic assets with the BBC but I think it is obvious that had we done this to America or any other country with a reasonable military arm then right now we would be at war.
Iceland with it's total population of 300,000 (around twice that of Thanet) feels that it has been significantly wronged by Gorden Brown and the people are (unsurprisingly) angrier than a China Gateway protester. Allegedly Gorden Brown has been ignoring the advice from the Foreign Office again and effectively starting hostilities with a close neighbour because a business running from their soil got into the same trouble a number of businesses running from our soil did.
So what can we expect to happen - read on to find out
We can expect to see competition for jobs heat up further as the number of available jobs in the area drops and the number of available workers rise (we call this unemployment). While this is happening we are also entering the Winter Slow Down (which for online marketers is the profitable season) with season job losses and the resultant reduced spending it brings being heavier than normal.
We can expect to see prices rise steadily for twelve to sixteen months without a break. So if you can afford to buy in bulk now might be the time to do so.
Patrick Shum, strategist with Karl Thomson Securities in Hong Kong told the BBC
I would be shocked yet not totally surprised if a blogger like Tony, Peter or other bloggers whose name is known posted of a loss of work in the next year. It's not something I want to see but I fear it is likely to happen sooner or later.
Anti China Gateway fans might be pleased to know that the economic situation is such that it is possible that the company behind the project runs out of money long before they fulfil the requirements of phase one. I put it to a councillor today that it would end up like the pleasurearma project yet he felt that even with the delays both would eventually be built.
On that note it was also pointed out that a week is a long time in politics and two years to the vote might have forgotten the China Gateway thing entirely. I'm not so entirely confident about that.
We can expect to see more clubs, pubs and other venues close their doors as the loss of spending power bites down this winter.
But it's not all bad news as Asda, Morrison's and BP make a move to obtain a better USP (Unique Selling Point) in the battle for the slowing custom by slicing around 17p from the price of unleaded to bring it down to 99.9 pence (£1 effectively) per litre with Sainsbury's to do likewise shortly.
You can bet that Tesco will also join this move in a bid not to miss custom as the sale of Petrol is seem as a significant factor in the drawing of customers to stores.
However don't celebrate yet Thanet District Council have a huge hole in their budget and Kent County Council had a lot of cash tied up in those Icelandic banks we were talking about. The result is that with the cutbacks being made across the board more of complaints of missing bins and slow service as reported by Big News Margate are more than likely to the point I would say they were a cast iron certainty.
With money tight for everyone we can expect the charities and not-for-profit-honest groups to get more creative with the way they request your cash. So expect more fund raisers and some inventive ones at that over the next year or two.
Likewise expect the council to raise taxes as always and expect it to hurt a bit more than normal. Additionally we should expect it to be significantly harder to obtain benefits as checks become as rigorous as is humanly possible with longer delays as council benefits departments fight to protect their reduced budgets. As an upshot of this expect the council to get far more aggressive with the use of courts to obtain "debts" for council tax with little head paid to circumstance or even reality maybe.
While this is going on expect the supermarkets to do their best to sell more stuff. So two-for-one offers are likely to increase on foods high in (cheap) sugar and low in nutritional values.
So while we eat less healthily we will try to conserve energy by moving less. This is not something most of us thing about but built into every one of us are methods to preserve the body in times of hardship. Stress and a knowledge that money is tight can trigger these processes and both the temptation to comfort eat and with the ease with which high calory low vitimin foods will be available we can expect an increase in obesity in Thanet.
I would expect to see a 2% to 4% minimum increase in the rate of seasonal suicides this year. This will be due to the increased financial pressures which are going to hit us two ways - prices (up) and income and benefits (down).
Along with the territory come higher than usual marriage breakdowns, devorces, petty crime (no change there then) and visits to the doctor with non specific complaints (also called stress).
Now, more than ever before, is a time when you would do well to have close friends and family nearby. If you have grown a little distant now might be a good time to heal old wounds, say sorry and reinforce the family bond. You may be greatful for doing so.
Add the increase in physical and mental ill health that stress can bring with the appaling lack of hand washing we brits engage in and we can expect to see this winter to be one with plenty of sneezes in it.
Even without such aggravating factors we are still looking at a significant increase in the likelihood that people will require short term medication for stress related complaints.
Here at last we have something we can do something about - washing our hands is the only real way to reduce the number of times we catch winter illnesses. Scrub those little digits people because I don't want to spend my winter vomiting and nor do you.
This is a hard question to answer because if there were good answers then the problem would not really exist. This very question myself and a number of bloggers from all over the world will be exploring this year and next at a new blog that I am currently configuring. It is called Credit Crunchies and the tag like is stomaching the bills at breakfast.
But what can you are I do now?
The prime aim of all activities in such an environment is to maximise the results you can get for each pound. Easy steps like reducing shopping costs by doing your main supermarket both online and combined with neighbours; buying in bulk, reducing expenditures on things you can live without and generally saving money where possible are the only real steps one can take.
If you have free time you could contribute to your health by spending some time at the Windmill Allotment Project not only would you walk away with the experience of the work you have done but also a bag of very fresh fruit and veg.
You might like to try your hand at blogging. It's an industry that gets more productive the more people are involved and if you are fantasticly interesting you can even earn a small income from doing it. More if you have a genius for selling yourself. Certainly the conversation on the subject of Thanet has picked up of late.
You might like to push your local councillor to support the council using it's IT systems to actually share the process they go though with the rest of us. At least we could feel like we had a say...
If you are of a spiritual mindset this is the time when you find yourself hurrying back to your preferred place of worship, blowing the dust from your copy of the Bible and generally "finding God". Church attendance is likely to increase over the next few years as a result. So while you are there you could always pray.
Other than that - hold on tight and try not to let it get you down.
What can you suggest?
It might seem that those of us who vote hold all the power but public opinion here and abroad is rapidly reaching the conclusion that we voters don't mater half as much as some other groups.
It seems to many these days that the most important entities in the UK are not voters or health workers but banks and finanical institutions. Why, ask so many, when we cock up we must pay but when they cock up we must pay twice?
This undefined "many" had their worst fears confirmed when in an act potentially aggressive enough to start a war Gorden Brown (ab)used anti-terror laws and seized Icelandic assets in the UK. Unsurprisingly those whose country just had it's assist annexed are less than impressed with us.
You can read more about the seizure of Icelandic assets with the BBC but I think it is obvious that had we done this to America or any other country with a reasonable military arm then right now we would be at war.
Iceland with it's total population of 300,000 (around twice that of Thanet) feels that it has been significantly wronged by Gorden Brown and the people are (unsurprisingly) angrier than a China Gateway protester. Allegedly Gorden Brown has been ignoring the advice from the Foreign Office again and effectively starting hostilities with a close neighbour because a business running from their soil got into the same trouble a number of businesses running from our soil did.
So what can we expect to happen - read on to find out
So what can we in Thanet expect in the next 12 to 18 months?
We can expect to see competition for jobs heat up further as the number of available jobs in the area drops and the number of available workers rise (we call this unemployment). While this is happening we are also entering the Winter Slow Down (which for online marketers is the profitable season) with season job losses and the resultant reduced spending it brings being heavier than normal.
We can expect to see prices rise steadily for twelve to sixteen months without a break. So if you can afford to buy in bulk now might be the time to do so.
Patrick Shum, strategist with Karl Thomson Securities in Hong Kong told the BBC
Governments across the world are cutting welfare spending and issuing more debt to help the financial system. But these measures will create a bigger problem of an economic slowdown.
I would be shocked yet not totally surprised if a blogger like Tony, Peter or other bloggers whose name is known posted of a loss of work in the next year. It's not something I want to see but I fear it is likely to happen sooner or later.
Anti China Gateway fans might be pleased to know that the economic situation is such that it is possible that the company behind the project runs out of money long before they fulfil the requirements of phase one. I put it to a councillor today that it would end up like the pleasurearma project yet he felt that even with the delays both would eventually be built.
On that note it was also pointed out that a week is a long time in politics and two years to the vote might have forgotten the China Gateway thing entirely. I'm not so entirely confident about that.
Closed Shops, Clubs and Facilities
We can expect to see more clubs, pubs and other venues close their doors as the loss of spending power bites down this winter.
Some Good News
But it's not all bad news as Asda, Morrison's and BP make a move to obtain a better USP (Unique Selling Point) in the battle for the slowing custom by slicing around 17p from the price of unleaded to bring it down to 99.9 pence (£1 effectively) per litre with Sainsbury's to do likewise shortly.
You can bet that Tesco will also join this move in a bid not to miss custom as the sale of Petrol is seem as a significant factor in the drawing of customers to stores.
Nothing to celebrate
However don't celebrate yet Thanet District Council have a huge hole in their budget and Kent County Council had a lot of cash tied up in those Icelandic banks we were talking about. The result is that with the cutbacks being made across the board more of complaints of missing bins and slow service as reported by Big News Margate are more than likely to the point I would say they were a cast iron certainty.
Expect requests for handouts
With money tight for everyone we can expect the charities and not-for-profit-honest groups to get more creative with the way they request your cash. So expect more fund raisers and some inventive ones at that over the next year or two.
Likewise expect the council to raise taxes as always and expect it to hurt a bit more than normal. Additionally we should expect it to be significantly harder to obtain benefits as checks become as rigorous as is humanly possible with longer delays as council benefits departments fight to protect their reduced budgets. As an upshot of this expect the council to get far more aggressive with the use of courts to obtain "debts" for council tax with little head paid to circumstance or even reality maybe.
People get fatter
While this is going on expect the supermarkets to do their best to sell more stuff. So two-for-one offers are likely to increase on foods high in (cheap) sugar and low in nutritional values.
So while we eat less healthily we will try to conserve energy by moving less. This is not something most of us thing about but built into every one of us are methods to preserve the body in times of hardship. Stress and a knowledge that money is tight can trigger these processes and both the temptation to comfort eat and with the ease with which high calory low vitimin foods will be available we can expect an increase in obesity in Thanet.
Stress, Sex and Suicides
I would expect to see a 2% to 4% minimum increase in the rate of seasonal suicides this year. This will be due to the increased financial pressures which are going to hit us two ways - prices (up) and income and benefits (down).
Along with the territory come higher than usual marriage breakdowns, devorces, petty crime (no change there then) and visits to the doctor with non specific complaints (also called stress).
Now, more than ever before, is a time when you would do well to have close friends and family nearby. If you have grown a little distant now might be a good time to heal old wounds, say sorry and reinforce the family bond. You may be greatful for doing so.
Sickness and Stress go together in Thanet as elsewhere
Add the increase in physical and mental ill health that stress can bring with the appaling lack of hand washing we brits engage in and we can expect to see this winter to be one with plenty of sneezes in it.
Even without such aggravating factors we are still looking at a significant increase in the likelihood that people will require short term medication for stress related complaints.
Here at last we have something we can do something about - washing our hands is the only real way to reduce the number of times we catch winter illnesses. Scrub those little digits people because I don't want to spend my winter vomiting and nor do you.
What can we do?
This is a hard question to answer because if there were good answers then the problem would not really exist. This very question myself and a number of bloggers from all over the world will be exploring this year and next at a new blog that I am currently configuring. It is called Credit Crunchies and the tag like is stomaching the bills at breakfast.
But what can you are I do now?
The prime aim of all activities in such an environment is to maximise the results you can get for each pound. Easy steps like reducing shopping costs by doing your main supermarket both online and combined with neighbours; buying in bulk, reducing expenditures on things you can live without and generally saving money where possible are the only real steps one can take.
If you have free time you could contribute to your health by spending some time at the Windmill Allotment Project not only would you walk away with the experience of the work you have done but also a bag of very fresh fruit and veg.
You might like to try your hand at blogging. It's an industry that gets more productive the more people are involved and if you are fantasticly interesting you can even earn a small income from doing it. More if you have a genius for selling yourself. Certainly the conversation on the subject of Thanet has picked up of late.
You might like to push your local councillor to support the council using it's IT systems to actually share the process they go though with the rest of us. At least we could feel like we had a say...
If you are of a spiritual mindset this is the time when you find yourself hurrying back to your preferred place of worship, blowing the dust from your copy of the Bible and generally "finding God". Church attendance is likely to increase over the next few years as a result. So while you are there you could always pray.
Other than that - hold on tight and try not to let it get you down.
What can you suggest?
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