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Britain continues behaving in hegemonic manner despite not having means to enforce it.
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
High energy costs continue to wreak havoc in Europe, with Britain being no exception to the crisis. British companies are becoming bankrupt at a rapid rate, one not seen since the peak of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2009. The Europe-wide crisis is mostly attributed to economic problems stemming from their own sanctions against Russia, which as a result has made energy prices skyrocket.
The most recent quarterly report by the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics found company closure figures are similar to those reported in 2009 at the peak of the GFC. According to the British agency, 5,629 companies collapsed and became insolvent throughout England and Wales during the second quarter of 2022, a figure not seen since the third quarter of 2009.
Although the figure is still far from the highest peak recorded during the GFC, with a total of 6,943 firms closed, the trend for the following months is not encouraging.
British government statistics from August show that 1 in 10 local businesses face a moderate to severe risk of insolvency. Although the reasons for the insolvency are various, they are all related to the difficulties that the sanctions against Russia have caused for European trade, supply chains and the energy market, whose historical inflation has brought several problems to British authorities.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 22% of the companies that are at moderate risk of closure put the increases in electricity rates as their main concern, 7% more than in February of this year. In small companies (from 10 to 49 employees), the percentage increases to 30%.
Other companies say that their biggest concerns are their inability to pay their debts, the increase in raw material prices, as well as the interruption of the supply chain. According to the British government, of the more than 5,600 companies that declared themselves insolvent, 20% correspond to construction companies, while 14% are in wholesale and retail market firms.
Asked in an interview published on October 4 by Germany’s RND media network on whether EU countries would need disaster relief due to the energy crisis, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič responded: “Yes, that is quite possible.”
He added that EU member states could face a “black out” due to the energy crisis, but described this as only a “minor incident” despite the fact it would lead to other member states needing to deliver power generators.
Britain is facing a very similar crisis, with the National Grid operator saying people would receive advance notice as electricity cuts will occur in rotations to avoid mass black out.
“This would be necessary to ensure the overall security and integrity of the electricity system,” according to its recently published winter outlook report.
This comes as analysts at Deutsche Bank said the British GDP would not return to the level of December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, until 2024. This means that there will only be limited economic progress by the time of the next election in January 2025.
According to official figures, the British economy remained 0.2% smaller than pre-Covid levels at the end of June. The Bank of England said the economy is close to recession and on course for limited progress next year, with most of this attributed to soaring energy prices and weaker global growth.
Sanjay Raja, a senior economist at Deutsche, said: “Household spending and business investment are likely to track a little lower than we previously anticipated, especially with unemployment expected to rise from next year.”
He explained that the UK GDP growth was now forecast to slow to 3.5% this year and that the economy is expected to shrink by 0.5% next year before rebounding to 1% growth in 2024. The expert also stressed that stronger growth might not be seen until “the second half of the decade” as it will for now have to settle on 1.25% growth per year, a short cry to Truss’s growth target of 2.5% a year.
The British economic decline also coincides with its lowering prestige across the world. Despite its reputation being affected, Britain continues to behave in a hegemonic manner without having the means to enforce it. Take for example that Britain has spent billions of pounds propping up the Kiev regime to fight Russia despite the eventual realisation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye being completely liberated from Ukrainian occupation. This money could certainly have been better spent saving British businesses and families from economic ruin.
Rumor say they are selling the Venezuelan stolen gold to pay of some debt.
The west planned all this after 2008. The external debt vs GDP of Europe was a huge problem. Imbalances in global trading flows was diagnosed as the problem. Then BoE governor, King, said we would have to import less, and our standard of living would have to fall. They quickly brought in Carney as the new Governor of the BoE to upgrade the antiquated banking IT systems at the BoE, so that they could micro-manage the economy during the future planned correction. They recapitalised the banks, and kept stress testing them to higher and higher levels of catastrophe, to ensure they were fully prepared for what was to come. In 2016 King said that nothing had yet changed in the UK economy, indeed things were now in a worse state than before 2008, and that a larger economic correction was now inevitable. Trump disagreed their careful plans, instead he sought closer ties with Russia, and alienated China, derailing their plans. After they had worked to get rid of Trump, they reversed Trumps realignment, and accelerated their plans for severe structural reforms of their old western economies. Carney left the BoE, and was running around the USA during 2019, telling investors to get out of oil and gas intensive businesses, if they didn’t want their assets to become stranded. We know what happened in 2020…
…they are now on a long road to reduce the standard of living of their citizens, and force through massive structural changes within their economies. If they make it to the end of this road, their painful transition away from their oil & gas infrastructure, will ripple out from Europe and the USA, and slowly spread around the world. On paper it looks almost inevitable.
As for the UK, closure of old and traditional non-essential businesses in this new efficient economy is inevitable… it’s deliberate… and shows their radical plan of structural reform is working.
It’s all good.
May they rot and freeze in their stupidity.
They say King Charles III – Heartbeat before death?
Now that Queen Elizabeth II has found her final resting place and Operation London Bridge has been successfully completed, plans for the funeral of King Charles III are under way, according to one security expert.
Former Royal Guard officer Simon Morgan said plans for Operation Menai Bridge – planning for the current king’s personal funeral – would begin “tomorrow”.
Operation Menai Bridge: Funeral plan for King Charles III underway, security expert says
https://www.9news.com.au/world/operation-menai-bridge-funeral-plan-for-king-charles-iii-underway-security-expert-says/57dce01b-e6db-4a48-8776-34eff9999cea
What’s the big deal? UK doesn’t produce anything. It’s just a money laundromat masquerading as a country.
Not to worry. They’ll fiddle with the LIBOR rate again and be back in the black in no time.
Those British pigs, entire system is based on fakes and frauds
Go bankrupt for Zelensky, save a Nazi. Stupidity is untreatable.
I LOVE watching the west self-destruct due to their own stupidity. It smells like………… VICTORY!
Pirate Rock’s free lunch is all used up like Slumville USSA. Now the wild colonials, from the plundered, fetid rim of ex expire, stalk the filthy Britland streets with machetes hacking away at the last vestiges of “anglo civiliZation”. Can Jimmy pedovore Saville’s best buddy, aka “king” Charley “save” the bankrupt realm of Satan from total implosion and co££ap$€? Would you allow a Satanic in-bred WASP pedovore demon to babysit your children?
Onward to the end of rump Ukropland and the evil EUSSR slash Natostan that spawned this filth.
Z
Looking at the area around the Gibraltar Dock yard! The Royal navy have two fast patrol boats in place they patrol the waters around Gibraltar. There had been a submarine stationed there after the exit from the EU Gibraltar has a number of vulnerable points and the loss of this area a gateway to the Mediterranean with the ability of the British government to use Gibraltar as a spring board or staging post for military operations would cause the British government major problems I’m thinking of this in line of the recent attacks on the gas pipelines…….