Britain's Damp Squib Economy.

The Tories are so pleased with the unimagined strength of their economic "recovery" that they are planning to raise the threshold for Inheritance Tax from £325,000 to £1 million handing the richest people in Britain a nice little bonus for all the hardships they've had to endure. Inflation, the Tories are boasting, is at its lowest level for four years while wages are poised to bounce upwards sometime after the 2015 election as their austerity measures begin to take effect. You might be forgiven, however, if you've failed to notice any improvement yourself. The idea that wages will soon begin to rise remains a vague and improbable prediction based largely on wishful thinking - yours not theirs - while inflation remains stubbornly high in terms of the necessities that families need with food prices set to soar and no end in sight as far as rising energy prices are concerned. Meanwhile the idea that an economic boom is at hand is undermined by the latest batch of redundancies with 900 jobs lost as Solway Foods in Corby closes, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank close 28 branches and Royal Mail plans to cut 1,600 jobs. Meanwhile Honda has cut production in Britain by 15% citing the country's weak growth outlook and is looking to shed at least 340 jobs. There can be little doubt that Osborne's policy of austerity is working as planned with money being shovelled out of the pockets of the poor and into the offshore bank accounts of the rich. The news is also good if you happen to have a nice property portfolio as house price inflation continues unabated. For the rest of us, unfortunately, it's yet another round of "we're all in this together" - the smug, selfish and self-serving rich in clover with rest of is in it up to our necks.

Car Industry Tells The Tale.

Honda has today announced 800 redundancies at its plant in Swindon. The reason is that car sales have fallen in Europe by as much as 1 million units. This, you might think, is to be expected against the background of continued recession, high unemployment and lower wages across the continent. Demand is bound to suffer under such circumstances. However, the contrast between Honda and other manufacturers such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Bentley couldn't be more stark. The sale of luxury cars is actually climbing. Good news for them and those that work for them, but what does it tell us about the economy as a whole? Put simply the rich are getting richer and are shrugging off the effects of the recession as if it doesn't exist while the poor are getting poorer and are struggling to pay day-to-day bills. Why is this? Because governments across Europe, with a few exceptions, are determined that the poor must pay for the mistakes of the wealthy. The greatest exception has been France where taxes on the rich have been put up to 75%. But what hs been the result? Gérard Depardieu has quit his country and taken out Russian citizenship simply to avoid paying taxes, proving quite conclusively that for people like him patriotism is well and truly dead. David Cameron has already laid out Britain's stall when it comes to inviting the Gallic greedy and selfish to cross the Channel and take up residence here. But then what would you expect from a country where Bentley sales are rising while the sale of Hondas is collapsing. That says it all really.