Tories have frittered away half a trillion pounds. Is this good financial management?

This looks like another result of Brexit.

It is balance of payments data – the difference between the amount we pay to foreign countries for goods and services and the amount we receive – that shows the loss.

Also, direct investment in the UK by foreign firms has nose-dived.

It is exactly as This Writer warned, only a few days ago.

The really galling aspect of this is that the minority Conservative government will still claim to be the party of sensible financial management, even though it is its own division over Brexit that has created the uncertainty in which the money has disappeared.

Remember: Brexit is happening because David Cameron thought a referendum on EU membership would unify the Tories. It didn’t.

Remember: The vote to leave the European Union was based very strongly on lies and wild speculation by people who knew better but were trying to trick the public. There was never any chance of the NHS seeing £350 million of investment per week, for example.

Remember: The Conservatives have botched negotiations on the terms of our departure so badly that businesses are fleeing the UK. They can’t get away fast enough.

The longer this farce continues, the worse it will be for the UK as a whole.

And it will be the poor who bear the brunt of the harm.

Global banks and international bond strategists have been left stunned by revised ONS figures showing that Britain is £490bn poorer than had been ­assumed and no longer has any reserve of net foreign assets, depriving the country of its safety margin as Brexit talks reach a crucial juncture.

A massive write-down in the UK balance of payments data shows that Britain’s stock of wealth – the net international investment position – has collapsed from a surplus of £469bn to a net deficit of £22bn. This transforms the outlook for sterling and the gilts markets.

“Half a trillion pounds has gone missing. This is equivalent to 25pc of GDP,” said Mark Capleton, UK rates strategist at Bank of America.

Making matters worse, foreign ­direct investment (FDI) by companies is plummeting. It fell from a £120bn surplus in the first half 2016 to a £25bn deficit over the same period of this year.

Source: Britain’s missing billions: Revised figures reveal UK is £490bn poorer than previously thought


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17 Comments

  1. jcashbyblog October 16, 2017 at 10:13 am - Reply

    Read Nick Clegg’s How to Stop Brexit, now. Its all there; the plutocrat/media propaganda and lobbying, the dire, dire consequences and “how to stop it” strategies.

  2. Pjb October 16, 2017 at 10:20 am - Reply

    It isn’t the tories money and they treat it like confetti because they can as there is no one trying to stop them

  3. NMac October 16, 2017 at 10:38 am - Reply

    Yet there are still people who believe Tories are competent. They cannot see their incompetence, dishonesty and corruption.

  4. Malc October 16, 2017 at 10:41 am - Reply

    Half a TRILLION!!!!!!!!!

  5. The Toffee October 16, 2017 at 10:46 am - Reply

    Half a billion or TRILLION pounds?

    Anyways…

    Hmmm….Remember what happened the very next day** after Rumsfeld said the US Govt. couldn’t account for $2.3 trillion of defence spending??

    ** (Clue: The announcement he made was 10/10/2001)

  6. marcusdemowbray October 16, 2017 at 12:37 pm - Reply

    Criminal.

  7. John O'Donoghue October 16, 2017 at 1:02 pm - Reply

    your headline needs correction: it’s half a trillion pounds. £490 billion. A thousand times worse than you thought!

    • Mike Sivier December 22, 2017 at 7:39 pm - Reply

      A typo.

  8. damo October 16, 2017 at 3:19 pm - Reply

    Yes it will be the poor who will be made to bear the brunt of this just like the poor who have and are still being made to repay the banking crash of 2008 this sad country is already starting to implode under this finnacial chaos here in any main road you walk down is filled with the homeless and abandoned mentaly ill while at the same time as people are being socialy cleansed the wealthy middleclass are flooding in….like invation…of the body snatchers….of course it will be the poor made to pay …christ …here we go again

  9. Peter Kent October 16, 2017 at 3:55 pm - Reply

    Headline says “half a billion” but the article says “half a trillion”. Or have I misunderstood something?

  10. John Carlisle October 16, 2017 at 4:00 pm - Reply

    You mean half a TRILLION!

  11. John Carlisle October 16, 2017 at 4:02 pm - Reply

    Why is my first comment again talking over 6 hours to moderate?

    • Mike Sivier December 22, 2017 at 7:38 pm - Reply

      Because I was highly overworked at the time. Am currently moderating while ill.

  12. chriskitcher October 16, 2017 at 4:02 pm - Reply

    They are destroying the country in order to keep together a political party that ha past its “sell by date”. How can we make urge that they ar consigned to the waste bin?
    With food past its sell by date it’s the smell of decomposition the initiates the process.
    Question is “how can we increase the stink of capitalism” so as to hasten it journey to the waste bin?

  13. HomerJS October 16, 2017 at 5:34 pm - Reply

    Half a TRILLION Mike.

  14. LD October 17, 2017 at 5:24 am - Reply

    Incorrect heading – it shoyld read half a TRILLION, not half a billion.

  15. aunty1960 October 17, 2017 at 11:01 am - Reply

    NIGHTMARE!! and did you see Junker and co-speaker dissolving into giggles and laughter trying to contain themselves at May flying in to attend a dinner and persuade them as to how it goes. And where is your Leaverage Ms May? and Bumbles Boris trying to get foreign dignitaries into a small rowing boat for a PR shot. His wife trying to pull him away and say Forget the boat, attend to your guests. Boris just looks forelonely on starring at this tiny row boat for some stupid photo opportunity in his mind. Wifey trying to get his attention. You turn round to see all the foreign dignitaries in his garden being very polite sipping champs thinking WTF!! is going on with that buffoon, Great Foreign Secretary.

    WE ARE A FARCE AND THIS LOT IS MAKING UK A MOCKERY TO THE WHOLE WORLD.

    Junker said he would not be speaking English any more as Britain insignificant. And our govt is making it so.

    There is weight, there is weight in the business community because it is they that will suffer. If the whole of EU business community and farmers stood up to EU re their dictates and stupid directives and trying to cut off countries from one another if they do not knuckle down. They are the weight. Not protests or human rights. EU is not going to cut off and jeopardise billions of worth of contracts and business every year to and from UK.

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