What a time of contrasts! We are told that we are still to expect austerity measures yet the world’s big businesses are reporting increased profits. The poor beleaguered banks are back to posting eye-watering earnings again (albeit retaining millions to repay customers for the mis-selling of various products in the past). Food banks, however, are reporting all-time highs in the number of requests that they are receiving for help, yet we read reports of City-Types – I won’t use the word Gents in these circumstances – paying tens of thousands for their bar bills in a bid to out-spend their rivals. Whilst this is not intended to be a column about social injustice, it seems that as things may be starting to look better for the country, and that the corner has been turned, the already yawning gap between the rich and the poor is widening apace. However, for those of us in the middle, things in the main seem to be much as they were. Interest rates remain at all-time lows (good for mortgage payers, not so good for savers); inflation has stayed bearable – though I don’t much like the look of the energy price rises; and have you noticed the effects of food-price inflation recently?
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