UK consumer confidence, we are told has suffered an "astonishing collapse" with an eight-point plunge in the most closely-watched barometer of consumer confidence. This is the GfK NOP Social Research index of consumer confidence, a survey of 2,000 people, conducted on behalf of the EU commission. It tumbled eight points in January to -29, the sharpest fall since 1992 and the lowest reading in 22 months, "hit by high prices, a rise in value-added tax and looming public spending cuts."

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As we thrash around for answers to these matters, perhaps the answer is steering us in the face, if we join up the dots.
There is mischief about and we have been played for suckers in a game stacked against us.
We will have to examine our preconceived sense of what should be normal and realise that the adgenda of the elites are completely the opposite. One is an expectation and the other is the reality.
Please watch the link, its long and detailed.

ZEITGEIST: MOVING FORWARD | OFFICIAL RELEASE | 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w

People know they're being lied to about inflation, which means tax increases are simply pouring petrol on the fire. They also know that the economy is at best staying out of recession by government spending, bullsh1t and hot air.
They also know that our ruling classes have lost it.
Ol' Abe knew about fooling people.

Nothing then to do with the possibility that people might be paying down their credit card debt and might even have bought all or most to fulfil their needs and desires after the Christmas spending binge and the January sales scramble.

Like happens every year.

My online business is still doing well; still 50%+ growth over last year.

The last thing I bought from a high street shop was shoes five or six years ago. All these big overpriced stores; HMV, John Lewis, etc, really are redundant. They'd be going down even if there was a boom on.

Yup ... online is the biz ... I bought all my Christmas presents this year online ... including a tumbler drier for Mrs EU Referendum. That's what she said she wanted ... so don't ask. But overall economic activity is down. People actually enjoy shopping ... I can't think why .. so if they're buying online, that might be sending a fairly complex message.

This measures "confidence" ... not degrees of brokeness ... in a sense, it measures whether people are prepared to take on more debt.

Isn't that a good thing ?

It would be if there was enough of it ... but either way, we are not taking about cuts in expenditure, just redistribution ... it's the terminology that is wrong.

Well I am not !!!!!!
If you ( the British public ) want to see what has been going on while you have been immersed in TV here is something to ponder on when you think about what has gone wrong !
This list is not complete:
BRITISH CAR MANUFACTURES IN 1950 ( SOME )
Allard
Alivis
Armstrong-Siddeley
Damiler
Hillman
Humber
Jensen
Lanchester
Lea-Francis
Lagonda
Morris
MG
Relient
Riley
Rover
Singer
Standard
Sunbeam
Talbot
Triumph
Vanden-Plas
Wolseley
Now if with factory, suppliers, distributors, etc., each represented 5,000 people, 23 x 5,000 = 115,000 jobs ( 1950 figures ) and this is only the automobile industry, Trucks anyone ? or perhaps earth moving equipment ? and then we could get into the ship building, or aircraft and helicopters, cups and plates, forks and spoons,
It used to be Made in Britain , now the responce is, Britain?, "wheres that "?

Well, nottobrite, I remember a young, enthusiastic John Selwyn Gummer speaking to the Agricultural Merchants' association in 1972, telling us how marvellous the "Common Market" was going yo be for us and for British exports, especially the car industry. Thank you for the list. I have a speech to make next week which will mention "British jobs for British workers" and that will provide a sort of roll call.

Dr. N, you ask: "Are they surprised"? No, I don't think so - what surprises me is that they can find 2000 people who are stupid enough to respond to any question posed by/for euros. The only sensible answer is surely a Parthian: "Poll? Who made it? Who interprets it?"

"It used to be Made in Britain ,"... Yes indeed, nottoobrite, thanks for saying that. Actually, most of the (very well made) old things I look at show: "Made in England." And really the economic formula is so simple - if you don't make anything you can't sell anything, and so you can't afford to buy anything: not even debt and badly made trash from China.

As to: "now the responce is, Britain?, "wheres that"?" - Again, "Yes." That's something I notice increasingly, in the US, especially from the ignorant progeny of migrant hispanic fieldworkers. They make a song and dance about not recognising my 'accent' (received pronunciation). Furthermore, while hating and resenting the fact that the education they buy is conducted in English, they pretend not even to know where the language came from. Yet, my stuck record says, this is one more attitude engendered and fuelled by Marxist/post-colonialist educators - who remain intent on "killing the goose that laid the golden egg."

To that end, part of the euSSR strategy is to keep us busy: swimming in circles, struggling though their fetid pool of franco-german claptrap. I reckon we will survive only if we get out, synthesize our own course of action, and return to the task of 'minding our own businesses.'