It’s one of the most famous movie lines in history uttered by the Terminator.
It came to mind when I was reviewing the economic outlook for 2008. Gordon Brown as Chancellor, has tried to convince us over the last 10 years that inflation has been tamed and will never “Be Back” in the UK. Sorry Gordon but, it’s already back and rising! Inflation as measured by Gordon’s creation, the CPI, is at a seven year high of 3%. But, this measure is now widely discredited as representing inflation, experienced by householders & consumers. The more reliable RPI measure (includes the cost of mortgages & energy) is already at 4.2% and is widely expected to rise in 2008 as record prices for energy are progressively passed through to consumers, food prices continue to rise & factory gate prices increase.
Gordon Brown & Alistair Darling have got themselves into a bind. The credit market is in turmoil with Northern Rock the first casualty. The Bank of England are already on course to keep interest rates down as financial institutions tighten up their credit terms. At the end of the day both the Government & the BoE will connive to keep interests rates as low as possible….which is where inflation will progressively take its toll. Inflation is politically more acceptable than a housing crisis and negative equity (remember the early ’90’s). Gordon’s government has already made that choice.
Inflation will be back!
Categories: Economy
Tagged: Arnie, Economy, Inflation, Politics, Schwartzenegger, Terminator
The Home Office says: ‘Using false identity documents is a serious offence. Under the Identity Cards Act you can be imprisoned up to ten years.
“Canoe Man”, John Hopkins is probably going to test whether the Home Office means what it says. He allegedly searched the register of child deaths for the year he was born and then successfully applied for a passport in the name of John Jones. Yet a quick Google search using “Fake UK ID” appears to be an even simpler route to obtaining a fake identity in the UK. Within 5 minutes of browsing I found several sites offering to produce Fake Diplomas & degrees, a complete New Identity, Proof of Age cards, Student Cards, National Identity Card, Driving Licences.
All these sites suggest they are selling “fake” or, “novelty” documents, presumably to protect themselves. Other sites, not listed above also offer fake passports, fake utility bills and even custom designed identity.
Clearly, identity fraud is out of control. Registry Offices in particular appear to be targeted by fraudsters wishing to register non existent births, using false documents…….presumably to falsely claim child benefit. Registrars are requested to report suspected fake documents to the Home Office or, the Immigration Service, both of whom seem too pre-occupied with other matters to take effective action.
Technology has brought the production of fake documents from the back street to the living room and lowered the cost. The benefit & entitlement world and “open door” immigration policy, created by New Labour, has unwittingly fuelled a boom in identity fraud. A fake student card can help you get a 50% reduction in your Council Tax bill, a fake driving licence can help you get a job or, “eliminate” driving convictions. Fake identities provide an easy but, fraudulent route to government benefits, improving an individual’s immigration status and the sort of financial fraud allegedly committed by canoe man John Hopkins. See also my earlier post on false utility bills.
The Government would have us believe that biometric identity cards are the answer to all these problems but, the constant revelations of Government agencies losing millions of personal records may have killed of their dream. We may have to wait until technology enables instant DNA sampling, analysis & cross referencing. Until then, Government could do much, much more to raise the current lax standards in preventing, detecting and prosecuting identity fraud. A sign that they are serious would simply be to contact Google & other search sites & request that they remove paid advertsing from the sites offering fraud (or, “novelty”) identity documents.
In the mean time, back to the opening sentence of this post, does anyone know how many successful prosecutions there are for identity fraud?
Categories: Financial · Immigration · crime
Tagged: Canoe Man, Documents, Fake, Fraud, Google, Hopkins, ID, Identity, Illegal, John, Panama
The “Richest Suburb” in the UK is Oxshott & Stoke D’Abernon which is described as “in a golden triangle between Leatherhead, Esher & Cobham“. Whoa! I never thought I lived in a golden triangle. No wonder I get a ringing in my ears when the mortgage payment is due. The primary reason for the top position appears to be due to the Crown Estate, built in the ’50’s & ’60’s. The original houses, on large plots, are progressively being replaced by “6-10,000 sq ft mansions”!
