10.03.2026 09:03
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See also pump-action moisturiser bottles.
Shelled out £15 on a massive Aveeno and it's effin useless.
The beauty of the Marmite jar is that there are no flat sides (although one is of course much wider) - it works in any of the orientations. It's a marvel of product design! 😀
Have only recently discovered that Marmite jars are designed to be tipped onto their sides so that when you're running low, the Marmite pools into the curved side so it's easy to extract with a knife.
Probably the sort of thing everyone else knew.
Some examples of how the energy crisis is affecting South Asia.
1. Pakistan will close schools for the next two weeks, get government employees to work from home and universities will shift to online learning.
www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...
A BoE rate cut is back on the cards in terms of market pricing, albeit tentatively.
Slightly more than an even chance of a quarter-point cut priced in for year-end.
Much better start to the day for the gilt market - yields are down.
Not super dramatically in the scheme of things - still elevated vs a week ago - but it makes a change. 🌻
The Treasury
We have an astoundingly crowded political and media market for a 13% proposition, it must be said.
Comparison of international bonds. Gilts show the largest increase in yields, meaning they have sustained the heaviest losses.
Two-year gilt yield seems to have stabilised at around 25 basis points up on the day for the last hour or so, having briefly been up around 37 bps at one point this morning.
ie. currently "bloody atrocious" vs "faaaackin ell!" earlier
New video footage shows a US Tomahawk missile hitting an IRGC facility in Minab, Iran, on Feb 28, showing for the first time that the US struck the area. The footage also shows smoke already rising from the vicinity of the girls’ school, where 175 people were reportedly killed, including children.
ie. This looks like an extraordinarily violent repricing, rather than the market falling apart, per se.
Investors are no longer pricing rate cuts but rate hikes from the Bank of England
Two-year gilt yields are now up over 30 bps on the day.
I hate to say it but that is truly a move of mini-budget proportions, if it persists - although a big difference is that the market seems to be functioning a lot better, so it's not the same in that regard.
Gilts getting absolutely rinsed at market open. 😔
5-year yield is up 23 basis points on the day, hitting a 1-year high.
UK specific reminder: when oil hit the 2008 high of around $145 the pound bought about two dollars.
"We've got an economic plan and it is the right one ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶e̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶f̶f̶e̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶g̶l̶o̶b̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶t̶s̶.̶"̶
...but as a small open economy we are bound to be influenced by global events and will respond accordingly."
And I don't know if that if that is in Reeves' blood.
To listen to her, we are still following the 2024 plan and it's the world that has kept getting in the way.
Reeves is arguably the first Chancellor since Osborne to have articulated an intellectual framework for her policymaking.
But actually I think Osborne was in practice quite flexible about changing tack when he needed to (which is not to endorse his actions/legacy etc)
Reeves has championed "securonomics," or the need for governments to prepare for an era of constant shocks. But this month she blamed U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and global conflicts for eating up the small fiscal buffer she set herself.
On a more philosophical note, I do find the tension between the Chancellor as theorist, and Chancellor as practitioner, a source of real interest.
And here
bsky.app/profile/thom...
As others remarked at the time 👇
bsky.app/profile/thea...
I would have just not said this, but what do I know?
Explainer: Why is the UK at high risk from Iran-fuelled energy price surge? www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
What does that mean? Far less capacity for Bank of England to "look through" an energy price shock like this before it becomes embedded in price-setting and wage expectations.
That's why it now looks unlikely the BoE will cut in March. In fact the market no longer sees a cut this year as v likely.
UK inflation expectations were elevated before the Iran energy price shock.
Some economists (eg. Oxford Economics) think the inflationary effect on the eurozone may be slightly bigger than in the UK - but inflation there is starting from a lower base (Jan CPI 1.7% vs 3.0%)
And UK situation in terms of inflation expectations was already less than ideal.
Chart shows Britain has suffered the biggest increase in 2-year government borrowing costs out of G7 countries so far this month.
Things investors have honed in on:
• ~30% of Britain's electricity comes from gas-fired plants, vs 17% in Germany and 3% France
• gas used for heating in >70% of UK homes
• UK gas storage ~12 days of demand (Germany 90, France >100)
Gilts have been under the cosh as BoE rate cut bets withdrawn 👇
Explainer: Why is the UK at high risk from Iran-fuelled energy price surge? www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike - www.reuters.com/world/middle...
I have a sneaking suspicion that the official answer might reflect that - ie. it might depend on whether individual households view digital subs as "newspapers & periodicals"
I'm afraid I don't know. I keep meaning to ask the ONS but haven't got round to it!
