TommyTwoShots

100%. Middle-class taxes (especially directors) have gone up. No NI cuts apply for Directors due to the way they take Dividends. Instead, directors get just £500 dividend allowance from 5th April, and their company profits are being taxed higher (since last year) while sales are halving (for non-essential retail). No drive for Directors. I'm planning to quit. Nice once Rishi/Jeremy.
Being an entrepreneur will be pointless. Without entrepreneurs, there would be less innovation. Also, the middle class mostly has mortgages, and we all know what's happening with interest rates.
So the middle is genuinely struggling. However, it will be even harder for lower income earners (food, energy will hurt them most). But minimum wage is going up quite a lot this week - so there's no denying that middle and lower are merging to one class.
But we genuinely need both classes because all job roles in life are important and necessary to make the world work.
God knows where this will end up. UK is becoming a slum. 

Sorry just about breaking even at this price.

Was worth a try..🤦🏻‍♂️

I would have put them on here in the Today i recieved 😄

Absolutely.  Those Sigma machines are hugely expensive and can't be justified unless you have a large collection/ turnover of coins.  A simple ping test and comparing like for like should be fine. Only the King George I'd slightly worry if it was my first but the others no problems.  The chances of one of these five being fake is about 0.001% .  Who can say what will happen in 10 or 20 years time with technology and the Chinese but I'd wouldn't worry too much about these coins

I’ll take 2 please pm me

https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-proof-sovereign-qeii-memorial-ngc-pf-70-coin/18963
 
seemed like a good deal

https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-proof-sovereign-qeii-memorial-ngc-pf-70-coin/18963
 
seemed like a good deal

https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-proof-sovereign-qeii-memorial-ngc-pf-70-coin/18963
 
seemed like a good deal

https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-proof-sovereign-qeii-memorial-ngc-pf-70-coin/18963
 
seemed like a good deal

https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-proof-sovereign-qeii-memorial-ngc-pf-70-coin/18963
 
seemed like a good deal

Very few sane people would agree with this. Once you mentioned “Brandon” it became even less of a sound argument. There are plenty of problems with the current US President though they pale in comparison to the grifting and criminality of the previous one.
Conspiracy theories aside, I don’t envision a world where the UK and US would chose trading in a Chinese backed currency over dollars. Our two countries are linked with both common ideals and language and have sat at the top of global power for centuries. Countries run by dictators (China and Russia) will not easily displace those with free elections and global influence.  Who really knows how long Putin will even be in power after the latest insurgency there and no one trusts China!

Well i will say you are mistaken. You know about the swastika and Aryan b/c of National Socialism. National Socialism had some interesting ideas but the whole well is poisoned now b/c of the holocaust narrative which we have mentioned on another thread. The swastika is an ancient religious symbol of these people who migrated over large swathes of the world.
'Civilisation started in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley' - i will paraphrase this - agriculture started in these fertile 'grow zones' and with that a civilisation can develop.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/swastika - Sanskrit svastika, meaning “conducive to well-being.” It was a favourite symbol on ancient Mesopotamian coinage.

Researchers Find the Swastika Predates the Indus Valley Civilization - https://www.indiadivine.org/researchers-find-swastika-predates-indus-valley-civilization/
How did this happen? Like i said these people brought the wheel, the horse and agriculture to the world. With agriculture you can form settlements and develop a civilisation. This is not popular with the establishment - they want you to believe out of Africa and missing links and now Cleopatra was a Black woman.

@sixgun
No I didn't say any of those things I just think you're demonstrably mistaken. Civilisation started in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, unless you're telling me they were the Aryan race. Further, there were civilisations before written history, a lost civilisation. We have proof of this, it's written in megalithic structures on every continent and under every ocean
I don't think it's racist to be proud of your own race. If you identify with Aryan, that's fine, be Aryan and say you're the best, it's what everybody else does from the Han Chinese to the Japanese, Slavs, French, British, Africans and Americans. I just think it's rather silly and antiquated

Are you accusing someone of thinking irrationally?
i wasn't quite sure what you meant by 'untapped' gold reserves b/c it meant gold in the ground to me. So i looked it up and it means gold in the ground. What has that got to do with a discussion about above ground gold reserves? 
They say all the gold that has ever been mined is still held by someone - well that won't quite be true but the vast majority of the gold ever mined will be. There is clearly more than 50 000 tonnes of above ground gold. The amount in the ground will never been definitely known - gold finds are occuring all the time and how much is in the ground hasn't got much to do with above ground gold reserved held by nations. You heard the 40 000 tonne estimate of London Paul - he makes a strong case and gives some evidence based calculations to support his view. Maguire has given a similar estimate - i have heard estimates from 20 000 tonnes upwards. I said i suspected Russia has more - i didn't put a number on it. There is a lot of old gold in Russia from the time of the Tsar who was the richest man on the planet at the time. Russia is a very big country - it mines a lot of gold. Russia has been attacked with dollar sanctions for a long time now - there will be a strong drive to stack gold to the raffters. 

The US had a lot more than 8 000 tonnes. It had around 25 000 tonnes in 1950. That was 70 years ago - a lot of gold has been mined since. i see here the estimate is there is 208 000 tonnes of above ground gold.
https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/how-much-gold
This number will not be accurate - some nations are wildly under reporting - some are wildly over reporting. It is all guesswork. i expect the 208 000 tonnes is a lot more than you expected - and i expect this is short of the real number. What the US claims to have is in reality insignificant - especially as i expect there are just a few bars of gold for show - which might not be genuine anyway.
 
This is Peter Zeihan - you will know what i think - i look at the tie - i think Twat. What is he doing with a Ukraine tie on? What is this virtue signalling Washington lacky up to? i am surprised i don't see pronouns on the Twitter profile. He has no judgement. His opinion becomes worthless to me. He will be paid to spin an anti-China line. He will be a disinfo merchant - an agent for the regime.
Absolutely - one of the primary reasons for the Ukraine folly. Collapse the Russian economy - get Putin out - put a puppet in and then asset strip the country. It didn't work and in the process the US has done a massive number on Europe and UK. 
Yeah you probably are wasting your time - but you post points and it give me an excuse to cover them - someone may benefit from the interaction.
i am predicting the collapse of the USD - along with every man and his dog. As Chris Duane likes to point out - it is a mathematical certainty. The collapse of the dollar does not depend on a viable anything. 
You see this is where you fall down - you are locked into a 1990 mindset - the West is foooked - it is bankrupt and it has exported its industrial base. All it has is pieces of paper and digits on computers - the biggest asset of the West is the people of European decent. They are the people who brought civilisation to the world - right back to the waves of Aryans coming out from the Caucasus mountains with the horse, the wheel and agriculture. Except the people have been ground down by two World Wars and all the propaganda since then. 
Russia sold off all the US Treasuries a few years ago - it has been sanctioned to the eyeballs so Russia got rid of US assets.
The last number i saw this morning for China was on Twitter. - $420 billion in Treasuries. The Fed and the Exchange Stabilisation Fund is buying Treasuries - billions are being dumped into offshore corps in places like the Cayman Islands - it is all to keep up appearances. The Emperor has no clothes but must convince everyone he has a coat of many colours.

When the USD collapses - the Western financial system melts down to zero - this will happen - banks and central banks are all linked in a daisychain of liabilities - they would all go down and no-one would want their paper. It will be every man for himself and if you don't have unfettered gold you will be out in the cold.
The BRICS countries are about building ties - cooperation - i heard that the gold currency won't be this August - they are pushing hard for trading between each other using their own currencies. This is code for de-dollarisation on steroids - then the head shot will come with the gold currency. It will not matter what the West thinks - the West will have spun out of control and be face down in the gutter. This is the reality of things. The Global South will manage on its own - it has most of the resources and most of the people. 
i have written enough now except to say i disagree with pretty everything else you have written - it will not be Russia / China pushing for a war - it will be the US -  its primary exports are death and debt so it knows no other - the problem with this is the US cannot deal with a united Russia China - it just cannot be done - if it were 1990 yeah it would be possible but the world has changed - unfortunately a lot of people's thinking hasn't.
If BRICS want a new currency - they will have a new currency. If it is gold backed then the USD is toast - the market will sort that out in a few sessions. No-one will want Western paper and unless you have gold you are finished - it will be trading using barter. Mad Max rides again. Be prepared.

I quote:
So it's not more than I expected, it's what I said myself!!
Baby out with the bathwater. I said specifically listen to people according to their skillset. Listen to Colonel MacGregor on military matters and listen to Zeihan on macroeconomics. When the Colonel talks about economics and the academic talks about war, take it with a pinch of salt
It quite clearly does. For the global reserve currency to change from USD to something else, the something else has to exist. The USD is backed by the US economy and most importantly, by the US military, which is still the strongest force on the planet by considerable margin. The holder of the global reserve currency will be the wielder of the strongest military. That is clearly not Russia and it's not China either. This is why I state that in order for the global reserve currency to change from USD the USA has to first engage in and take heavy losses from a world war or else lose a world war. Under those circumstances monetary policy will be the least of our concerns. Staying alive will be priority #1, #2 and #3
Sure, there will probably be a new trade settlement mechanism between BRICS countries, not a global currency. Within the BRICS there are some serious disagreements. India and China aren't exactly best friends. Both are competing to be the next global leader and guess who's going to win? India, not China. India is a democracy, at least in principle, speaks English and is friendly with the west, at least relative to China and Russia. The CCP are the "Middle Kingdom" and they genuinely believe the whole world should answer to them and pay tribute to their Middle Kingdom. India have other ideas, indeed so does Russia. The Brazilians would probably have notions of their own if their economy and military were up to it. We shouldn't discount the Saudis either from this global power game. They have some incredibly ambitious projects in the works, which will probably collapse or fail to meet expectations, but if the Crown Prince is successful with all his endeavours, Saudi Arabia will become a global power. 
This is a bizarre statement bordering on xenophobic. Hard to believe you used the phrase, "Aryan in nature". So you believe the Aryans are the superior race? Nope. Wrong. We (the white people) are not superior in the general sense due to our genetics. We are superior, in the general sense, due to our religion - Christianity - along with our laws and culture. It is from Christianity, the reformed Protestant version, that we gain our strength, that we gain our human rights, our sovereign right to self-determination, our freedom, our democracy, our laws and our culture. If a non-Aryan comes to the English-speaking world, becomes Christian and follows (English) Common Law, or a hybrid Common Law/Scots Law system like in Scotland, then they too can be "superior". It's nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with the character of individuals, churches, villages, towns, cities and the state as a whole
My friend, civilisation did not originate with "the Aryans". If we take the classically accepted view of written history, then it was the Sumerians in Mesopotamia who "invented civilisation" or possibly it was those in the Indus Valley (India), there is evidence to suggest both of them were actually linked. I don't believe it was either of those as I am a believer in the "Lost Civilisation" theory. There was something before written history, a culture that built the Pyramids not just in Egypt but over the entire planet, from South America to China and Japan, their marks have been left under every ocean and on every continent
There have been many civilisations since the Sumerians/Indus Valley - Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Vikings, Normans and the Chinese to name a few. The Chinese were farther ahead of western Europe 500-600 years ago than western Europe is ahead of Africa today. The Aryans did not invent civilisation by any stretch of the imagination, they didn't invent Christianity or Common Law either. Many of our scientific advancements can be traced back to India and China, even the earliest version of football originated in China, not in England. 

Gentlemen let's think rationally. If the total proven untapped gold reserves across the entire planet are roughly 50,000 tonnes, is it likely any one country owns 40 or 50,000 tonnes of gold? No, it's not, especially when the largest and richest empire to ever exist (the USA) only has roughly 8,000 tonnes. Where is all the extra gold coming from to give Russia or China 5 times more gold each than the USA? 
It was you @sixgun making claims that China has > 40,000 tonnes of gold and Russia has more gold still, so it's a legitimate question to ask, "how much gold does Russia have, 50,000 tonnes?"
As for Colonel Macgregor, I specifically mentioned Ukraine. He's a military man, not a geopolitical scientist or macroeconomic analyst. To get the geopolitics and macroeconomics listen to Peter Zeihan. Again nobody is right all of the time even in their specialist subjects but Zeihan will paint you a solid picture with robust statistics about the true situation in China and Russia. You don't need Zeihan to do that for you, it's possible to paint an accurate picture by using publicly available resources. China is not a growing monster. It is a dragon that is starting to fall from the sky. The CCP are wildly breathing fire and putting on a big show on their way out but all we have to do is stand back and wait until the dragon hits the ground and goes splat
Russia is the most resource-blessed planet on earth, especially if including former Soviet Bloc countries and territories within the Russian sphere like say Sevastopol and the Crimean peninsula. Even without these Russia is the largest country and while they might get more than their fair share it's not egregiously more considering the land mass. It's an absolute boatload when considering their relatively small population though ($75 trillion estimated resources = $500,000 per capita)
I know I'm wasting my time but if you're predicting the collapse of the USD then please provide me with your viable alternative. It is not the BRICS as they simply don't have enough influence or credibility in the west, whereas all BRICS own USD/US Treasuries. It's not the EU as they are in just as big if not a bigger mess than the USA. It's not going to be GBP or Yen as they're too small. It's not going to be RMB when China by itself has printed more money than every other nation on the planet combined. Consider that for a moment. If the USD is failing due to money printing, inflation, breakdown of financial system, then what is the picture in China? Oh you don't know, you just assign China supernatural characteristics? China is falling apart. For the first time in more than 40 years, the price of Chinese real estate is falling. That's more important in China than in the west due to culture and regulations. Chinese do not own multiple stocks and shares accounts (the Chinese market is a freakshow). They don't have their capital spread out globally as the CCP has capital controls in place (max $50K USD taken out of China per citizen). So the vast majority of Chinese domestic wealth is in Chinese real estate, with this market being the largest real estate market in the world. It is not uncommon for a middle-class Chinese person to own 3 or 4 properties. If real estate prices fall, and China is currently in the midst of an almighty financial crisis, then Chinese citizens immediately lose savings and wealth. The Chinese real estate market is too big a topic for me to tag on here but there are many excellent resources out there documenting what is happening, including in Mandarin from Chinese nationals
The TL;DR is the USA will not lose global reserve status until events happen that facilitate a change in global leader status. This has happened every time in recorded history. Can we guess what it is? Yes, it's war. A world war in modern context is required to change the global reserve currency, probably a war that the USA loses although not necessarily. The USA could go to war with China, they could seriously weaken each other, then a militarised EU could feasibly take over due to their better finances akin to what happened with the USA and UK during WWI-WWII. In such a world war scenario in which the USA loses or obliterates the opposition (the UK will be fighting with the USA side-by-side), we're not going to care so much about global currencies, we'll be more worried about saving our families and staying alive. Gold and silver will be super important. Western Europe has roughly as much gold as the USA, Russia and China combined. 
Anyway, TL;DR as usual. We should spend less time trying to disprove each other and more time coming to consensus over factually accurate information. 

I love you mate and I love Americans but you can't seriously stick up for Brandon and call him less of a criminal than Trump without some blowback. Biden is the most corrupt POTUS perhaps ever, and that's saying something. Trump was a billionaire before he took office and he will be a billionaire in 2024 when he re-takes the Oval Office. He has no more need or interest in corruption, he just wants to be a great President and for people to like him. 
"Plenty of problems with the US President". Yes, this is true like:
1) Shitting himself, literally, while giving an interview
2) Instead of saying, "God Bless America", he said, "God save the Queen, man"
3) Instead of saying the New Zealand All Blacks (world's #1 rugby team) he said, "The Black and Tans", from the Anglo-Irish conflict
4) He can't walk up a flight of stairs
5) His son is a junky and has been selling the Oval Office around the globe like a cheap 304, giving kick-backs to "the big guy"
6) He repeats words on the prompters. End of sentence. Repeat. Start new sentence. "America can be summed up by one word and that word is ............ agoitwouehotqqpitqitjegh"
7) He's a pervert and acts in an extremely inappropriate way in the presence of young girls. He has made several statements that warrant serious investigation but than again, the FBI are almost as corrupt as he is
8 ) He hates the United Kingdom and acts with open disdain and prejudice towards us, just like the last Democratic idiot in the White House - Barack Obama
9) He's a Democrat
10) He is on record saying one thing yet as POTUS he has done the complete opposite. He is not in control of his own bowel movements let alone the Oval Office. He is a puppet. That is why Trump terrifies everybody because he is in control of his own thoughts and isn't scared to tell the truth. 
TRUMP 2024 - Make America Great Again
Stay Safe, Stay Second Amendment!

China and Russia will never make this work. What exactly are they going to do? Make their ~ 4,000 combined tonnes of gold be worth more than the USA's ~  8,000 tonnes? Western Europe has more gold than the USA, indeed, western Europe has more gold than the rest of the world combined if you exclude the USA, who are #2 on the global list (assuming JPM have more than rocks in their bags). So how exactly are the BRICS operating a global gold-backed currency when the west has way more gold than them?
Gold Reserves by Country 2023 | World Gold Council
The west is infinitely more credible when it comes to banking and commerce. The Russians and Chinese have an historical habit of ya know, just stealing everything and slaughtering everyone, as Communists tend to do every few years. Look at Jack Ma, look at RAY DALIO and BMW who can't get their money out of China along with everybody else. They are going to convert their entire net worth into BRICS digital currency are they and leave it subject to the whims of Emperor Xi and Tzar Putin? Not even Brandon is that stupid
Texas has already made significant progress implementing their digital currency backed 1-to-1 with physical gold and silver. Don't mess with Texas, mate:
Texas to Introduce a Digital Currency Fully Backed by Gold and Silver (suissegold.eu)
In a groundbreaking move, the Texas House Committee on State Affairs has unanimously passed a bill that aims to establish a 100% reserve, gold and silver-backed transactional bank. The bill, House Bill 3916 (HB 3916), proposes to create the "Texas Bullion Depository Bank" (TBDB) - a state-chartered and privately-managed bank that will operate exclusively on a 100% reserve basis, using gold and silver as its primary assets.

Thanks @Bigmarc. Once again I'm inclined to follow Buffett's advice, only invest in things you understand and I don't understand crypto. Fundamentally boils down to not permitting others to know where/how much your wealth is. Crypto whilst suggested as being anonymous, isn't. There's a association between in and out flows into regular currency/bank accounts that sooner or later must occur. Along with a vapourware risk, regulated or whatever out of the market. Physical gold retains my personal preference. Diversifying physical in-hand alongside digital gold of the form of a ETF/C backed by physical gold is enough digital for my needs/objectives. Not as quick maybe, T+2 trade time, but most of my spending is via credit cards that I pay off in full once/month at a set date such that T+2 is fine.

Why ?
Because UK it's a "business" country.
You like a normal person are weighted like a source of profit where your only life scope is to be mugged by the company's. 
Everything in the name of profit. 
Savage capitalism imported from US.

A store of value is literally just that - something of value that is stored. 
Your house is a store of value, your bonds are a store of value, your blue chip stocks are a store of value, your pound notes are a store of value…. They’re assets.
There are some zealots that will argue that only PMs are true stores of value, because they want and need to you believe the same.
The relative value of each asset will vary. The benchmark is performance against inflation, but everything experiences volatility based on supply and demand.
Currency is a great store of value in the short term, but is eroded by inflation if left under your bed. 

Mine are stacked in three locations. One buried.

Do you mind me asking who your safe deposit box is with, because I was looking at opening one myself?  Are they nation wide?
Metro Bank in the next town to me provide safe deposit boxes but their smallest is £240 p.a.  I opened a cash account with them as the first step in getting a box, which is required to have a safe deposit box with them.  The account opening was not a smooth process, so I was not generally impressed with them.
Ideally I would like somewhere better than them and hopefully cheaper.  Any info would be welcome.

Cheers knowledgable people. Great advice as always. This place really is my go to place for bullion.