It does inflation.

has always had huge political ramifications.

You could go back to like the Roman Empire and the constant, the denarii, these little silver coins getting devalued as they try and pay for these huge wars.

And I don't say that lightly, actually.

You know, I'm saying it sort of...

Not jokingly, but it's to show you that inflation, as you said, kitchen table issue affects everybody.

It doesn't actually even matter what level you're at.

How do you think that the market can generally continue with these kind of rates? And will this put pressure on equity markets?

I- II, is it, is it turning out that way? I mean, how does it, how does what, uh, he, how does he affect, do you think, where rates in, in the US may, may head next? What's he, what's he said so far?

far?The chair of the Federal Reserve is always extremely important for, uh, US interest rates.

I remember a Fed watcher from years ago saying to me, "Look, they're not a democracy." We sometimes get in the, you know, weeds of who voted for this, that, and the other, but it's not a democracy.

So they really set the tone.

Um, also, just to step back from the specifics here, um, new, uh, leaders tend to like to appoint their own person at the central bank.

Uh, George Osborne did that with Mark Carney, people may remember in the UK.

In Japan, there was, uh, Abenomics under Shinzo Abe.

I mean, what's gonna happen to, um, markets in the short and medium term? What, what sort of things should people be weighing up, do you think, at the moment around what, you know, where rates are potentially heading?

And again, that's sort of like the global repercussions that you're seeing.

Well, what we're talking about a lot today, Tom, is paradigm shifts in the global economy and global financial markets.

That 20-year-long period of low inflation and low interest rates gone, dead and buried.

We're in a higher inflation, higher interest rate world.

And it's been like that pretty much since the pandemic and will persist that for at least a decade or more.

So, first of all...

What we are talking about, this mind shift, we're at the foothills.

That was, I mean, that's a big name, isn't it? That's a big chunk of money going.

I'm gonna have to do some maths here to get an average.

[laughs] Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That's, uh...

Well, they, uh, are taking on from what Simon was saying.

The central banks, I think, have got a longer role to play in this.

They're a multi, they're a multi-decade villain potentially.

You think it's the top?

And I think garden centres are able to do that.

My name is Helen Thomas, I work for Plantworks.

I began within the science team within the company but fairly quickly moved to looking after the southeast region sales and now I do a little bit of marketing and also still involved in the sales for the southeast.

so over the last few years obviously it's a lot of um changes within the industry um we had the pandemic we had um that period where everybody was trapped inside but possibly the only uh silver lining was that people became more aware of their gardens of their house plants people began to engage with things like grow your own which is absolutely fantastic and also younger people and um i'd just love to see that momentum continue really um yeah get get more young people get kids involved get teenagers involved get um students get people involved because it is a fantastic thing it's brilliant for your mental health it's brilliant for meeting people social connections it's just a fantastic community and I would love that to just continue to grow really thank you

I'm the National Sales Manager for the Heart of Eden brand.

I'd like some clarity on the peat ban.

I think things start to look considerably better.

Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that there's been actual supply changes that have happened.

There has been shortages, and there has been this issue on fertilizer regarding the planting timelines.

So there has, in a sense, yes, there's been economic damage done, but there's been that adjustment, as you pointed out.

The adjustment has actually been very rapid.

I was quite interested to see Japan... talked about, they were saying in May, half of our oil will not come through the Strait of Hormuz.

I believe they've increased that up to almost 100%.

I had a full head of hair before I started looking at the Bank of England, just to be clear.

Um, how much notice should we take of the IMF and what, what, what do you, uh, analyze from what they said today?

Uh, well, you're right about, uh, focusing on the trend rather than the real point one base point here and there on specifics because it is really quite difficult to get these sorts of forecasts right.

But I think it's a, it's a broader, broader comment here that, you know, the period since the pandemic ushered in a much higher inflation era.

So we should...

We're used to...

Now as you say, not in the 1970s levels, but higher than the la- prior sort of 15-year period, if not 20-year period.

So I think what's quite significant is we're in a higher inflation period and that the UK is consistently coming out as one of those higher inflation economies.

How much effect do you think these forecasts are going to have on Rachel Reeves' calculations?

Um, what's your view on whether she, her position is under threat?

threat?I, it certainly is, and I think that is because of the actions she has taken over this last year, because there was, of course, the rise in National Insurance, which she herself had described as a tax on jobs, you know, when she was in opposition.

Um, and, of course, what a many focus groups describe as the original sin of the removal of Winter Fuel, uh, Allowance, which has obviously now been U-turned.

Uh, frankly, it's just all adding up to being a bit of a mess, and I think if the government had a better narrative, they might be able to sell it, but that's, that just seems to be falling apart at the moment, unfortunately for them.

So they, they, they're rather tied together, aren't they?

Well, they are, and historically, gosh, you can go back a very long way.

It's very difficult to lose your chancellor and continue as prime minister.

In fact, you probably know better than me, uh, when that happened in history, um, as you, you're a real political aficionado.