I don't think it's a good idea. Let's say you set it at, say £100 a week. Not a fortune by any means. Yet, to give to every UK adult, that will cost (approx) 4.5 billion pounds a week! So you then need to fund that with higher taxes/inflation/borrowing, a further burden on the workforce, making lower paid jobs even less atractive.

Wouldn't it be better to lower benefits and use the money saved to raise the income tax threshold, thus making work more financially attractive from two directions? Then you've got a virtuous circle of lower unemployment and lower tax? It's bonkers that people are presented with a choice of welfare that provides a higher income than wages, then labelled "lazy" for making that choice!

Your comments about the welfare system got me thinking about Basic Income again. What do you think about a society supported by Basic Income?

I understand the feeling.

The BoE has indeed been complicit with the damage done. If those with power and wealth do close off all avenues of peaceful and democratic dialogue and change then there will be no alternative but civil unrest and disobedience.

I do not think this will be solved by our present system and choice of parties. Nor do I think the Unions are any less wedded to the over all design of the system than those they opose. They would like a more equitable division of the spoils from the system. But I do not hear from them any radical ideas of changing a system which is intrinsically devoted to growth at all costs.

I personally feel we at a moment where more profound change and re-evaluation is required.

The bank bailouts were a total disgrace and in all seriousness we should be ashamed of ourselves that we haven't marched on the Palace of Westminster and The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street and burnt those fuckers to the ground.
(When I say "we" I don't just mean me and you, I mean the whole fucking country)

That said, we have a welfare system that often pays more than low paid work. I mean, what the…? The fact that reform is needed isn't changed by the evil of the bailouts. The opportune time though was at the height of the boom, when there were actually jobs for people on welfare to move to (albeit false non jobs based on cheap credit malinvestment, but hey).

Regarding your bond idea, the idea of the BoE getting still further involved in the economy just scares me. Don't you think they've done enough damage already?

(sorry about the swearing, feels good though)