Chris Johns

And energy prices are going up by an average of 13% on July the 1st.

And that will be coming your way too, Jim, because where energy prices are going in the UK, yours and pretty much everybody else's will as well.

the percentage changes may be slightly different, but they're going to be in that kind of a ballpark.

That's a big increase, 13%.

And it's really loaded more onto natural gas rather than electricity.

So the fall in the oil price that we've seen today, over the last few days, in fact, we must all cross our fingers and hope that it continues.

And the interesting thing for me is the question, if the Iran war were to end tonight or tomorrow, yes, we would all applaud and breathe easier.

Should that lead to Schnabel saying that thing about June the 11th, that it's nailed on?

Because if the oil price were, say, to fall back to where it was pre-war, we don't think it is, but who the hell knows?

And the other things that are going on in the economy, because we've talked

at an earlier part about the way the European economy is clearly slowing down, at least according to some indicators, it may be a move that actually vindicates everything that you've been saying, Jim, in that maybe this is the moment, if the Iran war is ending, as we hope it is,

to look through the short-term blip to energy prices and start to focus more on the real economy.

And the real economy is telling them not to raise interest rates.

You've been banging that drum.

And I must say, Jim, I'm coming around to your way of thinking.

I was really, yeah, they're going to have to, you know,

do a lot on interest rates it's a big if that Iran war thing but if there is a sign that he's coming to an end I'd be tempted to be more in your camp now Jim I'm doing something that I rarely do I'm coming around to your way of thinking

If you keep on building these data centres, where's the electricity going to come from is the obvious question to ask.

But what you're saying there, Jim, I'm going to draw probably a very bizarre and unjustified parallel or dotted line between immigration and data centers.

As economists, we know that immigration is generally a good thing.