Just when you thought the people running the country couldn't possibly be more dreadful, the BBC interview Jonathan Ashworth...
Are you sure? They were interviewing former Tory MP Ben Hallett (presumably for comedy value as he suggested the cabinet is stuffed full of talented individuals who could take over from Truss) and now they are talking to some economist. Haven’t seen Ashworth, though his name has been on the ticker below claiming the Government is in ‘meltdown’ which is probably fair comment.
Nope. He just lasted longer than Iain Macleod, who died of a heart attack 30 days after becoming chancellor.
The extraordinary thing is Sky and the BBC are still interviewing goons from the IEA (Institute for Economic Affairs), the ghoulish, shadowy think-tank that planted most of these crackpot libertarian ideas. Years and years of the media platforming their mouthpieces without investigating who funds them and why and within a fortnight of their key ideas being implemented the economy has lurched off a cliff. It really is time to tell them to sit down and shut their mouths. They have no credibility whatsoever.
That's because of the BBC's two-sides-ism they've *got* to have a 'counter argument' of the disastrous economic plans and the loons from the IEA are the only ones who will stick their heads over the parapet.
The thing that is really boiling my pee is Truss continuing to play this I saw people miss out on opportunities when I was young card. This tremendous display of insight and empathy is utterly at odds with everything else about her. She is the archetype of a self-interested career politician. Yes, she went to a comprehensive school. But it wasn’t in Beirut or Baghdad, it was Leeds. It’s well known to be a cracking good school. She had a comfortable, stable middle class family. She went to Oxford. If she felt so passionate about inequality she could have considered doing something in that field as a career. But she chose the Oil Industry. She should be laughed off the stage.
Truss was born in 1975. So her childhood from the age of about four through to her young adulthood was when the Tories were in power. She’s effectively trashing Thatcherism.
Apparently the markets rallied earlier this afternoon, anticipating the U-turn and then slumped again after Truss spoke. https://news.sky.com/story/markets-...ted-government-u-turn-on-mini-budget-12720241
December will be an advent calendar. Behind each exciting door you can find the identity of the Chancellor for that day! No chocolates though. Were you expecting a handout?
Hunt has immediately signalled that some taxes will have to go up. So the tax burden may end up higher than before the tax-cutting budget. And yet Truss will no doubt continue to talk about her low tax aspirations, just like Sunak and Johnson did previously while spaffing money all over the place.
No handouts because there are plenty of jobs and WORK (for the poor) MUST BE INCENTIVISED. You incentivise the rich by giving them more; you incentivise the poor by taking as much away as you can. Problem is, many of those jobs are low quality, low paid, insecure and the wages are not enough for people to live on. But hey, that's not the Government's problem, just work more hours or get a second or third job for that is what the market has been allowed to decide. But, y'know, the way to "grOw tHe pIe" is to give more money to massive corporations because they will definitely use that money to create more jobs. The fact those wages then need topping up with more public money in the form of in-work benefits and various tax credits, well, don't worry about that, they're GOOD benefits, not BAD benefits. BAD benefits are the ones people expect for nothing, rather than working their fingers to the bone for massive corporations. Or start a business. Yeah, that's right, if you don't want to work 60 hours a week for minimum wage at Amazon just start your own global consumer goods delivery business. It's really simple when you think about it.
A good mate of mine worked as an anaesthetist in the NHS. I've known this bloke for about 30 years and the only time I've ever heard him raise his voice in anger was when he was talking about Jeremy Hunt during his stint as Health Minister. He absolutely despised Hunt.
It's his dream to chop the NHS up into little pieces and sell it off to the highest bidder. It's one of the few things left in this country that we can be proud of and he deliberately keeps it running under impossible circumstances until the public are calling for privatisation. People are dead because of him and he sees that as a victory. The difference between him and Kwasi is that our suffering isn't borne out of incompetence, but of a deliberate and calculated policy.
The messages from Jeremy Hunt, who seems to be the new PM more than Chancellor, indicate clearly that growth is no longer at the front of the Government’s mind. Its recklessness has created such a hole in the Government’s finances (born out of higher borrowing costs meaning we’ve squandered money for absolutely no return) that closing it now consumes all its thinking. Tax cuts are out, tax rises and a new austerity are in. This can only mean it is on a collision course with workers and trade unions.
Truss has zero credibility left, if she ever had any outside of the Tory membership. She has been cuckolded by Hunt today. We need a GE.
Have we ever had a PM essentially put in conservatorship before? In essence a responsible adult has been appointed to manage all her financial and business affairs and make decisions on her behalf.
Laura Kuenssberg found this one confused and wandering in a park. She stayed with him until staff from his home came to collect him.
I think Truss is about to quit, surely that’s why she’s hiding away. While I don’t subscribe to their politics, Mordaunt and Hunt have already today exhibited way more clarity than Truss ever has. The grownups have had to step in and clean up her mess and it must be utterly humiliating for her, not that I have an iota of sympathy. Short term they can steady the ship and long term someone like Mordaunt could put up a fight in an election. I just don’t see how the past month hasn’t permanently torched a lot of peoples’ support for the Tories.
Penny Mordaunt confirming in the Commons that Truss 'is not hiding under a desk in Downing Street' is a quote for the ages. Yep, that's the low we've reached, having to confirm that the PM is not literally under a desk.
