Friday, October 14, 2022

After Throwing Her Sidekick Under A Bus, Liz Truss Vows To Carry On Being The Bad Prime Minister Everyone Excpected

 

In late August when it was announced that the UK Conservative Party leadership run - off would be between Rishi Sunak and LizTruss all three main contributors to this blog expressed our horror at the prospect that Liz Truss looked likely to become our Prime Minister.

While Sunak, who managed state finances as competently as anyone could through the insanity of the COVID era, was tainted by his and his family's vast wealth and the air of privilege that surrounded him, Truss presenyed herself as the girl from an ordinary family who rose to prominence through hard graft. 

Two months later, with the death of the Queen and the acclamation of King Charlie behind us, Ms. Truss has shown she is the bad prime minister everyone expected her to be. Her appointments to senior government offices were based on virtue signalling and political correctness, she appointed people on the basis of skin colour and ethnic origin rather than ability and experience. Worse, she handed out senior posts to her most loyal supporters. Thus, instead of allowing the competent and level headed Nahdim Zawahi continue as Chancellor, because he had been appointed he had to be replaced by the economically illiterate and politically tone deaf Kwasi Kwarteng who, far too quickly introduces a tax cutting mini budget. With an energy crisis in progress and soaring inflation driving people into poverty it was completely the wrong time for tax cuts which always favour the well off.

The Financial markets went into meltdown and the value of the pound sterling crashed as soon as Kwarteng revealed his plan. And repeated the stunt when Truss tried to defend her government's policy.

The chaos her chancellor's mini budget caused continues to endanger investments andpension funds two weeks after the event. To recap:

As soon as the deceased queen was buried Truss went to work. Chancellor Kwarteng announced a 'mini-budget' that will lower taxes for people with high incomes while increasing the deficit to cover the promised energy cost subsidies:
[...]
As soon as the 'mini budget' was announced the British pound sterling tanked. This not only against the overvalued U.S. dollar but also compared to the rather weak Euro.

Interest rates on British government bonds (Gilts) increased sharply.

After two days the British central bank, the Bank of England, had to intervene to prevent a Lehman like crisis that would have killed many British pension funds. The bank, which had just increased its interest rate to tighten money supply, reverted to quantitative easing by buying gilts in the open market. This will further increase the already runaway inflation.

On October 3 Truss had to trash her plans to lower taxes for rich individuals:

In a major U-turn, Prime Minister Liz Truss said Monday that the proposal to scrap the 45 percent rate for people earning more than 150,000 pounds ($168,000) had become a “distraction.”

Reacting to the news of the reversal, the pound rebounded Monday morning against the U.S. dollar, returning to where it was before the government’s tax-and-borrowing plan sent it plunging.

But Britain will still have a major budget deficit and gilts soon started to fall again. Three days ago the Bank of England again stepped in to save the nearly bankrupt pension funds.

Some saner members of the conservative party were finally preparing to oust her:

Britain’s government faced intensifying calls on Thursday to retreat from tax-cutting plans that have alarmed financial markets, as questions continued to swirl about the future of the country’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, and her beleaguered chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng.

On a day of political turmoil, the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, warned colleagues against trying to oust Ms. Truss. And Mr. Kwarteng rejected suggestions that the backlash against his so-called mini-budget, which includes unfunded tax cuts and a costly package to help consumers with energy bills, could cost him his job, insisting: “I’m not going anywhere.”
...
On Thursday, Downing Street said that its policy had not changed, but that did nothing to quell speculation that the government would have to change course and increase corporate taxes, something it had previously decided against.
...
Speaking from Washington, where he is attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Kwarteng acknowledged there had been “some turbulence” following his announcement last month but told the BBC that he was still focused on delivering the tax-cutting plans.

Asked if he and Ms. Truss would be in their jobs next month, Mr. Kwarteng replied, “Absolutely, 100 percent.”
...
But there is skepticism that she has the support for such measures among her own lawmakers. A majority of them preferred Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, to succeed the last prime minister, Boris Johnson, who was forced out after a series of scandals. But the final decision fell to rank-and-file party members, who chose Ms. Truss.
...
Under the Conservative Party’s rules, Ms. Truss cannot face a leadership challenge until September 2023, but so sour is the mood within the party that there is already talk of changing the rules.

On Thursday Mr. Cleverly, the foreign secretary, acknowledged the threat to Ms. Truss’s position even as he defended her strategy. “Changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea,” he told the BBC.

Kwarteng is not good in making predictions. Today Truss sacrificed her pawn to save her own arse and keep her Premiership alive a little longer:

Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as chancellor amid intense speculation Prime Minister Liz Truss is about to junk key parts of their economic plan.

Mr Kwarteng met Ms Truss for crunch talks in Downing Street after cutting short a US trip.

In a letter to the PM, Mr Kwarteng said Ms Truss's vision for economic growth was "right" and he still supported it.

Ms Truss is expected to announce a U-turn on business tax cuts at a news conference in Downing Street at 14:30.

The prime minister has appointed former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt - who backed Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership contest - as the new chancellor.

Ms Truss's pledge to cut taxes was at the heart of the economic agenda that won her the Tory leadership at the start of September.

Truss was co - wrote the mini budget with Kwarteng (in secret according to some sources,) afterr today's press conference she still has not learned that channeling the spirit of Margaret Thatcher with its tax cuts for the rich and for large corporations is not enough to convince people she can do the job. Those were her ideas. She had fought for them. In her news conference today she further withdrew such plans:

Prime Minister Liz Truss's U-turn on corporation tax means it will rise from 19% to 25% next April - a move that should add an estimated £18bn a year in tax revenue to the government's coffers.

Corporation tax is paid on profits by UK companies and foreign companies with UK offices.

Before the Conservatives came to power in 2010, it was charged at 28%, but was then cut several times before being reduced to 19% in 2017.

In his March Budget, the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the tax would climb from 19% to 25% in April 2023. He said it was fair to ask companies to contribute more after the government spent billions of pounds supporting them during the Covid pandemic.

However, Liz Truss had pledged to reverse the decision before her U-turn was confirmed today.

It is certainly fair to criticize her change of mind:

Reacting to Liz Truss's U-turn on corporation tax, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth says "this is a government in utter meltdown".

"Let's be clear what's just happened. Liz Truss has sacked her chancellor for carrying out the policies of Liz Truss - a set of policies that led to turmoil on the markets, a run on pension funds and soaring mortgage rates for homeowners across the country," he tells the BBC.

After only 38 days in office Kwasi Kwarteng is no longer Chancellor of The Exchequer. Unfortunately Liz Truss still has the same ideas and in her libertarian zeal will continue to make dreadful policies. She talks of 'growth' but the only thing her government will grow as the nation tries to repair the economic damage of COVID lockdowns is the national debt.

How many such cock ups will Conservative Members of Parliament who, according to rumour are already planning to oust her, be willing to tolerate before they take a leaf out of Vladimir Putin's playbook and defenestrate her?

OTHER POSTS:

Lockdowns, The Great Reset and the Unfolding Disaster That Is Globalism

In late 2019 and early 2020 and during the COVID era of lockdowns, mask mandates, etc., trillions of dollars were handed over, (via COVID-relief packages,) to elite interests while lockdowns and restrictions were imposed on ordinary people and small businesses.The winners were the global corporations like Amazon, Big Pharma and the tech giants. The losers were small enterprises, communities and the bulk of the population, deprived of their right to work and the entire panoply of civil rights their ancestors struggled for.

EU Vows To Retaliate if Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Blasts Were Sabotage - But against whom, the USA?
Yesterday's shocking news that the Nord Stream 1 & 2 gas poipelines between Russia and Germany immediately triggered speculation about who is responsible, but as the facts emerge the knee jerk blaming of Russia has failed to convince because the attack bears all the halllmarks of a false flag event engineered by the usual suspects ...

Who Blew Up The Nordstream Pipeline
So whodunnit? Sabotage of undersea gas pipe will escalate tension and move the world closer to nuclear war, but who is behind it, Russia in a bid to put more presure on Europe, Ukraine in an attempt to drag NATO into direct action, or the USA using a CIA false flag event to advance its own agenda.

UK Government Belatedly Discovers The Uselessness Of Sustainables In Relation To Energy Security
The policy that Boris Johnson's Premiership will be remembered for is nor 'getting Brexit done,' but the government's disastrous pledge to make Great Britain the first developed nation to achieve a 'net zero' national energy system. The neglect and running down of traditional energy systems (coal, gas, nuclear,) along with flushing money down the toilet by investing in intermitternt power sources (wind, solar,) rather than Putin's war in Ukraine is responsible for the current crisis.

Europe's Economy And Living Standards Are Plummeting
As the multiple crises in Europe deepen with no sign of relief in sight, Oriental Review comments that the ill-considered sanctions against Russia, far from achieving their objective of pressuiring Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine, have exposed the deep rooted problems of the European Union which is rapidly approaching economic collapse. Without offering any evidence in support of its allegation the article states that a large number of businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy.

An Energy Crisis In Tandem With A Food Crisis On Top Of An Economic Crisis And A War. This Cannot End Well
As politicians in North America and Europe try to deflect from their own failure that have contributed to the current plethora of crises by blaming Russia and Vladmir Putin for all the current problems, while the war in Ukraine is a contributory factor in each, the real blame lies closer to home.

Swedish Media Outlet Publishes Leaked U.S. Document On How to CRUSH Europe Economy via Ukraine War Effort
Swedish news organisation Nya Dagbladet has published a leaked top secret US plans to use the war in Ukraine and an induced energy crisis to destroy European economies. The report claims the RAND Corporation a defence and foreign policy think tank founded by military aircraft maker Douglas has the official aim of improving policies and decision-making, is the source of its evidence.

Has Putin Has Pushed Europe Into Economic Depression, Hyperrinflation and Currency Collapse?
Though it was entirely predictable and indeed had been expected for some time, the news over the weekend that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which feeds gas from Russia to northern Europe via The Baltic route had been shut down completely by The Kremlin in retaliation for the continued financial and military support given by NATO and EU member states to Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. The European Commission, governing body of the EU, immediately put the community on something close to a war footing, ...
Continue reading >>>

The True Cost Of The Green Energy Boom Is Now Being Realized
For four decades we have been fed a constant stream of propaganda assuring us that green energy was the only way forward if we wanted to secure supplies of the energy essential to a modern society while preventing the environmental catastrophes that would be the inevitable consequence of climate change caused by the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emitted by human industrial, commercial and social activity. ... Continue reading >>>

Rishi Sunak Reveals How Boris Sold Us Out To Big Pharma and Globalism
it seems most people in Boris Johnson's cabinet during the run up to lockdowns were kept in the dark about many things, including the fact that 'The Science' on which lockdown policy was based was not science at all. Government was effectively reduced to a “quad” of ministers and their 'scientific advisers' deciding on Britain’s future. Rishi Sunak, at that time Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance secretary) was one of them. There were rumours at the time that Sunak repeatedly warned that lockdowns would inflict economic damage that was likely to endure for decades.

Soaring Lithium Prices Putting Transition To Electric Cars In Doubt
With battery quality Lithium Carbonate regularly trading at above $US70,000 per ton the impact of this soaring cost of the essential material in batteries for electric vehicles is starting to impact the push to abandon fossil fuels . Worse still, analysts are predicting lithium prices will continue to rise as demand for electric cars and goods vehicles grows.

World Economic Forum Calls for Merging of Human and Artificial Intelligence to Censor ‘Hate Speech’ & ‘Misinformation’

Despite the fact that they represent only the interests of big business, big finance and themselves, the oligarchs of the World Economic Forum are now calling for a policy of merging human and artificial intelligence systems so that computer chips implanted in our brain can edit and censor “hate speech” and “misinformation” online before it is articulated trough spoken of written word online.

Do We Have A Winter Of Civil Disobedience Ahead?
As many people in Britain slap on the apres sun gloop in the wake of what passes for a heatwave in these cool cloudy climes, our inept politicians caught with their pants down by unusual weather as usual have heard that that winter is coming and are making plans for a coldwave. We are in the grip of an energy crisis at the height of summer. Last week, it was reported that the UK government is laying down plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” including blackouts for industry and even households. And this is as energy prices spiral out of control to new records every day.

Conspiracy Theories, reality and null hypothesis
Cast you minds back about 18 months, there was a conspiracy theory going round that a 100% Safe and Effective Vaccine had been developed by pharmaceutical corporations, to be freely administered by governments and injected into billions of people around the globe ostensibly to save their lives from a deadly virus pandemic was in fact not a vaccine but a gene editing technology that would alter DNA, lead to millions of early deaths and usher in an era of global tyranny under an authoritarian world government.

Jingoistic Western Triumphalism Will Not End The War In Ukraine Or Cripple Putin, But It Is Crippling Western Nations

As the war in Ukraine grinds on and Russia steps up its economic war against the west and in particular The European Union, claims made recently by the idiotically 'woke' leaders of Europe's main economic and military powers that the West has a once-in-a–generation chance to severely weaken Russia’s capabilities, both militarily and geopolitically, look increasingly hollow. Putin's critics have cited 'Western unity' as one of the main reasons why Russia will be economically destroyed and politically humiliated when the Ukraine's military finally claim victory.

New Figures Show Brexit Has Failed To Take Back Control Of Immigration
Just over six years ago the nation's attention was focused on immigration, and particularly the 'Brexit' campaign's promise to 'Take Back Control' of our borders. Today the immigration issue is as predominant in many people's minds as news this morning revealed record numbers of migrants entered the country last year, while yesterday a record number of people were trying to make the hazardous crossing from France in small boats to enter the country illegally.

Nurses Started The Pushback Against Transgender Bullies?
Nurses and the nursing profession largely caved in over Covid-19 and turned on anyone—like yours truly and the remarkable Dr Niall McCrae—who dared to speak out against the prevailing narrative. Probably the profession saw its chance to bask in the ‘Save the NHS’ limelight, and seek a substantial pay rise [...] As a Registered Nurse and Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing I largely despaired of my nursing colleagues.

No comments: