That took way too long for them to just get us back to the same feeling of hopelessness as before.
The Fall of the House of Johnson
- Thread starter 09philj
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Liz Truss was interviewed by Laura Kuernsberg (of course) the other day. She was asked whether it was "fair" that her planned reduction in national insurance would benefit the wealthy by just under £2,000 a year, but would benefit the poorest by only >£20 or so.
She said yes, it is fair.
We're currently hurtling into a cost of living crisis, with energy bills expected to double or triple, and millions of households to be unable to either heat their homes or unable to consistently eat. Inflation is at a massive height. The Conservative plan is to focus relief squarely on the rich. And this is a plan determined by someone elected by ~80,000 Tory party members, overwhelmingly from Southern England, overwhelmingly elderly, white, and wealthier than average. The rest of us, the other ~65 million, have no say in our country's leader.
And no election, no chance to opt for anything else, probably for 2 years. Before which point millions will have been pushed into poverty. And excess thousands will have died from malnutrition or cold. There's been no indication of an emergency budget to address the crisis from Truss.
I despair at the batshit, tinpot, basket-case nation my country has become.
She said yes, it is fair.
We're currently hurtling into a cost of living crisis, with energy bills expected to double or triple, and millions of households to be unable to either heat their homes or unable to consistently eat. Inflation is at a massive height. The Conservative plan is to focus relief squarely on the rich. And this is a plan determined by someone elected by ~80,000 Tory party members, overwhelmingly from Southern England, overwhelmingly elderly, white, and wealthier than average. The rest of us, the other ~65 million, have no say in our country's leader.
And no election, no chance to opt for anything else, probably for 2 years. Before which point millions will have been pushed into poverty. And excess thousands will have died from malnutrition or cold. There's been no indication of an emergency budget to address the crisis from Truss.
I despair at the batshit, tinpot, basket-case nation my country has become.
A shame. She struck me as the less trustworthy, less competent and less authentic candidate. And that's saying something when your rival is a slimy millionaire.
Her admiration for Thatcher is also rather worrying since we live in a time where all the failings of Thatcher's ideology have been painfully brought to light. We need less politics like that of Thatcher, not more. It be like the next American president saying ''I'm going to fix the damage of neoliberalism by governing as Reagan did!''
Her admiration for Thatcher is also rather worrying since we live in a time where all the failings of Thatcher's ideology have been painfully brought to light. We need less politics like that of Thatcher, not more. It be like the next American president saying ''I'm going to fix the damage of neoliberalism by governing as Reagan did!''
See, US conservatives being in a death cult makes sense in the sense that it's evangelical Christianity waiting for Armageddon, the hell is going on over there?
Conservatives see the rich as better than the rest of us, because they love the idea of money being the sole measure of the worth of a human being. (After all, they've got most of it.)
Genuinely believe Sunak lost because he stuck to the idea that there's no magic money tree when this time it wasn't only poor people who needed access to one. Middle England needs the magic tree goddamnit!
Sunak is clearly the more competent of the two, and clearly the one with the better handling of economics, both of which should've made him the obvious candidate here.
But yes, he was open about there being economic pain coming up (which there obviously will be), while Truss just didn't say much of anything about economics. In addition, the Johnsonites blame him for his part in Johnson's fall, whereas Truss (again) just came out with vague platitudes when Johnson was on his last legs. There's a theme emerging here.
Both were terrible candidates from a Conservative electoral prospects perspective. Both heavily tarred by being involved in Johnson's massively unpopular cabinet. Sunak seen as wildly out-of-touch ("I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working class. Well, not working class"), and Truss completely incapable of relating to anyone on a human level.
I assume the plan is simply to lose the next election since everything is such a bastard mess it'll be better to blame someone else for failing to clear it up. In the meantime Truss is going to make the mess worse, the debt higher and no doubt a few pals a lot richer.
To be fair the Brits are still fucking crazy when it comes to a class system. We have crazy Christians jerking it for Armageddon, the Brits have upper class inbred twits wanting to keep the class system going another generation. And that's not counting the Royals, who still fucking disgust me.
The Times (a Conservative-supporting paper, for non-Brits) is reporting that the Truss government is thinking of cutting workplace protections: increasing the working week, reducing holiday entitlement, and reducing the amount of breaks workers can take.
archive.ph
Truly incredible how little of a shit the Conservative Party cares about the working class. I learned just today about the "Backing Britain" campaign of 1968, in which the government encouraged people (via pins and t-shirts and general social pressure) to work an extra half hour a day without pay. Sort Britain's economic woes by... voluntarily becoming worse off. This has whiffs of that shit.
Truss eyes bonfire of workers’ rights to boost economy | News | The T…
archived 4 Sep 2022 13:21:47 UTC
Truly incredible how little of a shit the Conservative Party cares about the working class. I learned just today about the "Backing Britain" campaign of 1968, in which the government encouraged people (via pins and t-shirts and general social pressure) to work an extra half hour a day without pay. Sort Britain's economic woes by... voluntarily becoming worse off. This has whiffs of that shit.
It will be extremely popular with the anti-union gang until they realise it includes themselves. People in this country are realising, too slowly, how small the gap between themselves and hardship really is, but they still won't care as long as it's someone else's fault. Bad times.The Times (a Conservative-supporting paper, for non-Brits) is reporting that the Truss government is thinking of cutting workplace protections: increasing the working week, reducing holiday entitlement, and reducing the amount of breaks workers can take.
Truss eyes bonfire of workers’ rights to boost economy | News | The T…
archived 4 Sep 2022 13:21:47 UTC
Truly incredible how little of a shit the Conservative Party cares about the working class. I learned just today about the "Backing Britain" campaign of 1968, in which the government encouraged people (via pins and t-shirts and general social pressure) to work an extra half hour a day without pay. Sort Britain's economic woes by... voluntarily becoming worse off. This has whiffs of that shit.
If one of them being an actual nonce wasn't enough to bring them down in Britain, nothing will.
You'd hope so, but when I was in the south for the summer there was plenty of anti-union chatter from people who would benefit from being in a union (I confess to not being in one myself because it would have to be the NUJ, and British journalism is a shitbox -- I do, however, support the actions of unions).
So our new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has announced that the government will freeze energy bills at £2,500 per year (£500 higher than the current cap, but far below what the price would have been without this intervention).
However, she has not produced any costing for it, nor said how it will be paid for. The IFS predicts it to be well over 100 billion a year; a previous gov estimate put it at well over 130 billion.
She has ruled out a windfall tax on energy companies (which have experienced massive profits recently). That had been Labour's plan to pay for a freeze.
She also says taxes will lower. So it won't be paid through tax.
The only mention of funding Truss has offered was borrowing. So, uhrm... the government are going to borrow another ~£130billion at the very least, per year, for 2 years.
Reminder that the Conservatives are regarded as the party of fiscal responsibility.
However, she has not produced any costing for it, nor said how it will be paid for. The IFS predicts it to be well over 100 billion a year; a previous gov estimate put it at well over 130 billion.
She has ruled out a windfall tax on energy companies (which have experienced massive profits recently). That had been Labour's plan to pay for a freeze.
She also says taxes will lower. So it won't be paid through tax.
The only mention of funding Truss has offered was borrowing. So, uhrm... the government are going to borrow another ~£130billion at the very least, per year, for 2 years.
Reminder that the Conservatives are regarded as the party of fiscal responsibility.
Honestly I think she might have just bought the next election. The electorate don't really care how things will be paid for unless it's a thing they think no one else should have (see the crying over free broadband).
I don't think it'll be enough. The electorate don't tend to hugely reward disasters averted, especially if things still get worse. The cap will still rise by 500 quid; living standards will still decline due to lower investment; people will quickly forget that it could've been worse if she did nothing.
Plus, is was so widely known that Labour planned to freeze bills earlier-- and lower, and without borrowing 260 billion.