I’m not a fan of Liz Truss. (For me, Rishi Sunak was the lesser of two evils.) Yet I agree with commentators like Phil Pilkington and Chris Snowdon that the U.K.’s economic troubles are not primarily of her making.
Yes, combining tax cuts for high-earners with a massive energy bailout was never going to work – having racked up a huge amount of debt during the pandemic, it’s surely time to start balancing the books. But I doubt we’d be in a dramatically different situation if Truss had opted for fiscal prudence.
The country’s economic problems are much bigger than the now-largely-reversed Kwarteng mini-budget.
Housing is too expensive due to restrictive planning laws and years of mass migration. Energy is too expensive because of Net Zero and the self-harming Russia sanctions. And everything else is too expensive thanks to unchecked money-printing and supply chain disruptions under lockdown.
None of these problems would cease to exist if Rishi Sunak or Sir Kier Starmer were in No. 10. And in fact, things are likely to get worse – possibly much worse – before they get better.
Higher interest rates are going to wipe out mortgage-holders and over-leveraged companies. Alternatives to Russian gas may not be available until 2025 or later. And a lot more inflation is already ‘baked in’, if we’re to believe the modellers at Goldman Sachs.
What does all this mean? It means the best strategy for the Tories is to call a General Election, pass the baton to Labour, and then blame the country’s economic problems on them. Lose the battle to win the war, so to speak.
In recent weeks, the Tories have dropped sharply in the polls – from around 35% in the summer to less than 25% now. This shift is quite understandable: voters naturally punish the Government when economic indicators go south. And Truss hasn’t exactly helped her cause with a series of embarrassing U-turns.
Britain’s next general election is due to take place no later than January 2025. The problem with waiting until then is that Truss – and by extension her party – will have to own a lot more of the economic damage that’s coming.
An election now would be a bloodbath, but if the Tories hold off another two years, they could be out of power for a generation.
Stop Press: David Coates has written a similar piece for The Critic. He notes: the Conservative Party “has always remained an electoral force due to its reputation for economic credibility. When this is lost, the whole operation breaks down.”
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We’re screwed either way. I don’t think the situation is retrievable. At this point whatever outcome results in the Tory part being utterly destroyed and replaced by actual conservatives is the one I would choose.
Yes, you may have a point.
It’s really Peter Hitchen’s point, one he has been making for many years.
He wasn’t completely wrong when he said the Conservatives should rename themselves the “Socialist Workers Party”.
Looking back at what he has been writing for a long time, he was right about a lot of things. He may have his faults but he’s articulate and doesn’t apologise or back down just to placate people. Unfortunately he has that vaguely RP accent and fusty manner that people immediately associate with rich Tory grandees and the like, which is very much not what he is about at all. It’s quite sad how superficial the level of political debate is.
Peter Hitchens is the modern day ‘Cassandra’, doomed to be right about everything and doomed to be ignored. On YouTube, I recently watched an old episode of Question Time he appeared on from about 15 years ago, along with Boris Johnson, Shirley Williams and Christopher Hitchens. Even the person who put the programme on YouTube (it was in nine-minute chunks, they way things used to be on YT) slagged off Peter’s contributions when was writing the description on each part. Fifteen years later, Peter is the one proven right on every count.
I never tire of watching this tirade on Question Time against Cameron: https://youtu.be/DT5tzzWhRAA?t=350
“He hates his own party members”
True of him, true of most/all senior Tories since
Justine Greening’s face is a picture
Whichever way we view our situation and as I have posted many times on here –
Our salvation will not arrive via the ballot box.
That’s the point that is utterly lost on so many. We are playing nicely within a system that provides only the illusion of democracy. Even many (most?) sceptics don’t appear to really understand this.
Quite right FL as many posts on this thread confirm.
Be anarchic. This does not mean violence and arson. It means you are without leader. Find your own way. And move quietly with your fellow anarchists, speaking softly, carrying big guns.
“Come in peace, or leave in pieces.”
We do not recognise their authority over us.
And another one has just resigned. What was his/her/their name, again?
Or, “The revolution is never televised.”
I doubt our salvation will arrive at all, except for personal salvation in whatever form works for you.
In Australia 3 state conservative governments and the Federal one, with 2 more about to be, have been eviscerated at elections.
Their response?
Let’s head further to the far left.
The fools who have taken over worldwide conservative parties, with a few notable exceptions, seem to be merely keeping the opposition benches warm, or more probably, positioning themselves for lucrative gigs with the WEF.
I voted Conservative for 39 years, I will never vote for them again. What is the actual difference between Labour and Conservative anyway?
If Labour were to regain power and take the blame for the inevitable economic problems – what then? Vote the Tories in next time around and let them continue destroying our country?
In some ways, at least with Labour you know what you’re getting.
The Conservatives mess with you. They sell you the green, fresh pastures of Brexit and deliver the same rancid turd pile that Labour was offering.
You are 100% right.
For a second, I thought you were seriously arguing for this so that she could win it and get a mandate.
Indeed, your logic is the only sound one for this to happen.
But it would necessitate that Truss saw it the same way and would put party above career, like May always vowed to do and then did.
It would also necessitate a similar attitude by Tory MPs, deliberately committing to go into an already lost battle, and I just cannot see that happening at all.
I am also more doubtful that voters will forget and forgive so quickly, that Labour won’t become totalitarian and prevent being sent packing and, above all, that this lot, whether from the right or from the centre left, could then take over and successfully fix it or anything.
Reading the background story in the DT, Truss seems fully on board with the Lefties now and my hunch is that a new party is in the offing, and that that party might for the first time in a while stand a real chance, if given some more time.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/19/how-almighty-migration-row-led-suella-braverman-turn-against/
Reminded me of the formation of the SDP, and look what happened to that, with it’s remains merging into the Liberal Party. Maybe it could end up in a Conservative Liberal (CLIP) one! As ever, it’s the first past the post system that would be a major barrier for anything novel.
I remember my father saying this – about PR – in the 80s.
nothing has changed except the speed at which we have declined & diminished ourselves.
The only long-term solution I see is for politicians of all parties to ditch the agendas of the global organisations (IMF, WHO, WEF, UN, etc) and act in the interests of the nation instead. Net Zero needs to be accepted for what it is – delusion, and should be scrapped. General election or not, the current shower of anti-democratic, back-stabbing traitors that infest parliament, regardless of party, need to go. I have no problem with a general election since we are currently stuffed either way. Let the other lot make total clowns of themselves for a change. Maybe it will result in their annihilation too. Maybe, just maybe, out of the mess and chaos of a totally failed elected dictatorship, we might eventually see some sanity return.
Maybe, but to be honest, I would place much bigger odds on the global woke train heading for depopulation central to continue chugging along nicely with ever more brainwashed masses gleefully jumping on.
Yup.
The Tories should absolutely not hold another general pissing contest right now. Considering developments in other countries, we’re nowhere out of the woods wrt COVID. Additionally, they’re responsible for causing their present situation and its their **** (insert expletive of choice) duty to get the country again out of the mess they’ve steered it into. If all they can manage is to have five different, abortive premierships in six years, they deserve to join the liberals on the benches of the No longer fit for any purpose has-beens.
I think the last thing we need is any more government response to COVID given that it’s response so far has already been a disaster to the economy, health, education, and social stability.
I think RW meant we’re not out of the woods WRT covid in terms of we may see more restrictions being introduced, and it’s much more likely these would come from Labour. I think he’s right and probably marginally prefer the Tories to hobble on for another couple of years just to bury the fake pandemic rubbish for good before we get the other lot in.
Since the spineless amoeba has meanwhile resigned, there’s unfortunately a good chance that we’ll get much more of a government response to the entirely fictional threat of COVID.
The point not being addressed is that the collapse of Western financial systems in order to provide the excuse for CBDC’s is an integral part of the Reset / Agenda 2030.
Looking back it is clear that our current turmoil was ramped up when Bliar got his hands on the levers and principally via a massive increase in the state and unrestricted immigration. As usual ALL our current problems have their origins with Bliar and his muppet Brown.
All Western governments, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, most of the EU went on enormous spending exercises that were unfunded and un-fundable. The end result was baked in and just what the Davos Deviants ordered. We are facing total economic collapse and it is now a question of when, not if, the money markets pull the plug but probably before year end.
At that point the country and its assets will be mortgaged to the IMF and the process of “you will own nothing and be firkin unhappy” will really kick in, as will CBDC’s which of course are intended and indeed guaranteed to produce a slave system.
There are occasions when we overthink the situation but this is not one of them. Looking at our position from the perspective of political screw ups, bickering and mismanagement is simply naiive. Surely, at least those on DS can now see, if they couldn’t previously, that our nominal political leaders and politicians are just that – nominal. I dare say we will never have the names of those orchestrating the destruction of our country, probably just a WEF committee in Switzerland, but destruction is certainly looking assured now.
Our abject failure to produce any politicians who could reasonably be said to be fit to fill Churchill’s boots, for it is a Churchill now required, will be our undoing.
Neil Oliver:
“It’s not always about what they say it’s about.”
I agree.
my despondency is turning towards a sad realism , thinking – how do we best cope with what now seems inevitable?
we need to keep avenues open for connecting with one another (like the DS); we need to fight to retain cash & bartering, etc.
we need to connect up & share ideas, & not waste energy in the equivalent of moaning.(not saying you or anyone here is).
It pre-dates Bliar Hux. Goes all the way back to joining the Common Market – that is when the monarch was deposed & our institutions taken over. The banking control goes back even further.
All of the politicos actions have been designed to be a slow drip drip towards enabling international control & total serfdom of the populace. With each step being so small & seemingly insignificant that we haven’t been aware that a control prison was being erected around us in plain sight. Bliar was where the accelerator was pressed harder.
I know this pre-dates Bliar BB but I used him as my start point because 1. all our current problems can be pinned on him without the slightest risk of being proved wrong and 2. he is such a disgusting example of our species.
The reality is that our current problems commenced as rationing ended in the ’50’s and large scale immigration commenced. Sir Enoch Powell warned where we were headed and was howled down. Maggie put the blocks on briefly but after she was ousted by the globalists Clarke and Heseltine the destruction of our country kicked up apace until Bliar arrived when he really floored the accelerator.
I might just as well have written a full post.
There are 3 key problems:
Inevitably inflation will increase due to a weakening £ so we’ll have imported inflation as the price of commodities, priced in $ go up. Classic stagflation.
What will happen? Labour will win the next election. We won’t rejoin the EU (in the short-term) but we’ll enter into a series of agreements with the EU that will bind us ever closer, trading agreements, regulatory agreements etc. We won’t get a vote but then who does?
Labour will effectively continue with the Hunt policies, we’ve outsourced macroeconomic policy to global institutions & so won’t be able to move beyond economic authodoxy without there being a £ crisis.
Having got rid of the necessity of deciding on economic policy we’ll all be distracted by ‘culture war issues’ which Labour will heat up while the unelected get on with running the country, no doubt, bringing in CBDCs, health passports, the whole panoply of global control, while we all look the other way.
Noah Carl has inadvertently made the point that it makes no difference who is in charge – the outcome is basically going to be the same.
And because of that, politics is just a game of taking credit for good stuff and blaming someone else for the bad stuff.
I realise that Carl isn’t saying that this is the case all the time. It’s clear he’s implying that it’s just the case now, in these especially difficult circumstances where there is little room to manoeuvre, supposedly.
But actually, if it’s the case now, it’s the case always. Nobody really believes that when things are absolutely terrible, it doesn’t really matter who calls the shots and makes decisions.
We certainly didn’t believe that in 1940 when Churchill was appointed PM. The sense at the time was that Britain was in a terrible spot with very few options. And whether by his decisions or his ability to rally the country, he made a difference. Or so we have been taught to believe.
It is precisely in the most difficult moments that good decision making and great leadership can make a big difference.
As it happens, I agree with Carl that it really doesn’t matter who is supposedly in charge now. But I don’t think it makes any difference anymore at any time.
Elections are pointless, voting is pointless. The game is completely rigged. The people who get elected don’t work for us or represent us. And if by some miracle they so much as try to, they’re quickly removed.
The only point I would see to elections is if the population abstained en masse and showed the psychos trying to control us that the game was up.
Sadly too many are brainwashed into believing that voting makes a difference & that this country is a democracy for voting abstention to have an impact.
A mass campaign for spoiling ballots with one single simple message, i.e. None! or Not in my name! instead of abstaining could do the trick.
If the largest vote share goes to such a ‘party/candidate’ they must calculate and publish it, and there will be a debate about the elected peoples than all too obvious lack of a real mandate.
As George Carlin said…’Its a big club, and you ain’t in it’…
Spot on.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Leonard Cohen, who knew a thing or two decades ago. Except – Everbody doesn’t know, sadly.
Leonard Cohen, indeed a poet.
Truss’ support for fracking and ultra hawkishness over Ukraine looks to have done for her as much as her lack of planning. Any policy not in line with the WEF-inspired NetZero was inevitably going to invite hostilities from the Davos crowd, and now it looks like the battle for Kherson could get very expensive for NATO allies. With the US midterms looking ominous for Biden and Zelensky, a way out is needed. Rishi/Mordaunt looks nailed on as a stop gap, and then Boris in to the rescue. Either that, or it is the end for the Tories.
In most of the western world now, you’re no longer voting for a representative political party anymore, you’re voting for the Political Class. And the trouble with this is it breeds and feeds a lethal apathy in democracy that cements tyranny.
I often wonder, has this been the ultra long game of our globalist cartel?
Yes, the UK avoided a political class until Blair got into power. Now we have a European-style political class of WEF graduates, ordered around by the investment banks.
To be blunt, if there isn’t an election called shortly, King Charles will have to dissolve Parliament himself. That’s one of the many checks and balances in our system. I hope the Tory Party dies and we can see the start of new conservative and libertarian movements. The UK is in a stranglehold of two dead political parties, both of which need to go.
I’ll tell you what, that “check and balance” didn’t work very well when the population was placed under mass house arrest, muzzled (literally) and bullied into participating in a global gene therapy experiment.
So I doubt it’s going to jump in now.
And that’s assuming the monarchy is on our side in the first place, which, let’s face it, is a pretty reckless assumption.
Charlie on our side?
That’s bloody fantasy land.
Sadly true. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have a leftist utopian as King.
Too right! And lockdown is the reason I will never vote for any standing MP who voted in favour of it. It was an abject disgrace and a stain on the entire history of this country.
He’s a fully signed up member to the cabal. He was the face for promoting Agenda 30. We have no functioning checks & balances. The whole system has been violated & undermined by globalist self appointed scum to further their own enrichment & implementation of democide & taking ownership of all the assets.
Agreed. I’m saying would should happen, not what will. The 20th-21st century has been a bloody history of the elitists apparently willingly giving power to the people only quietly to suck it all back, piecemeal, until we’re back under the elitist thumb again.
The days of a Government made up of former grammar school kids made up of the best and brightest of different social classes are long gone, replaced by the usual bunch of privately-educated and wealthy-area comprehensive-educated charlatans.
And she’s gone ……..
The whole saga reminds me of Merkel a few years ago when an AfD chap was elected state PM.
‘This is the wrong result, it has to be corrected.’
I wonder how many Conservative party members who voted for her will now do the honourable thing and cancel their membership.
How can you still look into the mirror, if you don’t?!
Thing is, many of them voted for Truss, because she was preferable to Sunak, not because she was the candidate they wanted. They had a choice of two, selected by the MPs, who had voted as a majority for Sunak.
… and who cares….
Bookies’ favourite to replace her, Sunak – a globalist from the world of high finance. Definitely not a conspiracy though – impossible to imagine that no-one in the world of international markets could have been nudged to attack the pound to destabilise a government. Who would do such a dastardly thing? Senior politicians and big business bosses never lie, cheat, steal, spy on their enemies, spread false rumours. They just mean well and make mistakes sometimes.
Can you blame them? The British electorate keep getting it wrong. We”re just going to have to keep going and do this as many times as is needed until we “chose” the right person.
Well it’s natural human behaviour of course, though morally reprehensible. I do blame people, especially supposedly intelligent or educated people, for believing these people are not capable of terrible wrongs.
I disagree with the premise that the electorate would blame the incoming Labour government for what is coming. The Tories dined out for most of this 12 year term by blaming Labour mismanagement whilst doing precious little to fix it themselves. Factor in the biased BBC and the MSM and it will be even worse.
Having said that, the Tory party needs to be ended, pure and simple. They are a waste of oxygen.
All of the current political mainstream parties need to ended. They are all corrupted & the leadership is fully aligned with the globalist agenda. All a vote will do is put a bought & sold donkey wearing a different coloured rosette into power to implement the will of the globalists.
Nice and tidy BB.
All politicians are a waste of oxygen but unless you are an eco wazzock we can afford that. We cannot afford to leave their fingers in the till though.
I think the Conservatives are finished. No matter who they elect, they won’t win an election now. The globalists back stabbers have taken over the party and I simply don’t trust them. There should be an election even if it means that Labour wins. This is from someone who has voted Conservative for over 40 years and was also a member. Never again.
It would be nice if the actual centre right parties out there (obviously doesn’t include Conservatives) could work together. Even better if some of the true conservatives left in the party jumped ship or setup a new party although unlikely but I live in hope.
“There should be an election”
Why?
Agree with all your other points.
Let me describe where we are with our “democracy”.
Or we can have an election and get Keir Starmer.
And by all accounts, either of those two is going to do exactly the same thing.
As a matter of fact, Boris Johson was not elected to run the government. A general election resulted in a so-called Tory landslide victory and the resulting majority of Tory MPs in parliament initially selected Johnson as the prime minister candidate they’d ask the queen to appoint. They could as well have nominated Nicola Sturgeon for the post. The UK parliament is elected by a subset of the population of the UK (British subjects plus citizens of Commonwealth countries who are legally in the UK during the election). Anything beyond that happens at the discretion of parliament.
Yes formally that’s how it works.
In practice people are selecting the leader implicitly.
In any case, however you describe it, it’s all for show. The people are given the illusion of choice but in reality chose nothing.
That’s not how it formally works, that’s how it works. Parliament has been elected by the people entitled to vote in general elections. And that’s all these people are entitled to elect.
As the initial excitement dies down some initial thoughts after my mid-day sarnie.
How does this serve the globalist / Davos Deviants agenda?
Initially of course this is a vicious reminder to those seeking to follow Truss that the agenda is set for them and deviation from their script is not permitted.
The turmoil created by the Scamdemic is maintained although I readily admit 50% of the population will be none the wiser next week. Still it maintains the tension. Quite possibly some freedom damping measures will need to be introduced in anticipation of unrest, or a false flag event could be raised in order to substantiate them.
The next incumbent will get a severe talking to and probably the schedule of events leading up to Christmas. And a warning not to deviate.
The economy will continue to collapse and further borrowings arranged in order to facilitate same.
Further problems will be arranged with regard to food, fuel and domestic power supplies so the anticipated power cuts are inevitable.
Interest rates will rise allegedly to protect the pound but this will “inadvertently” collapse the housing market in line with general economic collapse as above.
Further false flag events around Russia / Ukraine for tension maintenance purposes.
Increased civil unrest in Europe possibly in Holland, France or Germany and some even reported in our MSM, again for tension maintenance purposes.
As ridiculous as it seems Bozo might decide to throw his hat in to the ring in the expectation that he will win a resounding vote of confidence from the Tory grass roots. This will be followed by a GE so long as he is guaranteed to win and which would allow for his victorious return to Downing St as an all-conquering Ceasar. I always thought he slunk away rather quietly.
Oh, and not forgetting a new ‘wave’ of some mysterious ‘virus’ which devastates parts of Scotland(
), thereby crippling rNHS.
Everything working nicely for a tension fuelled run up to Christmas.
Apologies for the omissions of which assuredly there are many.
Red or Blue, you can guarantee that it will the dead hands of Blackrock, State Street and Vanguard on the tiller of HMS Great Britain.
Expect more managed decline, more woke shit and less freedom.
Spot on. https://dossier.substack.com/p/the-free-world-isnt-looking-so-free?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
I’m not sure you really understand what’s at stake here.
If you want to see actual gulags in this country, then let the current Labour party take the helm.
They will not have the qualms the Conservatives have had about sending this country back to Pol Pot’s vision of a pre-capitalist society (but this time run by armed trannies) that crushes any opposition and uses political violence against its opponents.
I’m thinking it’s time to bail and I suggest that anyone that doesn’t want to live in hell think about doing the same.
They are now influenced by the communist oligarchs. For them to fulfill their aim requires the destruction of the economy and the elimination of the private sector.
Good article and interesting comments but why do we always have to find someone/thing to blame other than ourselves. We’re all soft, out of touch, beholden to the big state we’ve created, unwilling to question everything or challenge groupthink at every level and on all sides. Only chaos and human ingenuity will bring us back to our senses. Focus on resilience and personal integrity. Stop looking for a saviour.
Politics is utterly broken. If you still believe in a thing called democracy then you have either been travelling out in the further reaches of the galaxy for a while or you are in Cloud Cuckoo Land. General Election, Party B gets in, can’t fix anything, can’t get anything done, spends a lot of time making grand pronouncements, soothing words about sharing the pain and we’re all in this together and whatever other words are necessary from the Snake Oil salesman’s handbook. The trouble is that politics sold their souls a long time ago. The people who are really pulling the strings, the real shadow government, are an agglomeration of think-tanks, establishment figures, corporations, investment funds, bankers et al. They are either working in cahoots with each other or not. What is blindingly obvious though is that the interests of the people are not first and foremost in a politicians mind. They might be when they take their first baby steps on the road to Westminster but by the time they arrive and have served, say as a lowly minister, they come to find that they do not really hold power at all. They are beholden to power. What we’ve seen playing out with the exits in quick succession of three of the great offices of state tells us everything we need to know. These people were still, figuratively, wet behind the ears and hadn’t had time to even get their feet under the table before their feet were heading for the door. Why? Who is the real power here? And so, if we have a GE, what will change? Nothing. Our system is broken. It needs a fresh, new brave approach – brave because if you take on these powers at their own game, you may end up hosting an assassin’s bullet or two. So we need more than one, we need many, the whole tribe in fact and we need a new type of Magna Carta – certainly not the dreadful Terra Carta that is being proposed which is nothing more than a charter for globalists – but a charter to take lobbyists and money out of politics, to have a vetting system for those who seek power, to have a maximum term for MPs…basically take the rot out. And certainly remove anyone with affiliations to organisations such as Chatham House, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the WEF etc etc.
“Yes, combining tax cuts for high-earners with a massive energy bailout was never going to work..” Painfully simplistic but it begs the question, what will work?
Carrying on as we are isn’t sustainable.
Austerity without a growth plan, i.e. without tax cuts and reductions in regulation, won’t work, that just leads to a downward spiral.
While Truss was obviously incompetent that doesn’t mean that she and Kwarteng were wrong, it means that they were too gutless to provide the balancing act by reducing public expenditures now.
Put all Net Zero targets on hold for 10 years and you solve a big chunk of the energy problem while simuntaneously reducing government expenditures. Reduce the size and scope of Government, now, not three years from now.
That pays for the very modest tax cuts Truss offered, we would still be higher than during Blair’s time as PM, but we would have a chance.
As Truss had no convictions of her own, she was attempting to develop policy by polling, she obviously lacked courage.
I know we have had large cost increases in food products, But if we compared our current food prices with America and France in most cases most people would be surprised how much cheaper food is in the the UK. On our recent vist to our place in Brittany we were quite surprised by the food prices there which were substantially more than we pay in the UK and I’ve recently seen an online comparison between UK and American food prices and some are multiples of what we pay as my son and his wife who live in Carolina USA have told me, so perhaps we should recognise that things could we worse.