The brits are in for a rough ride

[IronWing]

Quality Street and Lyle’s Golden Syrup

 

[pmv]

Well, that should help your exports. What does the UK mainly export?

Teenage wizards and a pessimistic outlook.

 

[Pens1566]

Huh, maybe brexit wasn't such a great idea ...

 

[fskimospy]

If I were the UK I would try to tame inflation by lowering import costs. I wonder if it has neighboring countries who would like to enter into a customs union or something.

 

[sdifox]

If I were the UK I would try to tame inflation by lowering import costs. I wonder if it has neighboring countries who would like to enter into a customs union or something.

like EU?

 

[IronWing]

like EU?

Eww, not like that.

 

[JWade]

Cutting taxes to tame inflation may not be smart, but people in general arent smart. Most the tax cuts may go to the wealthy, but any tax cut to the main population people will want. It will be more money they have to spend on the increased prices. That is what the majority of people see it as. I said majority of people.

 

[brycejones]

I'm totally shocked that the government run by this person would fuck it up in mere weeks.

NOT

 

[pmv]

I'm totally shocked that the government run by this person would fuck it up in mere weeks.

NOT

The scale of the stupidity is astounding.

Not only did they ignore all the expert advice of the possible bad effects of this budget, but they specifically blocked the "Office Of Budget Responsibility" (set up by the Tories in the first place, I believe, with a view to preventing future Labour governments spending too much) from analysing the effects of it...then, because it was known that the Treasury's chief economist (a career civil servant) would probably oppose the plan, they immediately pre-emptively fired him.

All because of Truss (and Kwarteng) had turned 'Thatcherism' into a kind of religious faith. "Reward the rich and punish the less well off" seems to be her two Commandments.

And not only were there the tax cuts and the removal of the post-financial-crash moratorium on bankers bonuses, but, less reported, they also at the same time put through some more anti-Union measures, designed to put still more roadblocks in the way of any attempt of unions to go on strike. Couldn't get any more blatant about waging a class-war.

I do wonder what it means that Truss used to be a Liberal Democrat. Is this a case of the zealotry of the convert, or is it just more evidence of the real nature of liberalism (as if Clegg wasn't enough)?

 

[fskimospy]

The scale of the stupidity is astounding.

Not only did they ignore all the expert advice of the possible bad effects of this budget, but they specifically blocked the "Office Of Budget Responsibility" (set up by the Tories in the first place, I believe, with a view to preventing future Labour governments spending too much) from analysing the effects of it...then, because it was known that the Treasury's chief economist (a career civil servant) would probably oppose the plan, they immediately pre-emptively fired him.

All because of Truss (and Kwarteng) had turned 'Thatcherism' into a kind of religious faith. "Reward the rich and punish the less well off" seems to be her two Commandments.

And not only were there the tax cuts and the removal of the post-financial-crash moratorium on bankers bonuses, but, less reported, they also at the same time put through some more anti-Union measures, designed to put still more roadblocks in the way of any attempt of unions to go on strike. Couldn't get any more blatant about waging a class-war.

I do wonder what it means that Truss used to be a Liberal Democrat. Is this a case of the zealotry of the convert, or is it just more evidence of the real nature of liberalism (as if Clegg wasn't enough)?

Well I can't speak for UK conservatives but US conservatives have essentially a religious faith in the power of tax cuts.

It reminds me of when Sam Brownback in Kansas enacted massive tax cuts, claiming they would set off an economic boom that would more than pay for themselves. He even said that his plan was a 'real life experiment' to test this theory. After it was an unmitigated disaster, with tax revenues tanking and poor economic growth the legislature eventually admitted failure and rolled them back. This had exactly zero effect on the belief of US conservatives about tax cuts.

 

[pmv]

I'm totally shocked that the government run by this person would fuck it up in mere weeks.

NOT

The only reason it took her weeks, is because Elizabeth II made the ultimate sacrifice in order to buy the UK economy a bit more time. Otherwise this would have happened much sooner.

 

[pmv]

It's still possible for Truss to break the all-time record of "shortest serving Prime Minister". Needs Tory MPs to grow a spine and send in more 'no confidence' letters. If they get shot of her before the first week of January she gets into the record books.

(Apparently the current record holder is George Canning who died of pneumonia a few months after taking office - wasn't there a US President who did much the same thing?)

 

[manly]

That may be true, but in this case it doesn't even involve that. "The voters" got no say in Truss becoming PM, or in the wild tax-cuts she immediately implemented. Because there hasn't been a general election.

She was foisted on everyone by the anonymous Tory membership (which includes non-UK citizens and non-residents, and could even, in theory, include entirely non-existent people, potentially invented by foreign lobbyists prepared to pay the membership fees of such fictional characters).

Even Tory MPs didn't really want her as PM (which is why some of them are apparently already sending in letters of 'no confidence' to the 1922 committee...unfortunately it will take a very long time for enough such letters to accumulate to trigger a no-confidence vote and yet another change of leader).

I personally doubt that the Northern 'new Tories' of the former Red Wall would have voted for her and her policies, if given the chance. They voted for 'good bloke' Johnson and his promises of "levelling up", but it turned out to be a bait-and-switch and now we are stuck with Truss.

We get what you're saying about an undemocratic process. But hasn't the UK been voting in the Tories for many, many years? It's a bit silly to say we wanted BoJo, but not this other nincompoop. Like someone once said, "elections have consequences." If the U.S. and UK continue to vote for elites (or fascists) that can deceive half the electorate, then we are all fucked over by it.

Cutting taxes to tame inflation may not be smart, but people in general arent smart. Most the tax cuts may go to the wealthy, but any tax cut to the main population people will want. It will be more money they have to spend on the increased prices. That is what the majority of people see it as. I said majority of people.

People are dumb as rocks in general, no offense. Take Trump Tax Cuts 2017 for example. It was a huge giveway to corporations and millionaires. They ultimately did a minor TIME-LIMITED middle class cut to give the appearance of fairness. But the bulk of the cuts for corps/wealthy are permanent unless Democrats can ever win near supermajorities in Congress (not going to happen based on how the Senate is rigged for small states).

 

[ElFenix]

absolutely cold blooded.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1575144324769120261

 

[pmv]

Well at least she's been seen (going for a run), even if she hasn't made any statements or given any interviews for a week now (she refused to face any political interviews during her "election" campaign as well - at least Sunak was prepared to face Andrew Neil). She seems to be as terrified of the public as Theresa May was.

Still, at least we know she's still alive and hasn't had a breakdown and checked into rehab or been abducted by aliens, I guess. Any longer with no sight of her and they'd have had to start putting her picture on milk cartons.

Worst. Prime Minister. Ever.

Liz Truss 'missing' as country descends into chaos after disastrous mini-budget

Liz Truss, who has not spoken in public for a week, is finally breaking cover on Friday morning after the Tories' disastrous mini-budget announcement spooked markets

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[Vic]

Cutting taxes to tame inflation may not be smart, but people in general arent smart. Most the tax cuts may go to the wealthy, but any tax cut to the main population people will want. It will be more money they have to spend on the increased prices. That is what the majority of people see it as. I said majority of people.

Inflation is caused by excess monetary supply. So cutting taxes so that people will have more money to spend on the increased prices will only increase prices that much more. If the majority of people see this as a good thing then yeah.. people aren't that smart.
This is actually one of the economic scenarios where raising taxes on the rich is the good solution. There's too much money in the economy, govts need to take some of it out of the economy, and the rich are the ones who can take that blow with the least pain. Especially when the cause of that too much money was the Central Banks' obscenely loose policies during the pandemic, and the rich were the primary beneficiaries of that.
What UKs govt is doing, cutting taxes on the rich while raising interest rates on the rest is practically criminal wealth redistribution. The UKs GINI is gonna be like a corrupt 3rd world country after this.

 

[Artorias]

The moment Boris decided his time was up there should have been a general election scheduled.

 

[fkoehler]

I find it hilarious that the Lefties on my side of the pond so easily mesh with the Lefties on the other side.

"I didn't vote for it' (hand slammed for emphasis).
But almost 52% of voters did.

Whats deeply ironic is, the complainer remainers are indignant that they weren't successful in voting for people who will put other people in power who are unelected and almost untouchable or unappealable....

The EU is fractured, and it won't be but a couple years before more -exits start occurring and bilateralism returns. Italy and Poland have been expected for a while, however with the EU President recently outright threatening Italy, thats only given it more momentum.
The common response is that Italy is to far in dept to exit, which overlooks the very possible situation where Italy tells the EU to stuff WRT its debt to it.

Britain/UK got out early and ahead. Why some people are so stupid as to believe you can turn an economy around in a couple years after decades of off-shoring and being mis-managed is beyond me.

The people voted, the measure passed, that's how democracy works. It proves the one serious flaw in the democratic process, a million stupid people don't make better decisions than one stupid person.

 

[itsmydamnation]

The EU is fractured, and it won't be but a couple years before more -exits start occurring and bilateralism returns. Italy and Poland have been expected for a while, however with the EU President recently outright threatening Italy, thats only given it more momentum.
The common response is that Italy is to far in dept to exit, which overlooks the very possible situation where Italy tells the EU to stuff WRT its debt to it.

load of crap , EU has been growing not shrinking . bean hearing this exact crap for the last 15 years...... still waiting.......

populist politics can make anything happen but italy leaving the EU is nothing but suicide. lots of things like their defence export capability fall apart instantly. having to Trade on WTO rules wont be fun.

 

[biostud]

The EU is fractured, and it won't be but a couple years before more -exits start occurring and bilateralism returns. Italy and Poland have been expected for a while, however with the EU President recently outright threatening Italy, thats only given it more momentum.
The common response is that Italy is to far in dept to exit, which overlooks the very possible situation where Italy tells the EU to stuff WRT its debt to it.

Haha, Poland and Italy exiting EU? and saying goodbye to all those nice Euros flowing their way. I doubt it.

 

[Atari2600]

Inflation is caused by excess monetary supply.


What UKs govt is doing, cutting taxes on the rich while raising interest rates on the rest is practically criminal wealth redistribution. The UKs GINI is gonna be like a corrupt 3rd world country after this.

1. Not when it's primarily caused by imports. Unless you think the local currency needs to appreciate relative to the foreign counterpart via reduced circulation locally. (happy to be educated on that BTW)

2. Agreed. Utterly criminal - and if the system cannot provide checks and balances to stop precisely this kind of thing, then politicians shouldn't be shocked when individuals deprived of everything take matters into their own hands.

 

[Zorba]

The agenda they put across in that election was different to the one they are now pursuing. True, those who voted for them 'to get Brexit done' or because they thought Boris Johnson was an amusing fellow and a good laff, probably should have known better and not been so stupid. Not much sign of "levelling up", now. Not a lot of high-earning City bankers living "oop North".

The only positive is that a disproportionate amount of the damage due to this new direction - including both most of the 'fracking' and the impact of energy price inflation will be inflicted on those "former Red Wall" seats where all those Boomers switched to voting Tory, out of fear of "drag queen story hour" or whatever the reasoning was.

But radically changing direction like this mid-term really demands a new election.

This happens every time republicans are elected here. They basically run on democrat's rhetoric and moderate democrats' policies, then once elected do the exact opposite and half the country is too stupid to notice.

 

[Zorba]

Every time I see images of Truss and Kwarteng together I think of the Laurel And Hardy theme music (aka "the cuckoo song").

"This is another fine mess you've got me into"

Britain is watching a party render itself unelectable for a generation. Good riddance | Polly Toynbee

As Truss and Kwarteng unleash economic chaos, Labour conference all feels a bit pre-1997, says the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

www.theguardian.com

Did Parliament not have to vote on the tax cuts? If they did vote on it, isn't it all of their fault not just Truss?

 

[Zorba]

Cutting taxes to tame inflation may not be smart, but people in general arent smart. Most the tax cuts may go to the wealthy, but any tax cut to the main population people will want. It will be more money they have to spend on the increased prices. That is what the majority of people see it as. I said majority of people.

At least in the US most people wouldn't even know if their taxes had been cut because even most smart people act like braindead idiots with taxes. Trump fucked with the withholding schedules to make people think they got a cut, generally a few bucks a paycheck, and they didn't notice when they did their annual taxes they had actually gotten nothing.

 

[Atari2600]

Did Parliament not have to vote on the tax cuts? If they did vote on it, isn't it all of their fault not just Truss?

No they didn't. They're in recess.

So two people put in their position by a few hundred have just put the financial wellbeing of millions at risk.