The brits are in for a rough ride

[pmv]

Really struggling with this. On the one hand, the unelected monarch really has no business making any political comment at all. On the other hand, it's a perfectly understandable human reaction to having to interact with Truss (the unelected PM).

King Charles greets Liz Truss with: ‘Back again? Dear, oh dear’

Under-fire prime minister has awkward exchange with monarch at first weekly audience

www.theguardian.com

As Truss curtseyed, and said: “Your Majesty”, Charles replied: “So you’ve come back again?”

While Truss replied: “It’s a great pleasure,” he could only mutter: “Dear, oh dear. Anyway …”

 

[sdifox]

Really struggling with this. On the one hand, the unelected monarch really has no business making any political comment at all. On the other hand, it's a perfectly understandable human reaction to having to interact with Truss (the unelected PM).

King Charles greets Liz Truss with: ‘Back again? Dear, oh dear’

Under-fire prime minister has awkward exchange with monarch at first weekly audience

www.theguardian.com

Charles should show up with Truss more. She makes him look good.

 

[pmv]

From the Guardian politics blog:

In the latest round of extraordinary polling, a survey by People Polling for the Daily Telegraph has found Labour’s lead has stretched to a huge 34 points, with Labour on 53% and the Conservatives at just 19%.

In worse news for Liz Truss, just 9% of the public have a favourable view of her.

Prof Matthew Goodwin, the pollster behind the research, told the newspaper: “These numbers mean that Liz Truss is more unpopular than Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn ever were – she is basically in what I would call Prince Andrew territory.”

LOL at the bolded bit.

I am not sure how the country gets out of this. The government is paralysed. Truss won't be able to get her cuts or other legislation through parliament, but Tory MPs seem to be incapable of organising to get rid of her. The result can only be more drift and more loss of financial confidence and an inevitable budget deficit as the interest rates the country has to pay for borrowing rise due to that loss of confidence.

Seems as if the only hope is to leave her alone in a room with a revolver and hope she 'does the right thing'. That is, if she agrees her position is hopeless and stands down for some other "Tory Unity candidate", whoever that might be.

 

[Artorias]

From the Guardian politics blog:



LOL at the bolded bit.

I am not sure how the country gets out of this. The government is paralysed. Truss won't be able to get her cuts or other legislation through parliament, but Tory MPs seem to be incapable of organising to get rid of her. The result can only be more drift and more loss of financial confidence and an inevitable budget deficit as the interest rates the country has to pay for borrowing rise due to that loss of confidence.

Seems as if the only hope is to leave her alone in a room with a revolver and hope she 'does the right thing'. That is, if she agrees her position is hopeless and stands down for some other "Tory Unity candidate", whoever that might be.

Why hasn't there already been a general election called?

 

[sdifox]

Why hasn't there already been a general election called?

Parliamentary system. So the party with the most seats form the government. The party leader is the prime minister. The party can of course change their leader, but I am not sure the Tory rules allow such quick leadership review.

I don't understand how they allow any sort of budget getting passed without a parliamentary vote though.

 

[IronWing]

Don't y'all have to have a general election at least once every seven years? So chin up, only four more years to go.

 

[pmv]

Don't y'all have to have a general election at least once every seven years? So chin up, only four more years to go.

Every five years - so only two more years to go.

That's the thing, though, and why I would call this a coup. She _could_ have chosen to call an election immediately, if she wanted to make this dramatic ideological shift. We could have had a general election and she could have said in her manifesto what she was proposing to do, and tried to obtain a mandate for her "trickledown" based policies. That's the 'convention' for such situations.

But instead she decided to exploit the vulnerability in the system to embark on this mad hard-right direction without giving the electorate a chance to vote on it.

MPs were elected in 2019 under Johnson, who was nowhere near so ideological (egotistical and somewhat incompetent, but not this kind of crazy true-believer - his Thatcherite ideology was always ameliorated by his desperate need to be liked and admired), and with a manifesto that was almost the opposite of what they are now doing (it promised to 'level up' the poorer parts of the country).

Now it seems to have caused political paralysis, as even Tory MPs don't seem to be inclined to vote for her proposals so they won't get through parliament, but they also don't seem to be able to organise themselves to get rid of her.

 

[pmv]

I don't understand how they allow any sort of budget getting passed without a parliamentary vote though.

I still don't understand that. I didn't realise it at first but it turns out there _does_ have to be a vote, just that there's a long delay before that happens. And it also seems from what MPs are saying, she'll lose that vote. Hence she'll have to U-turn (as she already has on the top rate tax cut).

Though it further seems that there are _some_ things she can put through without a vote, but I don't understand which things those are.

The problem now seems to be paralysis. And regardless of the tax cuts the loss-of-confidence from the money markets that she's caused has already caused the interest rates the UK govt pays to go up, thus costing the state money, thus requiring tens of billions of cuts to balance it - but it seems she won't be able to get those cuts through parliament.

 

[Roger Wilco]

UK tabloid has a live feed of a head of lettuce to see if it outlasts Truss.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1580830837331087361

 

[fskimospy]

I still don't understand that. I didn't realise it at first but it turns out there _does_ have to be a vote, just that there's a long delay before that happens. And it also seems from what MPs are saying, she'll lose that vote. Hence she'll have to U-turn (as she already has on the top rate tax cut).

Though it further seems that there are _some_ things she can put through without a vote, but I don't understand which things those are.

The problem now seems to be paralysis. And regardless of the tax cuts the loss-of-confidence from the money markets that she's caused has already caused the interest rates the UK govt pays to go up, thus costing the state money, thus requiring tens of billions of cuts to balance it - but it seems she won't be able to get those cuts through parliament.

I think the main problems here are largely not solveable by your government. Inflation is mostly a global issue for all the reasons we’ve discussed and on top of that you have the huge cost increases and chaos caused by Brexit and that’s too late to reverse. And while Brexit is definitely the fault of conservatives and they should pay the piper for it I don’t know how Labor would be able to fix it.

 

[uallas5]

UK tabloid has a live feed of a head of lettuce to see if it outlasts Truss.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1580830837331087361

Is it me or does a head of lettuce with googly eyes look more trustworthy and less crazy than her?

 

[biostud]

I think the main problems here are largely not solveable by your government. Inflation is mostly a global issue for all the reasons we’ve discussed and on top of that you have the huge cost increases and chaos caused by Brexit and that’s too late to reverse. And while Brexit is definitely the fault of conservatives and they should pay the piper for it I don’t know how Labor would be able to fix it.

Exactly, there is no quick fix and they have taken all the wrong decisions for many years and now inflation and the energy crisis has tipped the boat. But there are no reasons to start drilling holes in an already sinking boat.

I think the most important thing the brits must realize and acknowledge is that they are not going to get any super trade agreements around the world that can save their economy. They will have to get a trade agreement with EU like Norway or Switzerland unless they want their economy to keep dwindling. But for that to happen I believe we have passed 2030...

 

[pmv]

Now Truss has fired Kwarteng. It usually takes governments multiple terms to get into a mess as bad as this.

 

[fskimospy]

Now Truss has fired Kwarteng. It usually takes governments multiple terms to get into a mess as bad as this.

I don't know a lot about UK politics but it seems there is blood in the water. How would she survive this?

 

[sdifox]

I don't know a lot about UK politics but it seems there is blood in the water. How would she survive this?

She just became leader not long ago (beginning of Sept) and I am not sure the Tories are ready to go at it again.

 

[pmv]

I don't know a lot about UK politics but it seems there is blood in the water. How would she survive this?

God knows. She can keep throwing ministers overboard, but at some point she'll run out of bodies to throw to the sharks. But there's no formal mechanism for getting rid of her unless she agrees to be handed the revolver and left to 'do the right thing'.

Hopefully never again will the Tories trust their membership to pick a leader. They've proven repeatedly now they are just no good at it. One could say that's a side-issue, compared to the greater point that the electorate should never again trust the Tories in government - but in that respect it's clear that there's no such thing as 'never'. The rich are always with us.

 

[pmv]

Truss says she's staying on as PM 'to ensure economic stability'. I suppose in much the same spirit as Putin is staying on in the Kremlin to ensure world peace.

 

[MrSquished]

I don't know a lot about UK politics but it seems there is blood in the water. How would she survive this?

I read an article yesterday that said that Kwarteng had broken multiple ethics rules by taking all kinds of treats from Aramco and other major Saudi oil producing companies - such as flights and accommodations, something which is not allowed.

 

[K1052]

hoo boy

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581304429193572352

 

[pmv]

Our new Chancellor just declared that because the turmoil of the last few weeks (entirely the creation of his own government) has made the government finances so much worse, not only will there be a new round of "austerity" but "all departments - specifically including the NHS and defence - are potentially subject to spending cuts in the budget coming at the end of this month.

So potentially we could be seeing defence spending cuts. Doesn't sound like great news for Ukraine.

If Jeremy Hunt is to be Truss’s saviour, he needs more than austerity 2.0

Tax-cut U-turns won’t be enough to balance the books, so the new chancellor will look at cutting public service budgets. But there is an alternative

www.theguardian.com

The health service, social care, the defence budget and education were going to be protected under Sunak’s tax raising plans. However, the damage done to the economy by the last three weeks of turmoil on financial markets has meant this will no longer be possible, said Hunt.

Access Restricted

 

[Fenixgoon]

hoo boy

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581304429193572352

As someone who doesn't know UK politics and media too well, what's the significance of this?

 

[biostud]

Our new Chancellor just declared that because the turmoil of the last few weeks (entirely the creation of his own government) has made the government finances so much worse, not only will there be a new round of "austerity" but "all departments - specifically including the NHS and defence - are potentially subject to spending cuts in the budget coming at the end of this month.

So potentially we could be seeing defence spending cuts. Doesn't sound like great news for Ukraine.

If you donate a large part of your military hardware and afterwards fire the crew/maintenance personnel? :/

 

[Timorous]

As someone who doesn't know UK politics and media too well, what's the significance of this?

It would be like Fox News saying that Trump incited Jan 6th.

 

[Fenixgoon]

It would be like Fox News saying that Trump incited Jan 6th.

Oh damn!!

 

[WelshBloke]

God knows. She can keep throwing ministers overboard, but at some point she'll run out of bodies to throw to the sharks. But there's no formal mechanism for getting rid of her unless she agrees to be handed the revolver and left to 'do the right thing'.

The Tories can no confidence her which would kick off another tory leadership contest, and they REALLY don't want to go through that again!
The house can no confidence the government and we get a general election but there's no way the tories will go for that given their position in the polls.

It comes down to whether the tories (having the majority of votes) want to get this out of the way now or hope it gets better before they have to call an election.
Normally I'd say that threres no way it can get worse for them but...