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Liz Truss’s time is up

Every single person in Liz cabinet is of the ingrained belief that the state shouldn't exist.

It's almost religious in its devotion to shrinking the state
Not so; that would make them anarchists.
Trussian tories believe in a small (consolidator) state that is big enough to support state security and act as a regressive redistributive channel that transfers taxes on labour into unearned income.
 
What does this mean in practice, though? Because you can believe in shrinking the state all you want, but reality doesn’t tend to share your belief beyond a certain point. And I think we must be pretty close to that point
NHS. Reduced public pension. Removal / gutting of welfare. America, essentially.

The only light is that there will be an election in 2024 so they've got max 2 years to turn us into Deadworld.

Starmer's a prick but jesus christ, he's not this.
 
Not so; that would make them anarchists.
Trussian tories believe in a small (consolidator) state that is big enough to support state security and act as a regressive redistributive channel that transfers taxes on labour into unearned income.


Oh yeah, they want to keep the jackboots and scrap the rest
 
UK has an economy of x value, with fuck all of value to flog except for what's left of the NHS. Truss and Kwarteng do their thing, pound tanks. Foreign investors look at their pile of money in US dollars and think "hmmm, last week my pile of dollars was worth 0.9 piles of UK sterling, now it's worth a whole pile. What an attractive place to invest - let's see what they've got, perhaps a slice of that NHS!"

Cue a Tory propaganda assault to frame it as "investment and belief in Britain" instead of what it is - the national equivalent of a fully paid up member of the precariat holding a yard sale in a desperate bid to try and make the next mortgage/rent payment.

Markets react to said "investment" and the UK economy is back at x value, but with even less of a rump carcass of the one thing that we hold dear. Much like after the yard sale, we've made the mortgage payment for now but are left sitting on inflatable furniture eating own brand Supernoodles out of the last remaining bowl.
 
Not so; that would make them anarchists.
Trussian tories believe in a small (consolidator) state that is big enough to support state security and act as a regressive redistributive channel that transfers taxes on labour into unearned income.
A state is needed to avoid the masses getting all chop chop chop with the free marketeers at the very least
 
NHS. Reduced public pension. Removal / gutting of welfare. America, essentially.

The only light is that there will be an election in 2024 so they've got max 2 years to turn us into Deadworld.

Starmer's a prick but jesus christ, he's not this.
He will be though.

He won't have the balls to reverse anything significant so will just push on in the same direction a little slower.
 
It's certainly a theory which could be explored. Brexit was almost certainly assisted by outside forces, be they Russian or Steve Bannon/Trumpian or both. Brexit supporters were beyond desperate to get Truss on the ballot. She has the appearance of a woman "in power but not in charge". Who is behind the door to number 10 really?
Cabinet secretary usually
When you posted this, no. QE was being reversed.
As of this week, yes. The BoE has started major new bond purchases, financed from central bank reserves.
Won't work, unfortunately

And given QT was necessary cos of inflationary pressures...cutting benefits and printing money recipe for trouble
 
I mean wtf? How have we got to this point...


Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “There are heart-rending stories of nurses choosing between eating during the day and being able to buy a school uniform for their children at home.
...
More than a quarter (27%) of trusts already operate food banks for staff, and another 19% plan to open one, to help relieve the acute financial difficulties faced by staff.
 
How to think like Liz Truss:

1. Hear the question, then go to answer what you think the question was
2. Hear the actual question, stop and pause for at least 1 Truss Second.
3. Attempt an actual answer
4. Realise that won't work
5. Hear the question, then go to answer what you think the question was
 
I have a theory that Truss's process with this budget was pretty much the same at Putin's for invading Ukraine.

She surrounded herself with a small group of people, liable to tell her anything she wanted hear, excluded any non-barmy advisors, and allowed herself to be convinced that the ridiculous thing she wanted to achieve (massively cut taxes without also cutting spending) could be easily achieved with a single stealthy act of genius.

All she had to do was have KK announce the massive tax cuts and then sit back as the FTSE soared. By the time it came to setting out spending plans, five weeks later, the massive boost in projected growth would mean only modest spending cuts would be needed, or none at all probably.

Then, it didn't work, because it was an obviously stupid plan. And now she's decided she has has to lay waste to an entire country rather than admit fallibility.

Betcha.
Yep - I think the putin/urkraine analogy is a good one. supreme arrogance, self delusion, fanatical belief in the rightness of your cause, ignoring and sideline of all dissenting voices (like ignoring the OBR and sacking the top treasury civil servant) and surrounding yourself only with those telling you what you want to hear. And also the violence of the action. This was a smash and grab on teh economy. And similarly the expectation that it would be met by a enthusiasm - in the governments case - by the markets.
Also the timing - it was launched at the start of the conference season - so parliament is in recess for three weeks - so there can be no debate in parliament - and prevent trouble from their own mps. It would also overshadow the labour party conference - (instead the labour conference became part of the story as they had a ready made media platform to say "what the fuck are you doing?" whilst looking like the grown ups). Then I guess the gruesome two some would boss the tory party conference whilst being hailed by the faithful for their bold brilliance
I dont buy the idea that the market chaos was "part of the plan" - but Im curious as to what extent they expected Stirling to fall - did they expect some devaluation but not realise the disastrous knock on effect? The massive hike in government borrowing rates is an absolute body blow to the nations finances and the accompanying - inevitable - rise in interest rates cancels out the growth generated by borrowing umpteen billion to pump into the economy via tax cuts. Truss is a fucking moron - but surely this sort of stuff is really basic level economics and Kwarting presumably understands it.
I guess they were thinking initial turbulence followed by a turbo charged economy powering brextiantia into the sunlit uplands. Not the BofE having to make huge emergency interventions to save the nations pensions, the IMF throwing a fit and a 33% labour lead in the polls.
Right now I guess they are in denial and it will be all swivel eyed "hold fast - hang in there - will we win through" .
 
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NHS. Reduced public pension. Removal / gutting of welfare. America, essentially.

These things did not come about through largesse, though. They came about because of biopower — the need of the state to rely on the reproduction of labour and a healthy workforce. The power of the establishment is reliant on them, and gutting them will cause problems for those with power as well as those without. And there is a normalisation process by which the way people understand the nature of their relationship with the state includes certain things. Removing them impacts the social order, and it becomes hard to predict what comes next.

None of which means that Truss and co won’t try to achieve their aims. I’m just saying that if you intervene in a complex dynamic system like this, the outcome is not linear. You don’t just remove welfare and turn into America, basically. You may alternatively turn into Syria.
 
NHS. Reduced public pension. Removal / gutting of welfare.
These are appalling of course, but they have been happening for decades, under both Labour, Tory and LD governments (and devolved governments).
I'd argue that Stamer and Rachel 'tougher than the Tories' Reeves are exactly this. Cooper was a member of a government that was involved in exactly these things.

What is different is that in 2022 capital (with the LP behind) generally recognises that the shrinking the state much further is not only producing no benefits but is harmful to it.
 
These things did not come about through largesse, though. They came about because of biopower — the need of the state to rely on the reproduction of labour and a healthy workforce. The power of the establishment is reliant on them, and gutting them will cause problems for those with power as well as those without. And there is a normalisation process by which the way people understand the nature of their relationship with the state includes certain things. Removing them impacts the social order, and it becomes hard to predict what comes next.

None of which means that Truss and co won’t try to achieve their aims. I’m just saying that if you intervene in a complex dynamic system like this, the outcome is not linear. You don’t just remove welfare and turn into America, basically. You may alternatively turn into Syria.
Yes. There was the FT article up thread about our politicians paying too much attention to US politics and forgetting that we're not a large nation with an internal market of 300 million people. We're also not a pioneer culture with massive religious and other structures dedicated to self sufficiency and in group mutual aid.
 
If you think I'm talking shit, at least say why. I have family and friends in the mid West and visiting them, generally people are religious, and the churches there help you build a house, people feed each other etc.

I'm not saying there's no miserable poverty, but that people don't expect the state to assist and many middle class people have non state structures around to help in hard times. Everyone grows food. There's no comparable stuff here.
 
If you think I'm talking shit, at least say why. I have family and friends in the mid West and visiting them, generally people are religious, and the churches there help you build a house, people feed each other etc.

I'm not saying there's no miserable poverty, but that people don't expect the state to assist and many middle class people have non stare structures around to help in hard times. There's no comparable stuff here.
that was meant to be a reply to the post above yours sorrry!
 
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