The Government of the United Kingdom is in disarray. Last Friday’s fiscal announcement including, inter alia, the removal of the 45% tax rate on incomes above £150,000 per annum, had caused havoc in the ‘market’ by increasing interest rates and inflation to an alarming degree. This was followed by statements withdrawing the removal of the 45% rate, stating that the government was a listening government, and reacted accordingly in true democratic fashion. Their claim of listening was yet another attempt at misdirection. Had they been a listening government from the outset, they would never have made the proposals in the first place. Ms Truss in particular was told what was likely to happen in the event she carried out her repeated mantra of tax cutting during the whole of her campaign to be elected leader of the Conservative Party. Voices from many quarters told her to think again and not indulge in the fantasy she was proposing. So please, do not be taken in by her assertions that she is paying attention to what she is being told. There are still £43 billions of unfunded tax cuts to account for.
Given her now repetitive statements that she wants to help all those citizens in need, and her refusal to state whether or not she will increase benefits by the cost of inflation for those on benefits, she is obfuscating as usual. That, coupled with her comments about fiscal responsibility and suggesting prospective spending cuts, makes it clear she has no intention of listening to anyone.
She keeps repeating that her actions are to promote growth in the economy and the only way she seems to believe this is possible is by making the rich richer. She is of the view that these people are entrepreneurs who head companies that will reinvest their profits, create jobs and increase incomes and profits from which even greater tax revenue will be forthcoming. It is in fact more likely that they will salt away profits in Caribbean tax havens and pay out better dividends to shareholders. That’s about the only trickle-down one will see.
The party is at odds with itself. Even the likes of Nadine Dorries want Ms Truss to call a general election. She too recognises that Ms Truss has no mandate from the British Public to do any of the things she is doing. Ms Dorries supported Ms Truss in her bid to become Leader of the party and Prime Minister, yet she now claims that many members are dismayed by Ms Truss’s actions and that she is destroying Boris Johnson’s legacy. In my view there is no legacy to destroy, but be that as it may, Ms Truss has upset Ms Dorries. I don’t think Ms Dorries actually expects Ms Truss to call an election, but it makes for good copy.
Rachel Wolf, one of the authors of the Conservative Party Manifesto 2019, warns that Liz Truss’s government has no “democratic or parliamentary mandate”. Many others in the party are of the same view, although more reluctant to actually push for an election to take place before January 2025, as they will more than likely lose their current job.
The callous comments from Jacob Rees-Mogg and party Chairman Jake Berry (“People know that when their bills arrive, they can either cut their consumption or they can get a higher salary, higher wages, go out there and get that new job,”) are not helping the conservative cause. Ms Truss claims she has learned from the turmoil created by the fiscal event, but the lesson she describes is about public relations, stating, ‘we should have prepared the groundwork better’ or words to that effect. Running the country is a PR exercise is it? I didn’t know that.
I believe there are a couple of events which must take place if any equilibrium and growth in world financial markets is to occur, and for the United Kingdom in particular to regain credibility. One, the war in Ukraine must stop. Two, there must be an immediate general election to replace the current Government. Another possibility is that a miracle may happen and Truss and Kwarteng actually achieve a positive result, their promised growth springs up and tax revenues from low taxation soar, everyone gets a home and a high paying job, benefits and pensions are secure and index linked, NHS waiting lists disappear and appointments with GP’s can be made for the next day. As of now, for any of the above things to happen it would indeed be a miracle.
I can understand the concept of home ownership. Having a home is key, whether owned or rented, it does not matter. Shelter can secure health and safety. From a shelter one can obtain an education or gain skills of one kind or another. One can enter into employment of be self-employed. One can earn the funds through which one can buy things to furnish the home, the living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms. One can look after the garden or surrounding land, depending on the size. There are umpteen enterprises making goods and furnishings to fill those shelters. There are many shops and businesses to provide food and material comforts. Means of transport and links of all kinds follow on from that. Everything flows from having a secure home. So building shelter and providing secure homes is an imperative. Growth does not happen otherwise. Everything revolves around the nest, be it permanent, temporary or nomadic, so long as it is secure. Every citizen has a human right to the health and security that a shelter can provide. The democratic state is obliged to provide that basic security, fundamental health, safety and freedom. If the state promotes inequality, if the state promotes discord, if the state promotes distress and anxiety, if the state promotes distrust and suspicion than there is no democratic state at all. These various forms of poverty, of spirit, generosity, civility, security, health and economy stifle the state and prevent real growth. Ms Truss’s tax cuts do not absolve her government from promoting just such a stifled state.
This Conservative Government has been in power for 12 years now, yet all the questions being asked are dealt with as if we are dealing with a new government. There may be different personalities in cabinet, but they have all been in the same government for 12 years. To treat them otherwise is ridiculous. To pretend that ministers need time to settle in or that the Prime Minister needs a honeymoon period is a joke. She has been in cabinet for a number of years in a variety of jobs. How much settling in does she need? This is a continuing government. They deserve no such delicate treatment by journalists who on the whole ask questions, getting answers which take us no further. The journalists, almost without fail, do not remind the ministers or parliamentarians that they have had 12 years to get things right. It is no good just blaming everything on the pandemic and the war in the Ukraine. What about the ten years leading up to those events. How sturdy and secure was the country during that time? Housing and the NHS were still unresolved, with no real plan to make improvements. It was a matter of favouring the wealthy then as it is now. We are no further along. The promises to level up were a sham when made and have now been completely abandoned. How much time does one give these people to deal with the problems of this democracy.
This conservative government has done nothing, since it was returned to power in 2010, but cause division and dissension. From the referenda on separation from the European Union and Scottish independence, we have anger and frustration in all areas. The margins between remaining and leaving in both cases were narrow, hence the sometimes bitter divisions arising.
The rational for holding these plebiscites was effectively the same. The parties wanting to leave the EU kept going on about taking back control, but on the other hand, those same people, when speaking of Scottish independence, claimed the Unity of purpose of a United Kingdom. Why was taking back control right for one country and not for another? Was not the Ukraine part of the Russian Empire since the beginning of the 18th Century and the Soviet Union from 1917 through to 1991? (Although two separate Ukrainian states were declared in 1918 and Unified in 1919, they were part of the Soviet Union until 1991 by way of another referendum) This war has a very long back story. There are many historical associations from which to make claims for sovereignty.
However, the overall performance of the conservative government since taking back control has been a disaster. Social divisions are as deep as ever. Racism, bigotry and extremism have thrived. The right wing agenda is gaining the ascendancy. Surely it is time to stop the rot. The most common symptom of this rot, even without physically seeing the outbreak, are the presence of repressive legislation, nationalism and isolationism. We have all that, and we have seen and heard from a number of confrontational and rigid home secretaries and foreign office ministers who give us cause for concern.
In her last piece in the Guardian
(Monday 3rd October 2022) Polly Toynbee, has also suggested, as I had previously, to ride the tide:
Labour might echo Shakespeare’s Brutus: “There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,” or summon Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season.”
The article can be found at:
She is much more optimistic than I. Whether we have an election and whether the Labour Party moves into government is still too far into the future to be wholly optimistic.
How does Liz Truss stop the war in Ukraine? And why should she just as the Ukrainians are winning?
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t suggesting Liz Truss could stop the war, just that the war should end.
Delete