She makes Margaret Thatcher look like a moderate and Ronald Reagan seem positively wet. Liz Truss has embarked on an ideological project so extreme that the de facto budget announced by her chancellor today amounts to a declaration of class war. It was a reverse Robin Hood: taking from those who have least, lavishing gifts on those who have most. It is morally indefensible, economically reckless and so politically risky as to suggest a death wish.
Trussonomics rests on a simple article of faith: that by rewarding the already wealthy, life will improve for everyone else. Trickle-down economics, they called it back in the 1980s, and it didn’t work then. Now it’s back in a form more stark, more extravagant, than even its most ardent apostles ever dared contemplate.
The generosity towards the amply blessed was breathtaking. Kwasi Kwarteng’s totemic move was the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses – as if the number one problem confronting Britain today was that bankers aren’t rich enough. It’ll be Cristal magnums all round in the City, obviously, but Labour HQ should also raise a glass: they’ve just been handed an attack line that cannot fail. The Conservative predecessors of Truss and Kwarteng had no principled objection to letting bankers receive telephone-number bonuses, but held off because they knew the optics were so screamingly awful. The new duo has no such restraint.
And so they have delivered the biggest tax cuts in half a century, outstripping the landmark Nigel Lawson budget of 1988 – and their largesse is aimed squarely at the top. Kwarteng decided it was those in the highest tax bracket who needed help, so he abolished the top rate altogether. That will hand an average £10,000 to the highest-earning 600,000 people in the country: literally the one per cent. » | Jonathan Freedland | Friday, September 23, 2022
Liz Truss makes Margaret Thatcher look like the fairy godmother! Divisive politics like this could eventually well lead to a revolution. Even tolerant Brits have their limits! Could Tory policies like this—giving the already super-privileged even more privileges—lead even to Britain overthrowing the monarchy? The French did it in 1789, declaring the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. It is very difficult to see how we Brits could declare the same here! In the UK, there is liberté for the super-priviliged, there is certainly no égalité and where there are such class divisions, there can certainly be no fraaternité, either.
It is high time for this country to call time on giving the already super-privileged yet more privileges. A well-run economy, even a capitalist economy, should be, must be run for the benefit of all. I believe it is true to say that this country has more food banks than it has Starbucks outlets! How can it be morally justifiable to pursue such shameless economic policies when so many people have to go to food banks in order to put food on the table for their children? What we need is more food for our children, not more champagne for our bankers!
Once upon a time, when I was young, I was so proud to call myself British. These days, not so much. Moreover, we Brits were spoken about in the same breath as fairness and fair play. No longer, I fear. This country has become synonymous with class division, unfairness, greed and selfishness.
With policies like these put forward like this by Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss, it is easier to feel ashamed to be British than it is to feel proud. These are , indeed, sad times. – © Mark Alexander
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. – KJB Matthew 13:12
