Michael Lambert: Keir Starmer – “Make Brexit Work”

Liz Truss, after only three weeks as prime minister, has shown that she is out of her depth and incompetent.

Kwarteng's 'financial statement' was a disaster which alarmed the markets. resulting in further increases in interest rates and an intervention by the Bank of England.

Labour held their conference where they voted in favour of electoral reform from First Past the Post to Proportional Representation which was duly overruled by Keir Starmer.

Starmer then went on to repeat his intention to 'Make Brexit Work'. This is an impossible task given that Brexit has caused so much damage and has been seen not to work.



Michael Lambert has a book out entitled BREXIT - It's not going too well, is it?, which is Michael Lambert’s humorous and satirical take on the history of Brexit. It is available to buy or download here.

‘Cruel and Greedy’: High Earners on Kwasi Kwarteng Ditching Top Tax Rate

THE GUARDIAN: Seven people in 45% tax bracket that chancellor is abolishing share how they feel about decision

International markets, voters, members of the Conservative party and experts have reacted with dismay to Kwasi Kwarteng’s “fiscal event” last Friday, when the chancellor announced that the top tax rate of 45% would be abolished.

Here, seven high earners who will benefit from this tax cut share how they feel about it, and what they will do with the money. » | Jedidajah Otte | Saturday, October 1, 2022

Lizzie makes Maggie look like the fairy godmother! Maggie’s family background was steeped in Christianity, so despite her being somewhat hard-nosed at times, her Christianity showed through from time to time, too. The same cannot be said for Lizzie. Lizzie is clearly hard of heart: she clearly has a total lack of compassion for the less fortunate. The needy and poor are so obviously off her radar screen. Not much Christianity to be discerned there! Has she even read the Bible, I wonder? Does she have any understanding of its message?

I would urge her to consider the following two verses from the Bible. The same goes for Kwasi Kwarteng:

The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it. KJB Proverbs 29:7

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. KJB Deuteronomy 15:11

If Lizzie goes on like this, showing no mercy or compassion for the less fortunate, I cannot see her surviving in office for very long. – © Mark Alexander

Source of Bible quotes: King James Bible Online.

Early Liz Truss Comments on Scrapping Benefits Stoke Fears of Further Cuts

THE GUARDIAN: Proposals from 1995 condemning ‘recycling’ of taxpayers’ money add to concerns for universal credit increase

The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, right, arriving in Darlington on Thursday, said it was ‘premature’ to say if benefits would rise in line with inflation. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Liz Truss has previously suggested universal benefits such as the state pension should be scrapped because of the “huge expense” to taxpayers of “recycling” their money through the system – prompting fears she could go further still with her plans to cut back the benefits bill.

The proposal, included in her motion to the Liberal Democrat Youth conference in spring 1995, highlighted the “enormous – and rising – cost of pensions and child benefit”, calling for a “search for realistic alternatives to universal benefits”.

Truss, who left the party the next year to join the Conservatives, had added that it was not “socially desirable to pay out universal benefits in the current fashion”, given the “huge expense to the taxpayers of recycling money through the tax system”. » | Pippa Crerar, Political editor | Friday, September 30, 2022

State pensions are NOT a “benefit”! Benefits are handouts from the government. State pensions have to be paid for, by law, by the eventual recipient.

Madame Truss is going the right way about getting people onto the streets! I see before me a ‘winter of discontent’. In order to avoid this happening, I suggest that Madame Truss be unceremoniously kicked out of Number 10. I also suggest that her sidekick, the practitioner of voodoo economics, also be kicked out of Number 11. BEFORE they do any more damage to this country and its economy. The Tories should be kicked out of office forthwith, as well. They have been in office for far too long. As a result, they are stale and bereft of any good ideas.

I suggest that Madame Truss be recycled: recycled into the dustbin of history! – © Mark Alexander

The Guardian View on the UK Economy: Sack Kwarteng, Oust Truss

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The crisis was created by the new government. But the British people, not ministers, are paying the price

The prime minister and her chancellor are determined to impose a new economic orthodoxy on Britain.’ Photograph: Rory Arnold/No 10 Downing Street
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are the authors of the economic crisis now battering Britain and its people. They alone demanded the tax cutting mini-budget that has triggered the worst financial instability to threaten this country since 2008. Since they, and no one else, own this growing national disaster, they alone must take responsibility for it New polls showing record Labour leads demonstrate the toxicity of their actions.

The prime minister and her chancellor are determined to impose a new economic orthodoxy on Britain. They are able to do so because Conservative party members have imposed a doctrinaire rightwing leadership on a country that has never voted for it, committed to a philosophy of small government that prioritises radical deregulation over greater fairness, regional equality and ba>sic economic literacy. It is a policy profoundly out of touch with the values and priorities of the nation – just 19% of the public think the mini-budget is fair. But it is also out of harmony with the majority that voted for Brexit in 2016 and helped elect the Johnson government in 2019. Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng give every impression of not caring. They seem to think they are clever and other people are stupid. » | Editorial | Thursday, September 29, 2022

Liz Truss is a lightweight. Kwasi Kwartend is a practirioner of voodoo economics! The country needs some grown-up leadership. Now more than ever. Neoliberal economic policy is past its sell-by date. Trickle-down economics is a myth; in practice, it is more akin to 'trickle-up economics'.

Any economist worth his/her salt should propound economic theories which work for the benefit of all. If they don't, they are useless. Just like this prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer.

The sooner we get rid of these shysters, the better it will be for all. – © Mark Alexander

Just Economists Losing Their Minds over Trussonomics

Just some experts outlining just how badly the Tories have handled the economy.

Market-turmoil and Slumping British Pound after UK Government Announced Economic Plans | DW News

The new UK government's plan for huge tax cuts financed by borrowing have drawn strong criticism from the IMF. The British pound has slumped - so has London lost control of the economy? The Day put that question to Phillip Inman, economics editor of the UK's Observer newspaper.

Government Is Undercutting UK Institutions, Says Former Bank Governor

Read the article here.

What Tory MPs are saying about Kwasi Kwarteng's future »

Tory MPs Tell Truss: Sack Kwarteng or Face Mutiny

THE GUARDIAN: MPs express disbelief over sterling slump as privately some fear PM’s government is ‘dead on arrival’

Liz Truss visits a business in Kent with Kwasi Kwarteng. One MP said: ‘Kwasi will have to go. She won’t have any option.’ Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Liz Truss is facing growing pressure from jittery Conservative MPs to sack Kwasi Kwarteng or face a mutiny after the Bank of England’s emergency intervention to address the turmoil in the financial markets.

The move prompted comparisons to 1992’s Black Wednesday, when the UK was ignominiously ejected from the European exchange rate mechanism.

Tory MPs expressed disbelief at how sterling had slumped after the government’s mini-budget sparked market turbulence, compounded by the chancellor’s subsequent remarks, at a time when households across the country were already struggling with the cost of living.

They said Kwarteng would have to resign for the party to survive the financial crisis, as they urged the prime minister to reverse her plan to scrap the top 45p tax rate, which they said had been received badly in their constituencies. » | Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot | Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Why are these poseurs in hard hats? You don't need hard hats in offices! Such vanity! It would be far better if they thought more about how to do their jobs properly and better. Then, perhaps, we wouldn't be in the mess and economic chaos we now find ourselves in, with the pound in freefall. God what a pair of dorks! – © Mark Alexander

I Was a Conservative Peer – Tory Voters Will Not Tolerate Liz Truss’s Bungs to the Rich

THE GUARDIAN: You don’t have to be a socialist to find UK levels of poverty intolerable – but Liz Truss lacks the empathy to see it

Liz Truss. ‘The public reaction to Trussonomics is at a level that the woman herself probably cannot grasp.’ Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters
Subtlety does not feature large on the short list that is the Liz Truss skill set. She had been campaigning for the Tory leadership long before Boris Johnson was forced to vacate it. In May 2019, as Theresa May sat uncomfortably in No 10, a newspaper profile declared of Truss: “She’s not so much a dark horse as one that has painted itself blue and wrapped itself in flashing neon lights.”

Last weekend she used that same newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, to laud the tax cuts launched on Friday and assure the country she would be “unapologetic” in pursuing a strategy that was already frightening the markets on which its success depends.

Truss’s single-mindedness won her the Tory leadership. Even though a majority of Tory MPs did not favour her, she directed her sledgehammer campaign at that self-selecting small band, Conservative party members, and they rejoiced in her promise of drastic cuts to tax and regulations. » | Patience Wheatcroft | Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Patience Wheatcroft is a journalist and crossbench peer (formerly Conservative)

Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Three weeks into her term, Prime Minister Liz Truss’s financial plans have thrown the markets and Britain’s currency into chaos and put her future in peril.

Support for the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Liz Truss, has plunged in the polls. | Tolga Akmen/EPA, via Shutterstock
LONDON — Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain campaigned as a tax cutter and champion of supply-side economics, and she won the race to replace her scandal-scarred predecessor, Boris Johnson. Now she has delivered that free-market agenda, and it may sink her government.

Four days after Ms. Truss’s tax cuts and deregulatory plans stunned financial markets and threw the British pound into a tailspin, the prime minister’s political future looks increasingly precarious as well.

Her Conservative Party is gripped by anxiety, with a new poll showing that the opposition Labour Party has taken a 17 percentage point lead over the Tories. It’s a treacherous place for a prime minister in only her third week on the job.

Labour is seizing the moment to present itself as the party of fiscal responsibility. With some experts predicting the pound could tumble to parity with the dollar, economists and political analysts said the uncertainty over Britain’s economic path would continue to hang over the markets and Ms. Truss’s government.

“It’s entirely possible she could be replaced before the next election,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, who is an expert on the Conservative Party. “It would be very, very difficult to conduct a full-blown leadership contest again, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.” » | Mark Landler | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Kwarteng’s Tax Cuts Will Force ‘Significant’ Interest Rate Rises by Bank of England

THE GUARDIAN: Chief economist says mini-budget will increase inflationary pressure in remarks likely to further spook mortgage borrowers

The Bank of England’s chief economist, Huw Pill, says: ‘It is hard not to draw the conclusion that this [tax cuts] will require a significant monetary policy response.’ Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
A senior Bank of England official has warned “significant” increases in interest rates will have to be imposed by the central bank in response to tax cuts put forward by Kwasi Kwarteng in his mini-budget.

The Bank’s chief economist, Huw Pill, said the chancellor’s planned tax cuts would act as a stimulus and increase inflationary pressures, with the result that interest rates would need to go higher than previously forecast.

“In my view, a combination of the fiscal announcements we have seen will act a stimulus to demand in the economy,” he said. “It is hard not to draw the conclusion that this will require a significant monetary policy response.”

Pill’s remarks are likely to further spook homebuyers and mortgage borrowers near the end of a fixed-rate mortgage about the cost of financing their loans. » | Phillip Inman | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

UK’s cost of borrowing on international markets overtakes Greece and Italy: Five-year British government bonds fall dramatically as traders price in higher risk of default on debt »

Pound Crashes to All-time Low as UK Chancellor Hints at More Tax Cuts

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was today forced to quell growing market unease over his low-tax, high borrowing strategy with a promise to set out more details in November, along with independent costings.

The Bank of England put out a statement too, saying they wouldn't hesitate to hike interest rates at their next meeting, but neither intervention seemed to reassure city markets.

The pound slid once again this evening, having hit a historic low against the dollar earlier in a rollercoaster day.
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And amidst the turmoil - the cost of government borrowing shot up too.

British Pound Touches Record Low as Investors Dump U.K. Assets

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The market’s resounding rejection of the new British government’s plans for tax cuts and borrowing continued Monday as the pound briefly fell to its weakest level against the U.S. dollar on record.

After a historically bad day on Friday, the British currency plunged as low as $1.035 in the early hours of Monday morning, before recovering to about $1.08, down 0.5 percent for the day. It also weakened slightly against the euro.

On Monday, prices for British government bonds plummeted, and yields surged, sending borrowing costs to new highs. The 10-year yield, which influences mortgages, business loans and other types of debt, hit its highest level in more than a decade. It traded at around 4.15 percent on Monday, double where it was a month and a half ago.

As traders dumped British assets, analysts have said the government’s plan to quickly grow the economy through deregulation and tax cuts, which will require tens of billions of pounds in additional borrowing at a time of rising interest rates and high inflation, was a gamble. » | Eshe Nelson | Monday, September 26, 2022

Clearly, Kwarteng’s voodoo economics has failed to impress the markets! – © Mark Alexander

Pound’s Plummet Underlines Schoolboy Error by Kwasi Kwarteng

THE GUARDIAN: Chancellor added to market worries by pledging further tax cuts in full budget planned for later this year

Kwasi Kwarteng’s inexperience has been exposed. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
The savage sell-off in the pound in east Asia overnight was further evidence – should any be needed – that confidence in the new Liz Truss government is rapidly draining away.

Sterling fell to its lowest level against the dollar, and despite an attempt at a rally in early London trading, the likelihood is that parity against the dollar will be tested before long. September tends to be the month for a sterling crisis – and so it has proved again.

Part of the story of the pound’s weakness is a function of dollar strength but that does not explain why sterling has fallen so rapidly since the end of last week. There are three UK-related factors behind the fall.

First, once a currency hits the skids it is hard to stop it. Momentum trading took over in the aftermath of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget and it has proved hard to halt.

Second, Kwarteng committed a schoolboy error by pledging further tax cuts in a full budget planned for later this year. If the markets are worried about the state of the government’s finances and the increase in borrowing needed to fund your plans, it is not the wisest course of action to add to those concerns. Kwarteng’s inexperience has been exposed. Third,... » | Larry Elliott, Economics editor | Monday, September 26, 2022

Pound Hits Fresh 37-year Low after Mini-budget Rocks Markets

THE GUARDIAN: Odds of sterling hitting parity with dollar jump, as analysts say UK bond market ‘getting smoked’ by giveaway

A protester outside the Houses of Parliament as the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled his mini budget on Friday. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock
The pound has hit a new 37-year low after the bonanza of tax cuts and spending measures in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget threatened to undermine confidence in the UK.

Sterling fell to $1.077 in early trading when Asia-Pacific markets opened after the weekend, closer to parity with the US dollar.

Chris Weston, the head of research at the brokerage firm Pepperstone, said the pound was “the whipping boy” of the G10 foreign exchange market, while the UK bond market was “getting smoked” thanks to Kwarteng’s £45bn debt-financed tax-cutting package.

“The funding requirement needed to pay for the mini-budget means either we need to see far better growth or higher bond yields to incentive capital inflows,” Weston said. Targets that the pound could fall below $1.05, for the first time ever, were being “liberally thrown around”, he added. » | Graeme Wearden | Sunday, September 25, 2022

Ha! Ha! Ha!. I could say: I told you so! We deserve all the pain we get! No! I am not being unpatriotic; on the contrary, I am being extremely patriotic. The dimwits of this country need to be brought to their senses asap.

This country is a medium-ranking European nation. Britannia no longer rules the waves. And probably never will again. Are we important as a nation? Of course we are! But we are no longer an imperial power; our Empire is gone, never to be resurrected. Get over it! These days, we need Europe; and Europe needs us.

People like Nigel Farage are not patriotic; au contraire, they are unpatriotic troublemakers. In fact, where is Nigel Farage when you need him most. He belongs in the stocks! He has caused so many Brits so much unnecessary pain with his vacuous talk. He shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

This country belongs in the European Union. The absurd policy of Brexit needs to be reversed forthwith. – © Mark Alexander

Kwasi Kwarteng Mulls More Beneficial Tax Cuts for High Earners

THE GUARDIAN: Reports chancellor is considering further changes to taxation after mini-budget ‘for the rich’

The government is considering a series of further tax cuts that could hand thousands of pounds to high earners, shortly after it announced the biggest giveaway in 50 years.

Plans under consideration could include bringing back a tax-free allowance for workers paid more than £100,000 a year, and lifting the amount pensioners can save before taxes kick in, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, on Friday delivered a mini-budget with tax cuts that will benefit many of the highest earners in the UK. Although it was not a full budget, it represented the biggest tax-cutting fiscal event since 1972 under another Conservative chancellor, Anthony Barber. » | Jasper Jolly | Sunday, September 25, 2022

The Guardian View on the Tory Trickle Up Policies: Redistributing to the Rich

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: Kwasi Kwarteng thinks Britain needs to give millionaires huge handouts and concrete over the country. He’s wrong

Kwasi Kwarteng came to the Commons determined to bury the politics of redistribution. But the Conservative chancellor revived it with a “ mini-budget” that attached rocket boosters on to bankers’ pay, gave millionaires a £40,000 handout by abolishing the top rate of tax and cut levies for businesses and buy-to-let landlords. It is in a cost of living crisis that Mr Kwarteng has chosen to show his true colours. Ordinary families are choosing between heating and eating. The nation’s public services are falling apart. The chancellor’s medicine for such ailments is to shower money – and to loosen regulatory safeguards – on the City, energy companies and housebuilders. » | Editorial | Friday, September 23, 2022

Truss/Kwarteng: A Reckless Economic Gamble Certain to Fail

Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have told us that their priority is to grow the economy. They plan to do this by borrowing huge amounts of money whilst cutting taxes which will inevitably benefit the rich more than those in desperate need. This is in addition to the £130 billion which they are borrowing in order to protect the profits of energy companies as they reduce the prices charged to consumers.

Inflation is at the highest it has been for several decades, interest rates are going up and individuals and businesses are being squeezed ever more. The NHS is in crisis with around 6 million waiting for treatment.

More and more families are depending upon food banks as they face an approaching winter when many of them will be unable to afford to heat their homes.

To reduce taxes thus benefitting the rich at a time of such crisis is a reckless and stupid gamble which will not work.

Opposition to the government is increasing and will only be inflamed by this absurd government policy.

It seems highly likely that this will lead to social unrest and a breakdown of law and order in the coming months

Pound Plummets as UK Government Announces Biggest Tax Cuts in 50 Years

Don't call it a budget - but it is the biggest budget intervention we've seen in decades, largely at odds with what twelve years of Conservative Chancellors have told us.

The Office of Budget Responsibility was stopped from publishing forecasts it had been working on, so the test of whether it is responsible was largely left to the financial markets.

The Chancellor claims he's unleashing "the power of the private sector".

Kwarteng Accused of Reckless Mini-budget for the Rich as Pound Plummets

THE GUARDIAN: Strategy of sweeping tax cuts gets hostile reception from markets and economic thinktanks, leaving some Tory MPs aghast

A screenshot taken from the accompanying video.
Kwasi Kwarteng has been accused of delivering a reckless mini-budget for the rich after his £45bn tax-cutting package sent the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years.

In a high-risk strategy designed to revive Britain’s stagnant economy, the new chancellor announced more than £400bn of extra borrowing over the coming years to fund the biggest giveaway since Tony Barber’s ill-fated 1972 budget.

Kwarteng said tax cuts worth more than £55,000 annually to someone earning £1m a year were part of a new direction for the economy and were designed to help boost growth to 2.5% a year. Some Labour MPs described them as a “class war”. With video » | Larry Elliott and Rowena Mason | Friday, September 23, 2022

This is capitalism at its most hideous! Kwasi Kwarteng has shown us the true face of the Tory party! These disgusting people need to be kicked out of office asap! There is capitalism and there is capitalism. This kind of capitalism disgusts any decent soul. It is inhumane and unChristian. To use Margaret Thatcher’s own words: No! No! No! – © Mark Alexander

Pound sinks as investors question huge tax cuts: The pound has fallen to a fresh 37-year low against the dollar as financial markets reacted to the biggest tax cutting moves in 50 years. »