Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng Have Made a Declaration of Class War

THE GUARDIAN: This unofficial budget is morally indefensible, economically reckless and so risky it suggests a political death wish

Taking from those who have least, lavishing gifts on those who have most.’ Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng on a visit to Berkeley Modular in Kent. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/AP
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

Michael Lambert: Could the UK Economy Collapse?

Sep 3, 2022 The UK economy could collapse very soon if urgent measures are not taken. Climate change, clearly the biggest threat which mankind has ever faced is causing massive disruption of food supplies as a result of drought and flooding.

Vladimir Putin's crazy and irrational behaviour threatens us all, including his own economy. The UK has been ruled by a dishonest, incompetent and self-obsessed prime minister and a second-rate government and has presided over an extensive decline in standards.

Brexit has so weakened the UK economy that we are forecast to be the 19th slowest-growing economy in the G20 next year.

The new prime minister, who is expected to be Liz Truss, has given no indication of how she will solve any of our problems other than by cutting taxes.

Electricity prices have risen so much that many householders will be unable to pay. Businesses which are not protected by any price cap are seeing electricity prices increasing so much that many will simply be forced to close.

The stress of being unable to cope with the rising cost of living is likely to lead to mental health problems for many. Others are likely to resort to crime in order to survive and, given the extremely low possibility of ever being apprehended, may well be seen as the only solution for many to survive.

The Tories Banned Us from Their Leadership Debate Last Night

Aug 26, 2022 CCHQ said they don't like our reporting and therefore wouldn't let us into their leadership debate in Norwich last night. So we're trying out something new today.

Theresa May Says Brexit Won't Cause Environment Standards to Fall in Resurfaced Clip

Aug 25, 2022 A resurfaced clip from 2019 in parliament shows former prime minister Theresa May saying to Zac Goldsmith that Brexit won't cause environmental standards in the UK to slip.

"Can the PM be absolutely clear that when we leave the EU, our environmental standards will rise, not fall?" Goldsmith is heard asking.

May said: "We're committed to ensuring that our environmental standards do not fall,

" The clip resurfaced online after raw sewage was pumped into the UK's waters. The Tory government have received backlash for polluting UK beaches and the subsequent environmental impact of this action.


What a load of BULLSHIT! Under the Tories, especially the Brexit-loving Tories, this country is becoming the SHITHOUSE of the world: a CESSPIT! Our environmental standards, as well as our food standards, have already gone down in this short time; and they will continue to go down and down and down in the future. The Tories have reduced us Brits to SHAME. Kick these BASTARDS out of office ASAP! – © Mark Alexander

Tax-cut Stunts Can’t Cover Up the Disaster That Is Brexit

THE GUARDIAN: Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak feel bound to talk lower spending to party members, but the former chancellor at least must see the folly of losing billions off our GDP

Liz Truss’s loathing for the EU is not lost on Brussels and Dublin. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
‘They are trying to hide the failure of Brexit behind policy stunts.” This observation about the fiasco of the Conservative party’s leadership contest came from an economist friend and neatly sums it up.

Liz Truss, who voted Remain but is now an ardent Brexiter, cannot admit to herself that she was right first time, and that the trade deals she goes on about that are supposed to have made up for our crass departure from the European Union do not amount to a hill of beans.

Sunak, who was always a Brexiter, must surely have learned from his time as chancellor that the Treasury’s hostility to Brexit was right all along. He is an intelligent man but, like Truss, is fantasising about Brexit “opportunities” that the Treasury and other Whitehall departments know are chimerical.

Whichever contender succeeds the worst prime minister in living memory will have to come to terms with two fundamental consequences of Brexit. One is that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate of a 4% annual loss to gross domestic product not only makes the country poorer but severely limits their tax-cutting ambitions – hers now, his later. Foolishly losing tens of billions of potential tax revenues through Brexit is not a good start to either of their ambitions.

The second is the devaluation of the pound by up to 12%, which the financial markets attribute to, yes, Brexit. This has not only made the country poorer but has also severely aggravated the inflation problem the government and Bank of England now face – with price growth running significantly higher than in most other European and G7 nations. » | William Keegan | Sunday, July 24, 2022

Don’t Waste All Your Anger on Boris Johnson — Save Some for His Enablers

THE GUARDIAN: The prime minister and his wrecking crew already smashed our democracy – now they are just turning the ire on themselves

Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson in Downing Street in September 2021. Photograph: Toby Melville/PA
In 2019 the now-departed chancellor, Rishi Sunak, played a vital role in boosting Boris Johnson’s chances of becoming Tory leader. He co-wrotea statement declaring: “Boris Johnson is one of life’s optimists and can help us recapture a sense of excitement and hope about what we Conservatives can do for Britain.” On Tuesday night, he changed his mind. It had apparently taken him three years to discover what everyone already knew – indeed, what Johnson had blatantly advertised all along, dangling from a zipwire, standing beside the Vote Leave bus, filing fibbing copy to the Telegraph.

What’s more, Sunak was meant to have spent this week hailing “the biggest personal tax cut in over a decade”, a giveaway precision-targeted at those tabloids that once purred approval at the government but now only hiss and spit. It was the start of yet another relaunch: the Treasury and the Tory press office lined up all their ducks, and Sunak and Johnson were gearing up for an event next week. Instead the prime minister looks like toast and almost every other story is lost in the noise – even the ones about Britons getting a bit more cash.

Ah well, that’s another £6bn tipped down the drain.

Here is what the end of the Tory show looks like: costly policies that splash about public money with the sole aim of currying favour for a leadership contest. Your taxes spent to prop up their poll ratings. » | Aditya Chakrabortty| Thursday, July 7, 2022

‘This cannot go on’: more ministers resign from cabinet: Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis, security minister Damian Hinds, science minister George Freeman, and Treasury minister Helen Whatley hand in hand notice »

Latest developments live »

Alastair Campbell: Tory MPs 'Need to Find a Spine'

Jul 6, 2022 Conservative MPs who support Boris Johnson are "propping up a crook, a liar and a charlatan" says former Downing Street Director of Communications under Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell.

He said that Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak had realised that their reputations were being tarnished the longer they served in a Johnson government, and that their only option was to step down.


Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a clown, and it is high time that he along with his circus leave London town! He is not only a clown, but a buffoon too. He is dangerous. He has already done untold damage to this nation, both in terms of economics and in terms of social cohesion. All because he insisted on getting a job he is unqualified to do, and ill-equipped for.

The man is without any understanding of economics. He is also without principle. He has screwed around all his life, leaving a trail of devastation behind him. The UK economy is no exception.

One truly has to ask oneself some serious questions when one is talking about a man so puffed up and self-absorbed that he grew up believing that he would one day become “king of the world”! Go figure!

However, instead of becoming king of the world, he had to settle for second best: becoming prime minister. And what a mess he is making of the job!

De Pfeffel’s antics re Brexit, along with his cohorts’, have ensured that this once proud United Kingdom, admired throughout the world especially for its integrity, has been turned into the Disunited Kingdom, ready to break up in a heartbeat, and having lost so much respect throughout the world.

To our European brethren and ‘Sistren’, BoJo has become a laughing stock. He is not the admired man he thinks he is. So, it really is time for him to consider his position in the interests of the nation and its people. – © Mark Alexander

Boris Johnson’s Tories Exhibit the Morbid Symptoms of a fin-de-siècle Regime

THE OBSERVER – OPINION: Intellectual exhaustion and rampant sleaze often characterise parties which have been squatting on power for too long

The only guiding principle of this government is to keep a disgraced law-breaker in office.’Photograph: Daniel Leal/PA
At the next general election, the Conservatives will be making a very big ask. They will be seeking a fifth consecutive term in power, a privilege that has never been granted to any party since the Great Reform Act of 1832. Assume the election is held in the spring of 2024. Imagine that the Tories receive the answer that they are looking for. We could then be contemplating 19 uninterrupted years of Conservative prime ministers.

For those who shudder at this future, the consoling news is that the Tories are working extremely hard to ensure that this does not happen. It is not entirely their fault that they are presiding over the most severe squeeze on living standards since the 1950s. They are to blame for deciding that this is the appropriate time to be cutting welfare support and hiking taxes. Voters can be willing to make sacrifices when persuaded that it is in service of a noble cause, but the only guiding principle of this government is to keep a disgraced law-breaker in office. There is no sense of a strategy to address the many economic and social challenges confronting Britain. Nor any expectation, even among Tory MPs, that the government will suddenly reveal an invigorating mission in this week’s Queen’s speech.

Levelling up has not graduated from slogan to substance. Promises of a huge house-building programme have collapsed on contact with resistance to planning reform. The energy security plan blinked at the big questions. The failure of Brexit to deliver the opportunities claimed for it is now so evident that Jacob Rees-Mogg has been told to go looking for them. Don’t hold your breath. There is no discernible ambition to tackle the chronically poor economic growth that has been a feature of this era of Tory rule. » | Andrew Rawnsley | Sunday, May 8, 2022

Dominic Cummings Tells Brexiters: Election Is Tighter Than It Looks

THE GUARDIAN: No 10 adviser issues ‘bat signal’ asking Vote Leave supporters to persuade friends to vote Tory

Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings has told Brexit supporters that the general election is “much tighter” than polls might suggest and urged them to persuade their friends to vote Tory.

Cummings has worked closely alongside Johnson from the moment he entered No 10, though he has taken a back seat during the election campaign. With little more than a fortnight to go until polling day, he used his blog to send up what he called a “bat signal” to Vote Leave supporters, warning them Brexit is at risk.

“You will see many polls in the coming days. Some will say Boris will win. Trust me, as someone who has worked on lots of campaigns, things are MUCH tighter than they seem and there is a very real possibility of a hung parliament,” he said. “Without a majority, the nightmare continues. ALL other MPs will gang together to stop Brexit and give EU citizens the vote. It’s that simple.” » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Wednesdday, November 27, 2019

Tony Blair Says Tories and Labour Engaged in ‘Populism Running Riot'

THE GUARDIAN: Former PM lambasts parties and says upcoming election is ‘weirdest of my lifetime’

Tony Blair has said neither Labour nor the Conservatives are seen as fit to win the general election, accusing both parties of peddling “fantasies”.

The former prime minister, one of the architects of New Labour who was speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in London, said Britain’s biggest parties were engaged in “populism running riot” and it would end in tears.

Blair has repeatedly called for Brexit to be reversed and said the right thing would have been to hold a second referendum followed by a general election.

He described the poll on 12 December as “the weirdest of my lifetime”, adding: “The truth is: the public aren’t convinced either main party deserve to win this election outright. They’re peddling two sets of fantasies and both, as majority governments, pose a risk it would be unwise for the country to take.”

Blair, who guided Labour to three election victories, said people “rightly” did not trust Boris Johnson with a “blank cheque”. He said though Labour were promising a revolution, “the problem with revolutions is never how they begin but how they end”. » | Haroon Siddique | Monday, November 25, 2019

Farage Seeks Brexit Election Pact with Tories

It's a big 'no' to a non-aggression pact with the Brexit party from Boris Johnson, who has dismissed any idea of an election alliance with the Brexit Party.

That's after Nigel Farage offered him an ultimatum: scrap your EU withdrawal deal and team up with us - or the Brexit party will fight the Conservatives in every seat.

But now the Tories have explicitly ruled that out.

Could the Leave vote be split?

Brexit: Tearing the Tories Apart?

Ken Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith, two of the most senior, long standing members of the Tory Party, discuss the state of the Conservatives.

Clarke had the whip withdrawn in September after he voted against the government.

A passionate opponent of Brexit and a life-long Europhile Clarke discusses how Brexit and Europe is eating away at his party with his long-standing colleague and former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith - a vocal proponent of leaving the EU.

‘We Cannot Change What We Are’: Michel Barnier Stares Down Tory Threats

THE OBSERVER: EU’s chief negotiator reaffirms that a no-deal outcome would be the responsibility of Boris Johnson

As the Brexit pressure ratchets up another notch, Michel Barnier appears everything most of the current British government is not: clear, calm, precise – and logical to a fault.

“I promised myself from the start,” the EU’s silver-haired, grey-suited chief negotiator told a packed theatre near the Gare du Nord in Paris on Saturday, “that I would not allow passion or emotion into my approach to Brexit.

“I work on facts, on figures. On what is legal and operable. My obligation is to defend, calmly and firmly, the interests of the European Union, of its citizens, its companies, its regions … And in leaving, the UK cannot ask us to change what we are.” » | Toby Helm and Jon Henley | Saturday, October 5, 2019

THE OBSERVER: Michel Barnier: blame Boris Johnson for a no-deal Brexit » | Saturday, October 5, 2019

Boris Johnson Not Fit to Be PM, Says Tory Minister

THE GUARDIAN: Margot James, of moderate One Nation Tory group, hits out at leadership hopeful’s ‘fuck business’ remark

Boris Johnson has been branded an unacceptable candidate to be prime minister by the Conservative minister Margot James, because of his “fuck business” remark when asked about companies’ concerns over Brexit.

James, a business minister and leading member of the One Nation Conservative group, said the comment meant Johnson was not fit for “high public office” as she addressed a Creative England event in London.

Speaking later to the Guardian, she said some of her colleagues promoting Brexit at any cost to business had the “wrong attitude”.

“I don’t think people in the public eye should be using language like that to discuss the concerns of the business community,” she said. “It’s the dismissive attitude to business that’s a problem among some people for whom Brexit is everything.” » | Rowena Mason, Deputy political editor | Tuesday, May 21, 2019

The Tories Have Forgotten Their Pro-EU Voters. And They’ll Pay for It

THE GUARDIAN: In my home town, I’ve seen how middle-class angst over Brexit is creating an existential threat to the party which could once count on their votes

In a seemingly endless season of Tory nightmares, this week looks set to mark the most dreadful phase so far. The Conservatives are about to endure a set of elections that they never thought they would face. Only four years ago, the party won a general election; now, there is talk of them finishing fifth, or even sixth. With every Tory moan of pain, Nigel Farage’s nicotine grin grows ever larger. And out in the country, there is an overlooked Conservative crisis: one bound up not with the part of the population that voted for Brexit, but with the liberal, pro-remain swathe of the country without whom the future of Conservatism looks bleak indeed. » | John Harris | Monday, May 20, 2019

Tory Civil War amid Plot to Bring Down PM over Brexit Policy

Boris Johnson resigned from the Government hours after David Davis walked out over Theresa May's Brexit deal. How long can the Prime Minister hold on?

The Debate - May Overruled: Brexit Momentum Thwarted by Tory Rebellion

Theresa May to Create New Internet That Would Be Controlled and Regulated by Government

THE INDEPENDENT: The proposals come soon after the government won the right to collect everyone's browsing history

Theresa May is planning to introduce huge regulations on the way the internet works, allowing the government to decide what is said online.

Particular focus has been drawn to the end of the manifesto, which makes clear that the Tories want to introduce huge changes to the way the internet works.

"Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet," it states. "We disagree."

Senior Tories confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the phrasing indicates that the government intends to introduce huge restrictions on what people can post, share and publish online.

The plans will allow Britain to become "the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet", the manifesto claims. » | Andrew Griffin | Friday, May 19, 2017

The Way to Fight the Tories in June’s Election Is to Turn Brexit against Them

THE GUARDIAN: Labour’s only chance lies in convincing voters that it will hold the government to account on any deal with the EU

There is a unique element to this election as a result of Brexit. The Tories believe this is to their advantage. But it could be turned against them.

First off – for the avoidance of doubt – I have not urged tactical voting. It is up to each voter to make up their mind on how they will vote. I only want people to make an informed choice. Of course, I hope people will vote Labour, as I will. » | Tony Blair | Monday, April 24, 2017

Warsi Resignation: An Astonishing Charge Sheet against No 10 over Gaza

THE GUARDIAN: Sayeeda Warsi's sudden departure and biting challenge to David Cameron's policy on Israel may have long-term repercussions for the Conservatives

Sayeeda Warsi's resignation may yet prove to be a passing summer storm. But the vitriolic tone of her attack on David Cameron's policy towards Gaza, and her status as the first Muslim cabinet member, suggests her departure has the potential to inflict both political and moral damage on the Conservatives months before the general election.

More importantly, she may have opened the possibility that longstanding, unequivocal British political support for any Israeli government is now under question.

After all, it is not often a minister leaves government warning that its actions, or silence, are morally indefensible, not in the national interest, liable to foster terrorism in the UK and likely to undermine British influence in the Middle East by failing to be seen to be fair-minded. There was a raw emotional power to her resignation as she set out her anguished reaction to the collapse of hospitals, the death of young children on beaches and the realisation that children the same age as those in her own family were being killed in the Israeli raids.

Few ministers have quit accusing George Osborne of failing to speak out against the flattening of schools and hospitals, or recounting tales of backbenchers in tears at the refusal of David Cameron to condemn Israel. » | Patrick Wintour | Tuesday, August 05, 2014