Be careful of what you wish for, oh yes!
You see, Johnson was an oaf of the highest order, a lazy good-for-nothing, who was clever in the Etonian sense that you must never be seen to try to hard, that’s for the plebs, just spout a few Greek and Latin phrases and waffle on about Peppa-Pig and, you know, have a drink, why don’t you. Well, he fell from grace, although he hung on for weeks, mostly on holiday, while two types wafted around the country during the summer in pursuit of less than a 100,000 actual members of the Conservative party saying anything to please this tiny minority of our population.
And in the end, who did we get? Liz Truss, that’s who, the most right-wing Prime Minister of our time, and the one that the Conservatives MPs did not want. Have you heard the term, clusterf..k, well Liz Truss will forever get the term Trussterf..k after her first name as, in a very short space of time, she and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwartang, have messed up, big time. Very much so.
She’s dangerous. Did those less than 100,000 members realise what an ideologue she is? Maybe yes. The thing is Johnson was not an ideologue, he was a populist who wanted to keep everyone happy so between him and Richi they gave lots of money away, for actually a very good reason – keeping business going through the pandemic.
This government headed by Liz Truss, takes away money from the majority of the population and gives it to the rich, for what reason, oh, to promote ‘growth’. A mini-budget revealed some help with energy but more to the point, it cut taxes in such an enormous way that it was obvious that they were totally unfunded. Well, the market has spoken. The pound fell, the cost of all the borrowing they will need to do rose, and mortgage products were pulled. Oh and don’t forget pensions they had to be rescued by the Bank of England, and while there has been a very tiny teeny U-turn with the 45p tax rate re-instated, that reinstatement makes up less than 5% of our new chancellor’s £45bn package of (unfunded, don’t forget) tax cuts.
Even Conservative MPs are horrified. Remember they didn’t want her to be the leader of the Conservative Party and therefore the Prime Minister. I really wonder if we will still see Truss in post by Christmas.
And no, I don’t want Johnson back, because that absolutely will be an option for some Conservative MPs. No, let the population have a say, instead of the pathetically small number of people that voted for Truss to lead us. And where is she leading us? To a very poor and sullied reputation that’s where. It will also lead to so many people having a very difficult winter.
No, let’s have a General Election please and reinstate democracy (albeit representative democracy). Note also that Labour had good Conference; a slightly boring, but well-meaning and sensible leader is what we need. I know who I shall vote for.
Penny Kocher, 4th October 2022
Agree with your sentiments as usual Penny. Giving more money to poorer people is better for the economy because they spend it in the UK rather than topping up their pensions or going to the Maldives for the winter. having just been in hospital I’ve seen at first hand the shortages of staff and basic equipment, like drip stands which have an electronic timer for administering IV meds. They were constantly being moved between bays, not good for infection control. There were Health Care Assistants and senior nurses to do the drugs but not much inbetween. I needed a soggy dressing changed late in the evening but had to wait well over an hour when desperate to get some sleep. I would have though a staff nurse could have done it but along came the sister who I knew got to me as soon as she could but was needed elsewhere. Where is the money coming from for the NHS? I know, lets not fully reflect the cost of living in benefits and take it from there! i think we sometimes forget that Government money is actually our – the people’s – money yet we seem to have no control or influence on how it’s spent. The whole concept of apparently unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources is problematic ; we need sustainable growth that mitigates the effects of climate change on people and infrastructure. The annual festival of gluttony and excess that is Christmas is fast approaching; what a depressing thought. We really must have a GE in the spring but then there will be more paralysis in government departments. Assuming you favour a labour win, I’m not sure it’s helpful to repeat the ‘boring’ label which Starmer’s detractors have saddled him with. When did a PM need to be entertaining or exciting? I least I think he is serious, dildigent and competent and that will do for me!
I stand corrected as I shouldn’t have said that about Starmer, as I think he’s decent and sensible and competent and his government would think about the good of the country and its population. To give to the rich in the way Truss is aiming to do is outrageous and paying for it with further cuts to the NHS and other public services is just awful, truly awful. I so hope we get a GE but how, as the Tories won’t want to lose their seats, so would they want a GE? But you can see the decent ones are really very much against their constituents suffering through the winter and choosing between heating and eating.
I am totally with you about this obsession with growth at any cost which is what is happing in the UK with no thought of the planet let alone the population. We need some growth but truly nations need to think beyond the short term and see what type of growth can mitigate the climate change that our grandchildren will be living with when they are our age. You’d think for starters the Truss government might lay the foundations of a nation-wide insulation programme and heavily invest in alternatives to oil and gas. But NOT fracking – which won’t work here in this little island.
RE: Christmas. We only have two grandchildren and they get presents but everyone else is part of a Secret Santa so that restricts the number of presents. I am going to cook a brisket (with all the roast trimmings) for my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. No turkey! I might just allow myself a Christmas Cake, but no mince pies either.
Like you I was horrified at the “mini budget” especially when we see SO many people really struggling.
What makes me sad is that we are “fed” news that is far from the truth. I saw one article that asserted that Boris and Michael Gove should be behind bars for the lies they took part in with the £350 m bus during the referendum. If we had actually been led by statesmen/women we could have stayed in the EU and been fully committed to making the system work for us instead of us always moaning.
The current shower make me very afraid that fascism is alive and well.
I agree, this current lot is very, very right-wing. Did the members who voted for Liz Truss realise? I can’t bring myself to read their book, Britannia Unchained, but apparently it’s all there for anyone to read.
And I also agree that the campaign to stay in the EU was hopeless. Such a shame as our situation outside the EU is really grave. Why did people think we were better outside our main trading partners, especially Tories, it’s bizarre, until that is, you realise that the really right-wing leavers absolutely wanted the unregulated outside of the union way of making money. It was always about the money.
If Truss stays in power for another two years – yikes, not sure where we will be.
I’ve just been in Germany for a few days: how refreshing to see the dimmed lights of Frankfurt in the evening, and how good it would be to have a few guidelines about saving energy. As a German newspaper said, ‘you can only burn a molecule of gas once’.
I really wish climate change was at the top of all politicians’ agendas, but for so many it is, ‘how can we hold on to power’. We really could do far more.
In the short term of course, we need to cut back on energy because of our dependence on gas from Russia, and look where that has got us. As individuals we can turn lights off and turn down the heating, but I agree cities and towns need to do the same.
The NHS was not safe in Conservative hands, nor was it safe in Labour. Labour brought in all the Private Finance Initiative and began contracting out services. Conservatives were stuck with PFI and did accelerate the ‘agency’ option for providing services.
So I trust neither Conservative or Labour. As for the smaller parties the only one that makes sense is Reform – but would it ‘reform’ or just ‘cash in’.
Disillusioned.
That (PFIs) I believe was John Major’s idea to begin with then unfortunately greatly expanded under Blair and Brown. What a fiasco they are! What was Brown thinking when this expansion happened? I don’t know but it was major mistake, absolutely.
Yet nevertheless, I am a pragmatic voter. I want the Conservatives gone and it is a question of who/what party is likely to do this. In my constituency I want my Tory MP to go so I shall vote for the Lib Dem candidate, as they are the party most likely to oust her. Then looking clearly at who is likely to beat the Tories, it is the Labour Party, so I really hope they get in.
Starmer is decent, competent and sensible. I just hope when/if Labour wins the economy is not so trashed he will have no means to build up public services. Yikes, it’s harsh!
Spot on with all your observations.
Totally agree!
We are even hearing how bad Truss is here in the States. I can’t believe how often the trickle down theory of governance is still trotted out (here is the U.S. too) as a legitimate economic policy. It’s been disproven again and again.
Michelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com