I noted this on Politics Home this morning:
A top Tory minister is set to blast Cabinet colleagues who are demanding more cash for their departments - arguing tax hikes would be a “contradiction of the Brexit vote”.
Liz Truss will argue fresh spending sprees would be “un-Conservative” and will urge ministers to wring every penny out of existing public spending.
Allies of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury meanwhile said a boost in tax and spend would see the Tories “crushed” at the next general election.
Hang on a minute! Was there anything on the Brexit voting paper that talked about the level of government spending? Or party politics? I know full well there was not.
So we can conclude three things. The first is that Liz Truss is making this up.
But more important, and second, in that case she must be really rattled.
And, third, that's because she knows that the whole policy of austerity is on the ropes and It is that policy that has come to define the Conservatives.
The supposed, and paltry, £20 billion settlement for the NHS, which will not be paid in full for several years, has made how much public services are underfunded in the UK. Other ministers are now queuing to make their claims and Liz Truss is the person commanded to say no. So, of course, she is staking out her position, but what she reveals is the weakness within it. There is no more to be wrung out of budgets after eight years of cuts.
People are dying now.
People are not getting the education they need now.
People are not being brought to account for their crimes now.
People are in poverty now.
And people have had enough now.
And if the reaction to that is that the Tories should be "crushed" at the next election, so be it. All people are asking for is what the country should and could deliver for them. And there's nothing unreasonable about that. All that is unreasonable is Liz Truss' refusal to act appropriately. Although it has to be said there is something very Conservative about that.
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Reporting some typos (but feel free to delete this comment):
as make clear -> has made clear
Although that it -> Although it
Corrected
Thanks
And what we have so far seen in the Grenfell inquiry is that scapegoats are being sought and they’re not looking for them in the right places.
Its self-publicised sobriquet ‘Caring Conservatism’ is an oxymoron. The ethos of the Tory Party has always been solipsistic hence sociopathic. They’ve just been astutely clever enough (i.e. deceitful) to hide the fact from naive voters for the past 230 years. How else could they get away with such an ‘austerity’ programme in the 21st century?
Because Liam Byrne said there was no money left. They’ve surfed that wave for 8 years and Labour has done nothing to refute it. Plenty of miles left in that ‘joke’.
Paltry 20bn? Which happens to be more than the Labour party were going to put into the NHS…..
So?
I am not here to support Labour
If you have not noticed you are not being objective
Labour stated they would commit an extra £6 billion a year……The Conservatives would see the NHS “£20 billion a year better off by 2023”. So half of that will be what it would get under “normal” Conservative NHS increase….so only £10 billion extra…£2 billion a year extra in real money. And some would go to mental health/social services…in fact, since they lie every time they make a statement…
Anyway: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-how-generous-have-the-conservatives-been-with-the-nhs
You’re not comparing like with like. You are comparing Labour’s offer last year with the conservative ‘offer’ this year. John Ashworth has already said this year the Labour party would still increase the conservative offer by £2 billion. So the comparable Labour spend would be £30b over 5 years.
Judging from past behaviour I expect the actual Conservative spend will be much less than this. Probably less than enough to stand still. What May is really doing is simply cementing-in the cuts she has already made.
lan McGowan says:
“You’re not comparing like with like. …”
It doesn’t (bloody) matter what the figure is. If you think arguing the toss about what labour would ‘offer’ (offer ?) is remotely of consequence you are buying the BS.
The correct figure is what it takes to provide the services required. That assumes reasonable efficiency and no more than unavoidable waste, fraud and general corruption.
The entire point of the MMT argument is that the spending essentially provides its own justification as long as the taxation system, and the rest of the economy matches the spending.
Politicians are being stupid. Don’t humour them. Hammer them.
Your headline says “pubic”. I’m sure you mean ” public”!
I think a draft of this one managed to get published!
Thanks
Corrected
Oh Tim!
Now you have gone and spoilt it on us.
At least Truss is being consistent with “the economy is a household” approach that the Tories have taken since 2010.
Departmental ministers seem to be saying let’s tax more or let’s borrow more. Brexit will destroy any forward projections anyway so let’s ensure that the Department that I run is the first snout in the trough.
Perhaps we are reaching the point where the absurd logic that has infected the national intellect for the past 10 ears is finally unravelling – the absurdity of austerity economics meets the absurdity of Brexit.
The “money” question has to be addressed; can a country really believe , despite having land, natural and man made assets and people, that without money we must all starve?
I’ve yet to hear Truss say anything near sensible. Caught a brief snatch of an interview with her on the radio the other month and couldn’t help but cringe at the tone-deaf nonsense she was coming out with back then. Always strikes me as somebody who would struggle to think her way out of a paper bag, which probably explains why she’s got a senior role in the current government.
When her own father, a professor of mathematics, wouldn’t support her political campaign it just demonstrates what a complete waste of space she is.
Truss was my MP for a while
I have also been involved in a debate with her before she was a minister
In all capacities I was unimpressed
Well, said, Richard.
The New Nationalism which is sweeping the world will require a complete change of mindset from The Corporations. The Tory/Corporate conspiracy to destroy The Real Economy & force the population into constricted consumerism has not only killed The Real Economy, it has destroyed any drive or investment for new business & therefore evolving economic growth.
To move on to the new Infrastructure based investment plan, The Corporations will have to stop seeing every financial transaction as an opportunity for fraud and respect the wishes & aspirations of the population. To work with the population, not against them.
As we now stand, The Corporations & The City, are still digging a hole to hide all their booty, while the rest of the world is a decade ahead with the Nationist Transformation.
“…. that Liz Truss is making this up.”
Surely not. She must have a ministerial support team to make up nonsense for her, surely.
I find it hard to believe that austerity has reached government functions yet.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/06/27/uk-faces-20-years-tax-rises-says-ifs-chief/?WT.mc_id=e_DM789880&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Cit_New_AEM_Daily&utm_source=email&utm_medium=Edi_Cit_New_AEM_Daily_2018_06_28&utm_campaign=DM789880
“If there was was gold sitting in the streets people would have picked it up”..obviously needs to learn about PQE!