I have just tweeted this:
From the FT this morning. The Tories are now the most right-wing ruling party in the developed world and are completely out of step even with their own voters https://t.co/rkPAbJzOcE pic.twitter.com/uBoxC7d6H3
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) September 30, 2022
These are the charts:
This is really quite staggering, but explains a great deal.
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Johnson always preceded claims as “World leading” this, that or something banal.
Now it’s true.
An old boss of mine once said – it’s better to be one two places below the top; as there’s only one route for the top guy – DOWN. His advice – “Be less visible and survive”.
Another record – the Tories must be close to – World leading ‘bungers’ to their own elites (energy companies, hedge funds, CoVid bungs, oligarchs and traditional super rich).
speaking of bungs to hedge funds (fromTuesday )
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/27/tory-donor-says-bets-against-uk-government-bonds-gifts-that-keep-giving?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR1x_jw9Q3s9MKJMYQJEsdJAKAFeNc-x_lNj47WHGOcIE9ZYS9q6esU_zms
wish we could do a windfall tax on him
The Tory party is a party of pretence isn’t it – it pretends to be democratic, when it’s used the FPTP system and a multitude of boundary changes to its advantage over the years; its policies favour those who fund it and the party is play ground for the rich who want a world where only they deserve to be free and attracts people who are wannabes.
Added to that is England itself which is a country of pretence – pretending to be a democracy whilst acting as feudalistic society holding secret meetings with manufactured royalty; pretending to be a world player in politics when we’re just an air craft carrier for the U.S; relying too much on an inglorious, too often unquestioned past.
Too many people suck up to the unreality of it means to be English these days unfortunately.
Some do so because the national image is more attractive and find succour than their zero hours low paid and NHS waiting list lives; others just like to throw their lot in with winners and the Tories are winners for sure because they have it all sowed up; others know they’ve been duped but there is a lot of shame in being made to look stupid and a lot of pride to be swallowed to admit that they were wrong.
It’s all about how things look isn’t it.
England – the superficial society, led by a superficial elite with a superficial ‘constitution’ to back it up.
Cheer up. Surely it can’t be so bad – Pretence? – yes but what fun – a bit like fairy land.
Am going to apply for the position of Garter King of Arms or any other of these feudal sinecures as soon as it’s vacant. Also fun – swan feathered headress etc.
And our aircraft carrier is bust – so no U.S. F35’s there.
‘We’ are universally admired….’how do they do it’? Sometimes through the pretence you can almost almost glimpse reality – the army, navy, and airforce all ‘belong’ to the monarch – so don’t step too far out of line will you?
Andrew
I love the sarcasm/irony (whatever) but in short, we’ve actually have been living in a fascist society for a very long time – typically English fascism of course which is oh so polite (or was) – but fascist, nonetheless.
English fascists don’t bother with shooting people they consider inferior and to be making the bloodline impure (it causes too much of a scene) – they just starve or freeze them to death instead.
We’ve been getting to this point for years. Sleep walking towards it – and now what?
At least it simplifies the electorate’s decision at the next election. It’s becoming a simple binary choice between supporting decency or supporting the contemporary Tory Party, you can’t do both.
Am I correct in thinking that that chart puts British Labor slightly to the right of U.S. Democrats?
Seems like a dodgy graph to me. The Johnson government was further to the left than depicted, whilst the Labour and US Dems (especially the latter) should be further to the right.
The idea that Biden leads a centre left government is nonsense.
I agree Jimmy – according to Political Compass on an analysis of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections Labour is definitely right of centre under Starmer.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/scotland2021
However, the shift of the Conservatives, highlighted by the FT graph, should not be dismissed. It is a terrifying vindication of what people are feeling, on the ground – only highlighted by the “leaks” the past few days suggesting Truss and Kwarteng want to impose horrific cuts to Welfare ushering in a new period of Austerity in order to “pay for tax cuts for the rich”.
Truss and Co must have had some idea that the City wouldn’t like the explosion of spending and tax cuts, all £100bn plus of it borrowed at the new high interest rates. The fact that they are pressing on regardless shows that they don’t care if the economy crashes. There will be lots of lovely bargains to be nobbled up by the gombeen men.
They must know that they’ll lose the next election, giving them two years to plunder what they can. Surely there must be some Tory MPs who’ll vote against these measures.
It’s quite scary how such a small, but really well funded, group can shift the whole political economy narrative in the world’s 5th/6th biggest economy. What has our Security Service been doing? The so called financial regulators are deliberately under resourced and completely unfit for purpose.
It’ll be all very well us calling out Truss & Co, but if she commands an 80 seat majority, she’ll get away with grand larceny.
So far, despite her amazing faux pas, she seems determined to plough on. You couldn’t burn her neck with a blow torch.
Imagine the IMF calling out a Tory UK Govt for tax cuts for the rich? We really are in unchartered waters.
Spot on pilgrim. The Alice in Wonderland world of modern Britain. Delusion rules. We like it that way along with an ability to absorb the total failure of the brextory party policies over decades. People just lap it up, shrug out shoulders and say they’re doing their best…..
Bob
It could be worse than that. Maybe the rather tepid move to Labour in the polls is because of something darker.
I was watching an episode of ‘Homeland’ last night where one of the principal characters has a clandestine meeting with a head of Hezbollah. When trying to appeal to the Hezbollah member’s pragmatic side about how things would be better for his people if he agreed to something he says this:
‘Our strength is in our suffering’.
This is a stunning mindset revealed in a well-researched TV drama, but I got it immediately and made me think of the people who vote Tory and are hurt by them as well as how the non-resolution of problems in the near East has enabled radical Islam and other hard-line reactions/death cults because of indifference and cruelty.
To me, in this world, this is how it works. The only thing we have to stop us being ruled by cruelty in the West is the vote.
So, what we are seeing from Truss & Co is maybe not incompetence nor is it a media ‘sideshow’. Instead, what we are seeing in action is how to castrate a democracy: you remove hope with cruelty and create a market for as many new enemies that you can (identity politics maybe?) – immigrants, homosexuals, ‘woke’, republicans etc., to water down THAT vote, to obfuscate and confuse through ‘choice’ (remember the ‘firewalls’ between legitimate PR (is there such a thing?), marketing and fascist propaganda as put forward by the father of PR Edward Bernays himself are wafer thin).
This is how you dehumanise people – with cruelty – Primo Levi and Hannah Ardent taught us this this with their writings and now Tim Snyder reminds us of this in his 2018 book ‘The Road to Unfreedom’ on page 22 when describing the nihilistic response to ‘eternity politics’ where change is seemingly impossible:
‘ Those (people) who accept eternity politics do not expect to live longer, happier or more fruitful lives. They accept suffering as a mark of righteousness if they think that the guilty others are suffering more. Life is nasty, brutish and short; the pleasure of life is that it can be made nastier, more brutish and shorter for others.’
In response to David Byrne below, I say that MMTers, courageous statists etc., have all the answers the world needs to put these problems right and to stop a recession.
But what we have not cracked yet is to effectively combat the propaganda, disinformation and obfuscation war that is being waged and which is more than a ‘side show’.
You are wrong. It is NOT a side show. It is where we are losing the argument which is why I think Richard took on more commitment to go on Twitter for example. Big strides have been made recently – Richard’s articles in The Mirror (but where are his articles in the bloody Guardian!!!!).
What Truss is doing is delivering pure von Hayekian ‘The Road to Serfdom’ policy. We know that the ideas are shite. But the delivery is effective. So much for incompetence? If they get rid of the Deadly Duo – so what! – we’ll only get a different iteration of the same thing (like Jeremy Hunt).
The only weapon, the only spear we have is the vote. But that spear is being splintered into hundreds of smaller ineffective pieces and proper change (and a ‘proper’ Labour party or ‘proper’ Left) cannot come about and here we go head long already into ‘eternity politics’.
That is not the result of some ‘side show’ and it’s about time the heterodox world dealt with it. Don’t forget how the Neo-liberals see things (from Mirowski, 2013, pp.242-243):
“…when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors ……..and you – all of you, will be left just to study what we do”.
What’s maybe actually happening is that Truss & Kwarteng are just embodiment of this above and Nazi’s philosopher Carl Schmitt’s assertion:
“Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.”
Truss and Co are just going for it. It is bold whether you like it or not – not necessarily incompetent. And if they lose, the Tory party/neo-liberalism will still win because of a craven Labour party and what will actually change even if they get in with political and economic policy so narrowly defined? The Liberals and Labour were bold after WWII. Why not now?
P.S. Richard – if it gets too much and this blog has to go, I will go on Twitter to offer support there, such that it is.
P.S.2: I am not happy with the fact that I sometimes come across here as a better critic than a ‘doer’. I have a fulltime job and other interests. But I have started to read up on marketing and PR. Progressives – the Left (whatever) need new stories and narratives to tell the world. I’m making a start there because that’s where the battle is – trust me.
Sorry for the long post.
Forgiven
I am working on new narratives w9th editors….
‘Andrew Broadbent’ are you sure you are not Boris Johnson in disguise, seeing fun in catastrophe for real people?
David Byrne says:
We need to be careful not to dwell too much upon upon the incompetence of LT and KK and the media side-show. They are just puppets manipulated by the neoliberal global, financial community that inhabit 10 Downing St.
As suggested by Mian and Sufi in The House of Debt, the UK could be heading for economic disaster owing to the forthcoming, massive increase in household and private debt.
A deep recession is on the cards unless pre-emptive action is taken.
Agreed
@David Byrne – thank you for reminding me of ‘House of debt’ (which shamefully I have never actually got round to reading, but one day …)
It may be of interest that their more recent work connects the worsening of household debt with the rise of the super-rich. Vast and unspendable wealth gives rise to easy credit, fuelling consumption instead of exonomic growth, accompanied by declining productivity.