I offered a reaction to the local authority elections yesterday in which I pointed out the problems Labour faced. But let's be honest, the party with the biggest problem is the Tories.
Try as the Tories might to claim the results from Thursday's elections were just mid-term blues for a party that has been in power for thirteen years, that is not true. They are, very clearly, a sign that the electorate has had enough of being made deliberately worse off by a government that does not care about their wellbeing and is not willing to do anything to promote it.
The reality is that, as most commentators agree, there is no way back for the Tories at the next general election. Labour may not have a winning lead, but the Tories are heading for a drubbing come what may.
The trouble is, we now have at least sixteen months notice of that. I cannot see the election coming sooner. It may be later. So the question is, what will the Tories do with that time?
It is my guess that we will be see a scorched earth retreat. They will pass as much wrecking legislation as they can. They will issue as many contracts as possible, for example for private healthcare supply, to limit the scope for action of an incoming government. And they will make sure the position that government inherits will be as grim as possible, giving it maximum chance of failing to correct the mess so that the Tories can hope they will spend no more than one term out of office.
We know the Tories can be malicious. It is their normal mode of operation. But with their backs against the wall, staring their own rather bleak futures in the face, what will this lot be like? I fear they will make government of ill intent their new chosen approach to creating havoc.
The next election might well turn out to feel a very long time from now.
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I hope you are wrong about the “scorched earth policy”… although it does beg the question “what policy do we have now?”.
Whilst there are a few Tory MPs and advisors that might take this approach I suspect most MPs are thinking about their own seat rather than whether they govern. So, they should be a moderating influence.
The risk is that the combination of retiring MPs, nutters and certain losers is sufficiently large to just try and crash the bus.
16 months IS a long time.
Hello Richard,
contacts -> contracts
forbsction -> for action?
as gram as -> grim
Angus
Thanks
Corrected
While we’re being pedantic. Paragraph 4 of your essay, final sentence: The answer is “sackcloth and ashes.” Where for wear.
Yes
Changed
Thanks
I think you also have to begin to acknowledge that – given the electoral system we have (FPTP) – this is what the electors look for, expect and demand; this is Britain, and we are entitled to celebrate our incompetence, ignorance and stupidity; abject Government failure, the ooze of corruption, double-standards and hypocrisy over everything: and revel in our self-inflicted ruin; provided it is covered in a smear of circus pomp and congratulatory self-entitlement. On to the next headline, the next circus act, the next National Celebration of trifles and nothing-at-all. Anything but reality.
I am not persuaded the best thing for Scotland is probably independence from this fatuous Union, simply in order to wave an ancient saltire flag.
Guess where in the UK the prime places for wind power and tidal energy are. In 71 it was known where the major oil and gas fields were. I have a cousin a geologist who spent his working life in the oil business. I said to him that was when Scotland should have declared UDI and asked the Russians for weapons to defend ourselves from the English. The Americans would have gone mad, slapped the PSB around and told them to STFU.
Scotland could have done exactly what Noway did and kept the oil and gas wealth for themselves and now Norway has the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world. With coal and steel production all the rigs and platforms would have been made in Scotland. Transforming from oil and gas to clean energy over the last two decades Scotland would now be a very wealthy country and England would have become a poverty stricken hell hole run by a small extreme right wing elite – it’s going that way now unless the words stop and the action begins. Like Marcus Garvey said – some shall rise and some shall fall, man never know himself until he’s back against the wall. Saturday you had the circus (coronation) and today you’ve got some bread but for how long?
As Gram as possible?
Do they want to bring back Imperial Units (OK some do) or is it a tytpo?
I can see how the spell check missed
forbsction
A true Grauniad piece
Keep up the good work
John
Apologies
Obviously not feeling as bright as I thought this morning
And whowould I be, among all commenters, to dare complain about tytpos?
Ah, to see oorsels as ithers see us…..
I clearly shouldn’t try to post when on antibiotics and after a pour night’s sleep
But thanks John
Your comment appreciated
There are many fewer typos these days than of old
I think that you are right. The Tories have already firmly planted Snyder’s ‘the politics of no ideas’ – I mean look at the Tory sleeper agent that is Rachel Reeves . Yesterday we had ‘the politics of eternity’ with a raw display of royal power and no doubt a King who will serve himself up to his last breath like Ma-ma with all the other ‘k(l)ing ons’ on display to remined us that there are more to come – lose hope of a republic now!!
I think many Tory MPs are job searching anyway and so many seem to have other income as landlords and ‘advisory’ roles. So it rings true to me. The other thing I think will be our international reputation – it will be truly shredded by then. But our international reputation as a tax haven (with a chaotic society beneath it) will be secure – and that to a certain section of people is result.
Nailed it again PSR.
In the years immediately preceding the 1997 General election there was a clear local understanding of what each party needed to do in their own constituencies to get rid of the Tories.
It did not mean that old enmities were forgotten. It was simply the realisation that getting rid of an appalling Tory regime had to take priority.
In the end the undeclared pact worked benefitting both Labour and the Lib Dems. It also kept the Tories out of power for the longest period in 100 years.
I am sure that most people on this blog are aware of all this but it is worth reminding ourselves of (a) what needs to be done (b) that it works.
Even if it means holding your nose as you do it.
This analysis of the local election result by Novara was pretty good & provide pointers to next year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP2R3I7aDgo
Yes the Capstan-Full-Strength Tories will implement more malcious legislation aimed at locking Menthol-Tories into a given path – what underpants-man did to B.Liar and his tories.
The national elections and next gov, will mean some faces will change, the labels given to the party in gov will change, the policies will not.
Liebore is LINO (Labour in name only). Liebore is Tory II. The election will be, quite simply, tories now, vacating their seats for Liebore tories. That is how the Uk system works.
1997, Tony B.Liar – Thatchers finest work – & Uk peasants swallowed it hook-line & sinker. They will, likewise swallow the 2024 result – the Uk’s meeja propaganda machine will provide the needed gloss on Starmer and his branch of the Tories & the country will continue down the plug hole. I leave it to the late, great Leonard Cohen to describe the UK situation in perhaps his best political song:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
Cohen is always worth reading as a poet as well as listening to as a musician
I have a book of his lyrics for just that reason
John Boxall
I love the idea of a tytpo. Is that a typing error that creeps in quietly?
I think so
Talk of coalition and PR is in the air again. This morning Wes Streeting did not rule coalition out but ‘we are not talking about it’!
Ed Davey called the question ‘hypothetical’, ruled out a coalition with the Conservatives but not Labour. I can understand they don’t want to commit themselves and face further questioning but we are not in the 1960s where both Labour and Tories got over 45% and one still lost. Refusing to talk about it doesn’t do the country any favours and treats us like children. I acknowledge part of this is the fear the Toxic Tory press who present coalitions as ‘chaos’ or parties blackmailing each other to advance their special project–referendum on Independence or PR voting.
We have coalitions in Scotland, Wales is evenly divided, most of Europe and Ireland on our doorstep with a very sensible system based on STV. Cross party cooperation is common in the democratic world.
We need a discussion whether in a situation Labour did not have a majority, the SNP would vote them out of office or, more likely, vote down major legislation unless they were given a referendum. Would the Scots support that?
We also need the parties to agree that any referendum has to conform to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe which says that the consequences of both yes and no to the question, are clearly defined. The Brexit vote failed on that criterion as there were a range of options and the path was determined by a minority in the ruling party without reference to the opinion of the House of Commons as a whole. I don’t think the SNP and Independence movement are anywhere near that as yet.
We need a debate on the nature of the UK. Is it a voluntary association of nations or an English Empire where English MPs can decide on the status of the others? The other three nations do not have constitutional safeguards in that the Westminster govt. can add or take away their powers or finance. My impression is that most people here in England, whatever their opinion, would say if there is a clear majority for separation in Scotland, then it should happen. I have little doubt that is true for Northern Ireland and a border referendum there is only a matter of time.
The other issue raised is Proportional Representation. Streeting says it won’t be in the manifesto. If it was adopted, Labour would never be able to rule with a majority in the Commons. Neither would the Conservatives and that would be the best safeguard against their creeping Fascism and reactionary measures. That alone makes it worthwhile.
Richard, you put up some examples of the distortions of FPTP on Friday. Resistance to PR is special pleading for privilege. FPTP not only hurts newer and smaller parties but exaggerates and perpetuates the power of the established parties. PR could see a much needed re-shaping of the parties.
Surely in a House of Commons with PR where the biggest party does have an overall majority as we might have next year, they could put forward legislation which could be supported or amended by other parties and more genuinely represent majority opinion in the country.
I think we could have a better system of politics and that it would be broadly popular, and the public would not react like the Tory tabloids.
Agreed, and thanks
If, as the local election results seem to indicate, the Tories are in a long-term decline, both from their unacceptable ideology of suppression and support of capital interests rather than working people, plus the undeniable fact that their demographic makeup of older people and homeowners is declining, then worries about a never-ending Tory UK government that was one reason for the rise of the SNP will be reduced and the desire for Scottish independence by the people of Scotland will make a push for another independence referendum obsolete. This of course will depend on the nature of a Starmer government which if anything like Blair’s, with the illegal war of Iraq, creeping Streeting privatisation, royalist obsequiousness etc will rearouse the desire for Scottish freedom. Whether voters will turn away from the SNP to the Greens will be an interesting and positive outcome.
Sorry Bill, but that is a gross misunderstanding of the Scottish nationalist cause
It is absurd to think people in Scotland only want to be independent to be rid of the Tories
You really do need to acquaint yourself with what people really think there
Thank you, Richard, for pointing out that what Scotland’s people are actually thinking is NOT necessarily what the anti-indy media is trumpeting—or hoping for.
The whole focus of Westminster and its pet media—especially since the start of 2023—is to make out that support for the SNP is in steep decline, that its leadership MAY even have been up to no good …thus far, no actual evidence of any crime has been produced, by the way …and that the desire for independence is now dead or severely wounded.
Of course this has had the intended effect of dunting the morale of many indy supporters. The flag-waving march on Saturday in Glasgow—which by all accounts drew over 20,000 marchers—was intended to counteract the effect of all this negativity and give us indy people a morale boost. Which it has certainly done.
Since the big show of incident tents and (unused) spades on Nicola and Peter’s lawn a wee while back, Peter and the party treasurer’s arrest (and subsequent release without charge) there has been …crickets. However, the arrests and ongoing ‘investigation’ of a crime that hasn’t actually been established, means nobody can discuss the case in any detail without incurring contempt of court action.
So, effectively, this show has meant that while the media can speculate to the max, smearing the SNP with all sorts of nonsense in front page headlines every day, the people who are being put under a cloud are not legally able to respond. As Nicola said, when being interviewed in front of her house just after the circus literally packed up the tent and left town, “I have plenty to say, but I’m not allowed to say it.”
Meanwhile the Tory contingent at Holyrood is crying for Humza Yousef to ‘resign.’ Simply because he’s the new party leader? Not because he’s even under suspicion of wrongdoing?
The latest ploy is that both he and Nicola are being ‘forced to deny’ all sorts of silly nonsense. Nicola is forced to deny she has been looking for another job, etc. So now the way to attack somebody is to make up some story about them, ‘force’ them to deny it, then trumpet it about as if ‘there’s no smoke without fire.’ Yep. It’s descended to that.
However, the desire for independence is far from dead. We know that unionists and Westminster have lost any sense of fair play. It’s also obvious that we are NOT the poor nation they’ve tried to make us out to be for years and years, but rather are rich enough that they can’t actually afford to let us go. So as support for indy rises, their last ditch tactic is to attempt to destroy our confidence in our own ability to succeed.
We will weather that.
What I often wonder is this,
There are a lot of people with an interest in the long term security – in the broadest sense, of the UK.
Clearly the Royals – or some of them and their staff, should have their finger in the pulse, such as when George V rejected the Governments proposal to offer asylum to the Tsar. Then there are senior Civil Servants and The Military, and I have had some interesting personal views from a few of them – not what you might think.
Certainly some of the stuff coming from the US military on Climate Change and resource depletion is worth a look which gives an idea of what people here might thing.
So what do they think of this Government and its potential successor?
One royal intervention I would like to know more about is when Ramsey MacDonald went to King George Vth to resign. The standard account is that the King (possibly thinking of cousin Wilhelm in exile in the Netherlands and cousin Nicholas killed by the Bolsheviks ) urged MacDonald to form a coalition National govt as the cuts -including to the dole-‘would come better from a Labour man’.
King George had a stern sense of duty but was not known for his intelligence. I wonder who influenced him and to what extent.
The National Govt. followed the austerity agenda-the usual bankers program.
Based on the analysis of the May 2023 local election results the Guardian concludes “Starmer’s party was about nine to 10 points ahead if you analyse these elections like a national opinion poll; Blair’s party was 14 points ahead in 1996. “ (May 6 Edition)
Blair actually got a 7% swing for his 1997 “landslide” the following year. It is estimated that to for an equivalent result today a 12% swing is needed and (if the pattern holds) these results put Starmer is on track for 5%.
The ultra cautious approach isn’t cutting it. It’s depressing that labours offer is merely steady as you go, and accepts austerity when so much needs to be done.
The most charitable explanation I can imagine for the cautious approach is that party is triangulating opinion and targeting marginals, the profile of voters in the target marginals are not radical so labour has trimmed its policies accordingly.
Another charitable explanation is that Starmer has only completed step 1 – purge labour and we will see more in stage 2; commentators like Rafaela Bear appear to hold to this view. I don’t buy it, if it was in him we’d have seen glimpses of it by now.
All this ignores the carry over effect of a vigerous self confident campaign – both on the public in general and by extension floating voters in marginals. This would work because it would cut through and show an appreciation of the dire state we are in and what it will take to tackle it. Polling consistently shows the general public is ahead of labour on this for example bringing utilities into some form of public ownership (it doesn’t have to be nationalisation but it does have to stop the rent extraction that excessive profits represent).
I see no reason to change my analysis; labour needs to be less arrogant (and get over tribal exceptionalism), forget about doing it alone, have bolder policies, be up front in welcoming the chance to lead coalition and be openly talking to its likely partners. Face reality, offer real leadership and show it has the measure of the times.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Wouldn’t the labour party have to change its constitution to be part of a coalition?
The parliamentary party is different to the Labour Party
I know that, but every labour party MP , as a member of the PLP, would have had to agree to the LP constitution, as would every member of the CLPs. Even Starmer would have agreed to that.
Believe it or not the last words on the card are that “we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.” Unless your name is Corbyn, of course.
Regressing to earlier themes;
About fiat currency and MMT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth,_Virtual_Wealth_and_Debt (1925) Frederic Soddy said, “Of the present system, can anyone contemplate a coming millennium in which everyone lives off the interest of our own mutual indebtedness?” He points out the fundamental difference between real wealth (such as buildings, equipment, energy, food), which is subject to the laws of thermodynamics and will rot, rust, wear out, or be consumed over time, and virtual wealth (in the form of money and debt) – which is subject only to the laws of mathematics. So, considered as debt compounding at some rate of interest, virtual wealth will grow effortlessly over time and without limit, instead of diminishing with use as does real wealth…He said the monetary system should distribute wealth, not concentrate it. Real capital abstains from present consumption to produce something in the future; anything else is not real capital.. Soddy discovered that many bank loans are simply loan accounts set up as assets to the bank, creating money out of thin air. Soddy asserting that only a “national mint” should issue money. Soddy proposed an economy based on energy. All economic activity requires energy: human energy, animal energy, plant energy, and fuel energy; all originating from the thermonuclear energy of the sun, but he could not figure out how to base an effective monetary system on constants of energy.”
Everybody’s answer to digging holes seems to be ‘dig more’.
When did things start to go wrong?
For the post -war generation who just missed National Service it was the advent of ‘consumer society’; loosening of hire purchase criteria, cheque book credit accounts, plastic cards, social media alternative reality.
Typographic errueorss
Just as common are elocutionary errors. I remember a radio interview with the Rolling Stones backstage on tour when the interviewer asked Mick what he remembered about the 60s; sex, drugs or rock n’ roll? Mick’s response was ‘I don’t remember sausage rolls’. Charlie said ‘I remember’. Mick said ‘What do you remember’. Charlie said ‘What you just szid’. At least I think that’s what Charlie said. I definitely remember when the Chalk Farm Roundhouse was still a rail way engine turntable. That was 1960s.
I like the Stones story….
Jenw – LOL – Corbyn – that was sarcasm wasn’t it? If it wasn’t you need to take the Kool-aid to clear your mind.
I don’t understand. Are you implying that Corbyn was treated with respect according to the LP constitution? Have you seen any of the Labour Files that were commissioned by Starmer and have only been seen because Al Jazeera was leaked copies?
jenw – English is a very ambiguous language and your use of it in that post left me interpreting it completely the other way. I’m used to the direct way that other Europeans speak, leaving no doubt at all.
Starmer/Robespierre et al are never seen on a real battlefield, they are devious slimy creatures that normally inhabit dark smelly places.
Sadly Corbyn did a Rosa Luxembourg and like her payed the same price, though he hasn’t and probably won’t end up a broken body in a stream like her. Once he was elected he had to get rid of all the lying lawyer’s followers. Not by stealth but by making them openly state that they were real socialists and would only ever back socialist or democratic socialist policies. If once found to be promoting anti-socialist ideas or in the pockets of the filthy lobbyists, ejected immediately from the party.
I know what English is like. I taught it for over 15 years.
Hadn’t realised my post could be read ambiguously.
Because of being threatened by various people like John Ware and Richard Millett, Corbyn now owes over £400,000 in fees, after the court proceedings were stopped.
Yanis Varoufakis of DiEM25 has set up a fundraiser to help him, as he knows how badly he has been treated. Lots of ex LP members agree.
Did the rushed anti-demonstration bill go through parliament?
If not, what other bills might be enacted? (For one, Bye Bye Whatsapp – we can’t have the electorate passing encrypted message, can we?)
Perhaps there will not be an election this decade?
After all, the fascist executive knows best!
Norman – Whats App is a perfect example of how the actions of the extreme Right or Left can be interpreted as ‘being for the good of all’ when in fact it is a means of control.
Whats App is used by paedophiles/arms and drug traffickers but they represent a very small percentage of users. For my wife it is a lifeline to her old friends and family. I never was a love and peace hippie type when it comes to the above categories – conditional therapy works – if you do that, this is what happens to you and it doesn’t involve expensive prisons. or any waste of tax payers money.
CCTV,mobile phones, extensive tapping of landlines, placing devices inside peoples homes, infiltration of organizations which has been going on for decades – this is just another nail in the coffin of what little freedom people really have.
A footnote to Stuart Crawford’s comment on how Scotland could have gained independence if it could have commandeered North Sea oil, what actually happened was that the income from it was spent by Mrs Thatcher and I believe that without that income she might well not have survived politically. As Neil Kinnock said, it was as if the Tories won the lottery jackpot and then doubled their prize money. The price of oil skyrocketed around the time the oil began to flow. So the oil bonanza propped up Thatcherism. What a sad contrast with Norway.
Brendan,
precisely because the Scots didn’t have the bottle to declare UDI in 71 laid a pathway for Thatcher later to do exactly what you stated but don’t underestimate the pathetic Labour party and it’s inability to state clearly and precisely what that woman and her PSC cabal were all about or at the time to demand that control of the North Sea assets be developed entirely by the UK alone as per Norway.
I had an old friend who was a top NDT man who laughed about the Norwegians as did many Brits working in the business at the time (1981) I worked briefly on the platform DB100 in Stavanger fiord and found the few Norwegians to be very savvy. The laugh of course was on the Brits as so often it is these days – allowing ARM holdings, our one big digital success story to be sold to foreigners.
The stupid boast that I have heard so often that in Hyde Park you could stand up on a soapbox and say what you wanted true but if ever anyone had actually tried to put words into action, you would quickly see the velvet glove removed and feel the fist of steel.
To not see and admit that the police and armed forces will act together to crush any mass popular movement that maybe and it’s a big maybe appear shows just how many wear rose tinted glasses.
A good article from Matt Carr on the apparent apathy of most of the populace. Is there nothing that people will not put up with?
https://mattcarr.substack.com/p/kinging-in-the-rain?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=472970&post_id=120091698&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
It is weird, isn’t it?
Having read Matt Carr’s article ‘Kinging in the Rain’ (thank you Robin) once again Clara Mattei’s ‘The Capital Order’ comes to mind.
My view – informed by Mattei – is that austerity in this country is used to control the public’s imagining of anything better for themselves.
Austerity exists in this country in two forms – what I call ‘under the counter austerity’ and ‘over the counter austerity’ – operating like a slow and fast lane on dual carriageway.
‘Under the counter austerity’ is a sly, crafty, slow and incremental sort of whittling austerity that eats away at whatever public provision happens to be in the way of exploitation by capital. ‘Under the counter’ is the long game here – a tactical steady type of austerity over time in which nearly all our politicians and civil service are committed to in complicity with capital.
‘Over the counter austerity’ is on the other hand all above board (the politicians you voted for will actually tell you to your face that they are going to hurt you) but it is totally opportunistic, usually used when the private sector or someone else has gone and messed something up. Which as we know – is quite a few times over the years. So the opportunity is taken within all the chaos to use austerity under the banner of an emergency of some kind that will make things better. You could call it ‘shock austerity’ if you like.
The key here is to understand that austerity actually has never ended in this country since it was brought in to give back industry to capital after two world wars. Austerity is actually a permanent feature of this country. As soon as proper social security was created in this country, they started to whittle away at it from day one (also noted by Nicholas Timmins in ‘The Five Giants’).
The mistake that I can make out is NOT to recognise the omnipresence of austerity in our public services and in our country. Austerity did not just come along in 2010. It was already being practiced before then (the ending of public sector final salary pensions , Clinton-style ‘welfare’ reforms to market reforms of the NHS (not abolition)).
There are of course other issues – a lack of real education about what it is to be a citizen of this country and so much neo-liberal nonsense about economics and of course our old friend divide and conquer (fascism).
But if people are made to get used to expecting less – then they do. And if they are kept in ignorance by bad education, toys like mobile phones, apps, brain rotting TV and other soma, this is what you get.
We need to realise that we have been sleep-walking into something really evil for some time. And you cannot blame people – it’s all been orchestrated very well indeed by vested interests .
Whilst I’d agree with the overall direction and the apparent apathetic acceptance of ‘endless austerity’ from so many of the population, Im not so sure it’s that Labour have totally bought into austerity. I suspect it’s more that they don’t have the courage to challenge that narrative, which is almost as bad. That and the lack of imagination to come up with a credible alternative, especially around funding.
You may be right, but it leads to the same place
I’d agree but though I may be clutching at straws, it suggests that at least there are potential alternatives (which we well know) and it’s a question of getting Labour to stop hiding behind the sofa and take some of them on board. Thats bottom up – people here talking to their friends and connections – and top down – getting the message to people and voices with influence. The kind of great work that Richard and a few others are doing.
The default is TINA in that Thatcherite phrase. That way is steadily downhill.
I take your point about that Robin – Labour politicians may not see this as austerity but I have become (rightly or wrongly) aware of a culture of perma-austerity at the Treasury to be honest – the civil service I think are the source of austerity continuity in the country.
Today, our politicians are none too bright – so I would not expect them to pick up on the austerity narrative – its the opportunistic ‘shock austerity’ that gets all of the attention when in fact in my view austerity is simply ingrained in fiscal policy anyway as ‘under the counter austerity’. I lack the time to then launch into a load of figures and analysis but that is my gut feeling after reading Mattei.
But also, all you have to do is reverse the story told by Christine Desan in her book ‘Making Money’. The ‘un printing of money’ or ‘non-making of money’ is bound to have the opposite effect of her account of economic growth and power.
That is what the Treasury apparatus is doing in my view – it is not making money for the public sector whether by cutting pensions it could afford in 2003 right up to today’s false flag emergency (2010) austerity – but its made loads of money available for the CBRA.
Actions will always speak louder than words. Society just needs to learn to look more critically – the money supply has been hijacked in my view.
I’d be kinder to the civil service as a whole who I’m sure are profoundly demotivated and disillusioned by ‘working for these truth twisters’. Having to implement policies that they know are half baked and destructive. Might make an exception for the Home Office whose apparent nastiness goes back a long way.
Treasury are a different matter – they seem to have been populated for years by the most neoliberal of neoclassical economists, incapable of understanding what investment means or thinking beyond a few years ahead. Part of an unholy triumvirate with the BofE and Tufton Street, egged on by the darker parts of the City. If any department needs a major shake up it’s them.
Agreed re the Treasury