The FT has published an interview with Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, this morning. It opened by noting:
Kemi Badenoch has said she wants to be Britain's Javier Milei as she held up Argentina's state-slashing president as the economic and political template to revive the UK and her own flagging party.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the Conservative leader was asked whether Britain needed a Milei, who has brandished chainsaws to illustrate his zeal for cutting spending, and whether she was such a politician. “Yes and yes,” she replied.
From then on, the interview goes nowhere and peters out rather quickly because, as the FT notes, Badenoch actually has no idea about what she would cut, or if she has, she is most certainly not saying.
All she talks about are her fears. As they note:
She said she was “terrified” by levels of government debt and the sight of the state “spreading its tentacles everywhere”, crowding out what she believes is the productive, wealth-creating economy.
So, let's list what she is worried about. Firstly, they are:
- Government created money
- People wishing to save with the state
- The savings that underpin the City of London, the pension industry and life assurance sector
Then she is terrified of the state meeting needs in sectors such as:
- Creating law
- Providing order
- Meeting need
- Providing a social safety net
- Delivering universal healthcare
- Educating children and young people
- Protecting the environment
- Encouraging business
- Protecting the state
- And much more.
Those are, indeed, dangerous tentacles.
And then here is that wealth-creating economy. Might she like to remind us what happened to wealth creation and real income growth from 2010 to 2024? What happened, Kemi? Why did everything go so well under Tory rule, and what would you do differently? Please explain. I doubt she can, because she does not know, as is very obvious. She is setting up Commissions to consider the issue. That's always the resort of a person unable to think for themselves whilst seeking an excuse for inaction and delay.
But then, to top it all, the FT notes:
The Tory leader said she was worried that “wealth is being driven out of the country” by high taxes, but was “more worried that young people are leaving as well”.
The last scare about millionaires leaving suggested that maybe 16,000 would be going, supposedly taking £4 million each with them. Except, of course, they can't actually take their houses, pension funds, or even their sterling bank accounts with them as they are all UK-based assets. So what, precisely is the wealthy that is leaving? And given that there may be around three million people with this level of wealth, what difference does less than one per cent of them leaving actually going to make? Precisely nothing at all, I suggest.
So what is Badenoch all about? I think we can safely summarise that. She is all about talking nonsense. That is it.
No wonder her party is third in the polls, and is on a downward trajectory towards oblivion, which is its deserved destination.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
What puzzles & worries me is how these people get to the top in the first place. Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Badenoch – all totally and dangerously unsuitable in their own ways, and 3 of them given the keys to number 10.
A narcissist lying incompetent, an ideologically unhinged incompetent, and a vacuous technocratic oligarch incompetent – all given the Royal Prerogative, one of them even winning a general election because he was so good at lying and Labour apparatchiks wanted to lose.
After that lot, choosing an aggressive bullying incompetent without any track record, vision or plan is small beer. She is only LOTO, light relief, giving the swivel-eyed faction of the Tory party time to decide whether to self-immolate or go full fascist with Fa***e’s Reform UK Ltd’s corporate adventure.
It’s easy to mock them, I enjoy it, but I don’t underestimate their ability to float to the top, in the polluted river of Great British Politics and cause havoc amidst enormous suffering.
And then there’s Labour…
Thank you, Robert.
I don’t know her, but have come across her husband, Hamish, who pronounces his surname as Scots do. We worked at Deutsche Bank on an infrastructure project. He’s still there.
He’s a Tory and remainer. He’s worked in Africa, not with Deutsche.
I got the impression that, like many immigrants and children of immigrants, she’s desperate to fit in and thinks spouting what the ageing and extreme Tory faithful think will get here there. There’s no hinterland. They easily become vehicles for forces who wish to stay in the background. Lammy is another.
Being a pretty ordinary Scot, with a fairly humble background and proud of both, I have very little time for those with posh voices, Scottish first names and (probably) made up Scottish heritage.
I’ve never found them to be trustworthy.
Meanwhile, apparently Sizewell C is going to cost £38Bn, and add £1 per month to energy bills during the construction phase, according to the Labour Government.
Presumably that £1 increase is through the UK energy pricing formula of marginal costing. That means Scottish energy users, who already receive no benefit to energy prices for producing more electricity for the Grid than Scotland uses, and from at least 2022; will each be paying an increased £12pa for a nuclear power plant that is currently providing no electricity, and is not designed to serve Scottish energy users, and probably never will.
The SNP has pointed out the general issue, but I can’t find a report of that by the BBC, either. The Union has become a giant scam.
You would have thought that’Great British Energy,” based in Scotland would step in and sort this out no problem….
‘Great British Energy’ is another ‘giant scam’ and illusion which will cost lots and improve nothing.
That £38bn for Sizewell C – does it include end-of-life decommissioning?
No
£38Bn for one power plant (excluding decommissioning and waste management for [n+1] years) is not commercially viable. It requires two feature to happen at all; a guarantee of open-ended Government support to make it happen at all, and the authority of the energy supplier to rip-off the domestic energy user for the life of the project. The question to ask is; is Sizewell C essentially a cost plus contract underwritten by Government? If it is claimed it is not, how precisely does that work? When the plan was submitted in 2020 the cost estimate was £20Bn, and that included inflation and contingencies. In a 9-12 year construction, by 2025 it has already almost doubled in cost. What if by 2030 it is £60Bn? Who is responsible for the cost over-runs? Let me speculate on that one ……..
And that is how it is done in Britain. Then you kick the can down the road, so the grandchildren csn pay for the decommissioning and waste disposal and endless management; and pass that on to their grandchildren. You remember? The grandchildren that the bleeding-heartless Labour and Conservative politicians tell us they are determined are not left with the national debt (but nuclear waste, and its enormous cost? Out of sight, out of mind)
Much to agree with, John
I share all your concerns.
What?
The SNP made a statement which didn’t reach the msm?
Surely there must be some mistake..
Hmm…
It’s pure fascism this is – talking about ‘fears’ – and also so Neo-liberal.
But the only reason that Badenoch is doing so badly is because of a more crafty less direct but just as lethal Neo-liberal Labour party who are in power.
She is a more neo-liberal version of Macron. It is the type of politics that a proportion of 2016 Brexit voters voted against. The conservative party have lost these voters for good. Labour already lost them long ago.
Bedenoch is just another Neoliberal who is out of touch with what people really want.
Every opinion poll shows that the vast majority of people want good public services.
Every opinion poll tends to be in favour of those things that her Tory party gave to private money, being renationalised, and run for the public good.
Every opinion poll suggests that people don’t want more of the same, but want change that has a significant role for the state.
Support for these things appears to be strong even with many Tory and Reform supporters.
Milei is basically a mix of Thatcher and Truss on steriods. She really thinks that Britain wants that?
She says that she is, “more worried that young people are leaving as well”.
Really? Well, it is basically because of what her party did after 1979, and what it has led to today.
No need for a commission to tell her that.
If they don’t want it, it’s a pity they keep voting for it. Starmer’s “landslide” is his democratic justification for stunningly reactionary and repressive policies that are only making things worse, not better.
Good grief.
I hope Zack Polanski wins the Green Party leadership election and then has the nous to talk to Corbyn and Zarah Sultana about some sort of agreement.
Then we might see some compassion and sense in politics again, instead of all these bad actors vying with each other to see who can be the worst.
I had a little conversation with Chatgtp about Milei’s economic policies and its effects. This was its (predictable, I thought) summary.
Note the last two bullet points.
Has Badenoch the faintest notion of what Milei’s methods are doing for over half the population?
Chatgtp Summary:
“Primary Fiscal Surplus in Early 2025
First time in over a decade.
Inflation is slowing (but still high).
GDP contracted — economy fell into recession.
Poverty hit 55% in mid-2025 — highest since 2002 crisis”
Milei is just another right-wing grifter. He was under investigation for selling cryptocurrency and is backed by Argentina’s richest man. He is merely the front man selling the product to benefit his rich benefactor, whilst taking the opportunity to line his pockets with a scam or two of his own. As for Badenoch, she is likely only in the position she is in because she is willing to parrot the lies of her benefactors with no thought or shame.