By Rhys Jameson
It was supposed to be an end to the chaos of the British economy caused by coronavirus and the Ukraine conflict, not to mention all the scandals enveloping Johnson’s administration. The capitalists were desperate for a Tory government of stability from Truss, but instead of calming the situation, she turbo-charged the chaos with her policy of borrowing to provide tax cuts for the rich.
Tax cuts for the rich, freeing up resources that would otherwise be squandered by the state and putting them back into the hands of the entrepreneurs and wealth creators, in order for them to help us grow the pie. Who could possibly object to that? Well, it turns out pretty much everybody did, even, incredibly, that renowned bastion of wealth-creating entrepreneurship, the stock market.
With Britain now owing more money than its annual national income, the mini budget fuelled bankers’ fears that they might not be paid back, and that turned to outright panic when they heard that Truss intended to just give their money away to her rich pals. So a stop had to be put to that, and then there followed the kind of character intrigues, betrayals and plot twists the like of which haven’t been seen since the last time the Woolpack Pub changed hands on Emmerdale. Britain has now fully completed the transition from workshop of the world to laughingstock of the world.
Truss tried to help the Few, not the Many
Truss had to go, not because she betrayed the wishes of the Tory Party members, but precisely because she actually tried to carry them out. In a distorted way this mirrors what happened to Corbyn, in that, when he was overwhelmingly elected leader of the Labour Party, he tried to carry out the wishes of those members, only to be undermined by the Parliamentary Labour Party.
The difference was, of course, that Corbyn was charged with the task of improving the lot of the Many and Truss the lot of the Few. Both of these mandates fell foul of the Westminster bubble of MPs, who are determined to stick to the script written by international capitalism, and there must be no deviation either to the left or the right.
After a 56 day election process she had 45 days in office, one day more than Brian Clough had at Leeds United, but unlike Truss or the Tory Party, Leeds can at least point to their appearance in that season’s European Cup final and Clough to his two European Cup wins.
So what has Truss, who nobody is sure whether she was reckless or feckless, to show for her tenure in Number 10, other than her entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as Britain’s shortest serving PM, and her £115,000 ex PM’s pension? She cannot even console herself with her role in mullering Britain’s reputation for prudence and stability; that work was started by others and will continue apace under her successors.
Professional in public relations: sugar-coating turds
So what of her successors? Well, so far there are three likely contenders. Firstly, there is Mordaunt who seems at least to have an excellent public image, which isn’t really surprising as her profession was as a public relations expert. Though her experience was mostly, well almost exclusively, sugar-coating turds in the service of the UK Tory Party or the USA Republican’s.
She did once venture out into the real world, working for Tory-led Chelsea and Kensington Council. That earned the glowing review, “We had to get rid of her after a few months because she was incompetent,” from Lord Moylan, who was the then council deputy leader. Her biggest backers appear to be members of the media, who are themselves essentially little more than PR staff for the Tory Party, which probably explains their enthusiastic support.
Secondly, we have Sunak. This Tory leadership contest is our second chance to get ready for Rishi, the boy with a classic riches-to-obscenely-great-riches fairy tale life, raised on the mean streets of Romsey, who graduated from the schools of hard knocks, known as Winchester College public school and Lincoln college, Oxford.
The usual career path of waiter, investment banker and then hedge fund manager was tragically cut short when he felt the pull of public service, his life so far seems to have followed the path once trod by Dick Whittington in that it shares the same level of truthfulness as a panto.
What can we expect from Sunak the PM you might ask. Well, we can expect him to prioritise sorting out the budgetary problems bequeathed to the current government by the previous chancellor. Given Sunak’s record of handing out billions of pounds of public money to Tory Party donors, tax rises seem on the cards rather than increased borrowing, as no one knows better than Sunak that we can’t use shoddy PPE that is unfit for purpose as collateral, no matter how much you paid for it. His support is strong among Tory MPs, most of whom got into politics to meet rich movers and shakers, and what could be better than rubbing shoulders on the Commons benches with one of the richest men in Britain.
Caused more deaths than the Luftwaffe
Thirdly we have Johnson, truly the only person genuinely surprised by the sudden departure of Truss. If he had known that it would only have been one hundred days, I am sure he would have chosen a more fitting location for his holiday/exile – such as the Island of Elba. Modelling himself on his hero, Churchill, his incompetence managed to cause more deaths from Covid than Britain suffered at the hands of the Luftwaffe, and he oversaw a return to Britain standing alone, locked out from mainland Europe for the first time since 1940, with his ‘oven-ready’ hard Brexit.
Narcissism seems his biggest strength, something he is no doubt proud of, and having no head for figures is his greatest weakness. He honestly cannot recall how many children he has fathered, for example. What can we expect from Johnson? Well, last time he was PM it was “blood and thunder”. This time around get ready for “thud and blunder.
His main support is among Tory Party members who seem to regard him with the same esteem that football supporters regard maverick players of the past, like Georgie Best or Paul “Gaza” Gascoigne, in that no amount of scandal, drunkenness, womanising, mistakes, fights with teammates or unexplained absences will detract in their minds his moments of pure genius, beating Livingston in a one-on-one for London Mayor, or selling Corbyn a dummy and leaving him for dead in general election.
Well it might surprise our readers to find that we do have another alternative solution and another alternative political party. The alternative solution is a general election and the other party is the Labour Party.
Starmer embraces failure – he draws strength from it
The media have steered clear of any hint of a general election and the leader of the Labour Party has made no moves yet to initiate one, like calling a vote of confidence in parliament for example. Starmer’s greatest strength is that he is completely unaffected by failure; in fact he seems to draw strength from it.
The loss in the EU referendum pushed him up the greasy pole in the party and his second referendum policy that led to general election defeat in 2019 saw him elevated to leader, to the loss of two hundred thousand members. Bye-election defeats saw him rise to omnipotence on the party right. His main drawback seems to be that, like the film “Groundhog Day”, he believes we are fixed economically in the year 1997 and a few minor tweaks will put capitalism right again.
His main support comes from everyone who is currently suffering the effects of the Tories policies and the crisis of capitalism, although “support” might not be the right term. People are in favour of him in much the same way they are in favour of going to the dentist when they have a cavity and need a filling.
So where does this leave us socialists, you might well ask. Well, strengthened by the salutary lesson the people have just had. In 1974 during the miner’s strike, Tory PM Ted Heath called a general election to determine who ran the country, the Government or the miners. What we need right now is a general election to determine who runs the country, the Government or the stock market!
