I am delighted Liz Truss will be in the final with Rishi Sunak. I want a change of economic policy as readers of this site will know. Liz Truss will give us that change. Rishi has accepted Treasury and Bank advice which has given us a high inflation and if unaltered will give us a recession next year. We canĀ do better.
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July 20, 2022
So it a āremainerā or a ācloset-remainerā
July 20, 2022
Also one is a liberal democrat and the other a wannbe socialist….enough said
July 21, 2022
@ glen cullen – She is a former liberal democrat and so we might see the alarming phenomenon exhibited in a lot of converts that she then acts with a more rigid, extreme orthodoxy than those who have never experienced a conversion. I hope so!
July 21, 2022
The good news is we do not have to vote for either globalist socialists in 2024. Your party should get the boot it deserves.
July 21, 2022
+1
July 20, 2022
Interesting to see the press coverage and how Mordaunt was talked down in many newspapers. Talk of Truss being the āwinnerā after various rounds when she was still only in third place.
No delight here. I will watch what happens but I think the damage is already done and Conservatives will lose the next election.
July 21, 2022
The Spectator’s hustings with the last three candidates are worth watching if you want to compare the quality and clarity of Mordaunt’s answers with the others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wfx5sWsl0I
As for the papers talking of Truss being the winner, this was simple arithmetic, publicised by the like’s of andrew_lilico on Twitter, that Suella + Kemi + Liz trumps Penny, Liz was likely to gather a lot of Suella and Kemi’s votes, plus she’s been consistently ahead in polls of party members when head-to-head against Rishi.
We’ve had former bosses of Mordaunt, Lord Frost and Lord Moylan, go public with warnings about Penny after they each, on separate occasions years apart, had to sack her. And another former boss, Amanda Platell, who hired her early on, say lovely girl, ambitious, hard working, but in no way Prime Minister material.āPlatell recently rang round former Cabinet ministers who had worked with Mordaunt: ‘not that quick’ was the consensus.āThen senior naval officers piped up that Mordaunt was only made an honorary Captain due to her political role; she had failed to meet the examinations deadline for her reservist role and was about to be dropped.āCollusion?āConspiracy?āOr just individuals fearing a terrible outcome for the country if she became PM?
I’ve no vote, and Truss wouldn’t have been my choice out of the starters, but Mordaunt seems rightly well down the bottom.
July 20, 2022
I agree Sir John.
I also hope Liz Truss will gain the majority support of Conservative party members.
July 20, 2022
The ruling class doesn’t even pretend any more does it?
Serving up such a collection of puppets, non-entities, charlatans and incompetents really does show that they hold the public in (probably justified) contempt.
July 21, 2022
Well vote for another party then Des
Oh…you already do.
July 20, 2022
Going by what others have been saying about Liz Truss MP, I think we are looking at, Maybot v2.0.
You Tories really know how to pick them.
July 21, 2022
Not only that but Truss,despite all her obvious failings-or perhaps because of them-has long been a favourite of the FT (and,therefore,the interests that that publication represents ie transnational capital and governance).
July 21, 2022
insert ‘don’t ‘ between really and know.
July 20, 2022
Only if she gets a decent team around her, and even then will have to lose the wooden veneer.
Otherwise it’s Maybot 2.0, dictating stilted silly catch-phrases, caving in to all and sundry and then finally deposed 2 years later by real socialists.
July 20, 2022
Could someone, anyone, please ask the candidates why the government has quietly announced plans for a contactless digital border pilot scheme in two years? This will clearly mean digital ID and facial recognition at ports of entry.
July 21, 2022
Indeed Barbara, all as instructed by their globalist masters at the WEF.
July 21, 2022
Barbara: “announced plans for a contactless digital border pilot scheme in two years”
They’ve already got a low tech pilot running right now.
You just turn up in a dinghy at some point of the South East coast of the UK and, Presto! You are accommodated in a four star hotel at the tax payers expense.
July 20, 2022
I would love her to win and offer you the job of Chancellor.
July 20, 2022
I have been saying this for some time. She obviously does not have the financial expertise of Sunak, and given that the economy is the main issue at the moment this is a huge weakness of hers. Sunak will obviously go hard on this, and she will be exposed like a rabbit in the headlights. She is therefore very stupid not to eliminate that weakness by announcing now that Sir John – the most knowledgeable and respected economist in the party – will be her Chancellor. He could then join her in the hustings, or even take some of these on himself.
She could therefore show that her premiership will be a team effort, which will show a new, more consensual approach. In fact, she should now start announcing ALL her new cabinet. One announcement a day, will dominate the agenda, and if she makes popular selections – like Braverman and Badenoch – that will win her more support. Does she have no political brains at all???
July 21, 2022
X-Tory – I totally approve of all your suggestions … in theory.
In practice, I suspect it would lead to an almost instantaneous bloodbath in both the media and Westminster!
July 21, 2022
That made me laugh.
July 21, 2022
I rather hoped none of the candidates had the same financial expertise.
July 20, 2022
Rishi has demonstrated the opposite of Red Wall voters low taxes, largesse, non patriot pro EU actions and inflationary handouts without fraud awareness. Favouring big business where he comes from while SME are sacrificed IR35.
Liz Truss is the only adult and sensible listener unlike Rishi who talks too much.
It matters not how she looks when money is tight – she knows what ordinary people are experiencing. Yes she was a Liberal and voted Remain but realises now the reality urgently required.
Women organised the rapid UK vaccine successfully and can multi-task better than men. She doesn’t need to be an expert on everything and get advice from wiser folks like Sir John. She can hit the ground running.
Rishi is deaf ears unless talking big bucks and demonstrated incompetence by his track record especially raising taxes to avert stalling the economy and killing incentives to work. He needs to see his damage across the board. Unbelievable basic stuff.
July 21, 2022
The last thing we need is another vaccine campaign / mandate. Any instruction from WHO requiring that needs a very short and to the point answer.
July 20, 2022
Just another load rules and laws on the way to dum the people down some more, istead of repeeling all laws, rules and international agreements from 1999 and start again. It’s called cleaning house.
July 20, 2022
Rishi on Covid fraud “Its down by one third now”. Well that’s now estimated Ā£3.5 Billion is it not ? Bonkers money to hard working families . Appalling.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the raid on taxpayer funds by gangs of criminals should be āa source of enduring shame to the chancellorā.
That’s rich either way.
July 21, 2022
And whats the betting that they are āforeignā criminal gangs, but that wont be acceptable to say so.
Ive lived a long time, and we have never had this problem with fraud before. As an 82 year old lady, I am having to jump through hoops just to open a bank account. When asked if this was a result of money laundering, the lady at the bank reluctantly admitted that it was.
The ordinary member of the public now has to prove they are not a criminal before they can do anything. Shameful !!!
July 20, 2022
Wars are very expensive, and Greenham Common Girl wants to take on Russia and China. Certainly no money for the U.K.
July 21, 2022
This is what I worry about.
July 21, 2022
You are right to worry; what better way to support the UN’s population reduction plans than World War 3.
July 21, 2022
Lynn Atkinson: “Greenham Common Girl”
Please? No! You are not telling us we have a former CND refusenik as potential Prime minister?
Who has it seems to me, turned into THE most bellicose warmonger?
A woman of enduring principle, then.
July 21, 2022
it is called ‘growing up’.
July 21, 2022
Russia and China are destroying the privileged world that her sponsors wish to retain by re-wiring the world’s trade and financial system.They(her sponsors)would be very relaxed about using your savings(and your children as cannon fodder) in a desperate effort to maintain this collapsing structure(-and ’twas ever thus!).
July 22, 2022
Well the backlash to tax the elite will be severe. I suspect some wont hang around.
July 20, 2022
100% AGREE Sir John.
July 20, 2022
I need to listen to them both more to decide. It is good that Penny Mordaunt is not one of the candidates she is plainly not credible. Truss is certainly saying the right things, but she is rather wooden in delivery, and has made some very dumb, very basic errors, such as confusing regions and parts of countries in global focus. You need also to think about credibility with the electorate, itās no good if we chose someone who promptly loses to Labour-SNP.
I hope both candidates will minimise the silly attacks which only hand ammunition to Starmer & Co who otherwise have nothing to say.
July 20, 2022
…er….. Liz Truss – along with Boris Johnson – has almost walked us into a nuclear war with Russia!
Rishi Sunak has more or less bankrupted the country in regard to the Johnson Government’s reaction to ‘Covid’.
I am reminded of the situation with Trump vs Hillary Clinton in the US presidential contest in 2016 ; Are these REALLY the best two candidates from amongst the millions of people in the country? I think not.
Whichever of them wins, they need the Honourable Member for Wokingham as their Chancellor of teh Exchequer.
July 20, 2022
This nation needs far more than a drone technocrat as PM such as Sunak, who I believe cannot be trusted. He reeks of Blair, he smells of Blair, he walks like Blair, it’s almost as if Sunak’s studied Blair. How anyone can warm to such a character is beyond me. He’s not ‘human’, akin to a cyborg programmed
If it has to be Truss then so be it. I want to see a kickback against the progressive cancer ie Badenoch, that is the destroying our nation, humanity and reality itself. It is unacceptable that the Tory party thinks it’s moral to nod through some of this warped ideology that in time will destroy the party itself
The party’s job is to oppose the cancer of Marxism not facilitate it
July 20, 2022
Liz truss will give us whatever the ERG say’s – at least Rishi has a mind of his own
July 21, 2022
Rishi might have a mind of his own but his compass is 180 degrees out tax to death, borrow print and waste, devalue the Ā£, wife’s tax avoidance, green card, manifesto ratting on tax and pensions and a pusher of the expensive intermittent, net zero energy lunacy.
Truss should promise to reverse his manifesto ratting on taxes and pensions and abandon net zero now. Also promise her next manifesto will actually be kept to.
July 21, 2022
Then why was he at the WEF recently?
July 21, 2022
That’s good – you couldn’t want better advisers on the economy.
July 21, 2022
you can fool some people…
July 20, 2022
Good evening,
Who has the better plan for completing Brexit and taking full advantage of the return of our freedom of action?
July 20, 2022
Like John Redwood I want a change of economic policy. What concerns me about Liz Truss is her hyperbole (she promised to cut these taxes on her first day, presumably before appointing her Ministers), her various political ‘journeys’, even since 2016 and perhaps most seriously her emphasis on paying for lower taxes by ‘more borrowing’ (apparently her suggestion in Cabinet). There is a limit both in extent and in duration to the viability of more borrowing. One needs much more cuts in the size of government spending as both Suella Braverman and Nadhim Zahawi emphasised. Even Jeremy Hunt’s middle way of attracting business with lower business taxes to get growth before cutting personal taxes was more credible.
It is terrible that Conservative M.P.s, not merely herdlike but in a senseless stampede got rid of their greatest asset, Boris Johnson and subsequently eliminated the best candidates in the first two ballots. With that lack of political expertise, I can’t see why taxpayers are paying M.P.s Ā£85,000 a year-Ā£20,000 p.a. might be too much.
I very much expect Liz Truss will win, with ordinary Conservative Party members displaying more political ability than most M.P.s.
July 20, 2022
What a choice!
Well done to you MPs. You have denied the membership the opportunity to vote for the candidate they wanted. Ain’t your version of democracy great.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining. Whoever wins will be the last Tory PM for a very long time – maybe forever. You have done a great job of destroying your party.
If only the membership would now boycott choosing one of the last two.
July 21, 2022
+1000
July 21, 2022
Absolutely agreed. I strongly suspect that tactical voting was used by MPs to keep Mordaunt out of the final running. Its disgraceful.
July 21, 2022
the member voting paper should include ‘none of the above’.
July 20, 2022
Well I wanted Liz Truss to take over before Bojo had accepted he was a busted flush. So I’m pleased to see Liz Truss in the final two.
July 21, 2022
-1000 !
July 20, 2022
Thank you John I agree She was the only experienced candidate
All those MPs who failed to note statements from previous employees and colleagues about Mordauntās shortcomings need their heads examined
The group led by Gove who actually thought that an MP with so little experience as Badenoch are deranged and have been disrespectful to a major country
The role of PM is not a training exercise
July 21, 2022
She was also the Treasury Minister for the suicidal Net Zero Agenda, and spoke of a “Green Recovery” to lead us out of the pandemic.
July 20, 2022
Well, Badenoch was the one for me. Her anti-woke stance is beyond important with such a stance badly needed to stop the descent into a warped and damaged environment in which all life is dragged into the political and ideological arena. Truss, well, Cummnings does refer to her as the ‘Human Handgrenade’. It’s either her or the C3PO clone
July 21, 2022
DOM,
Certainly her “headlines” were good, but I didn’t think that she would be able to make any of them actually happen….:-(
July 20, 2022
Sir JR
You seem to think we will do better with Liz Truss and yes we have the highest inflation among the G7, but all the countries are suffering similar problems and your arguments about tax cuts is definitely not proven as the best way forward for the UK.
July 20, 2022
You are absolutely right to want a radical change of economic policy away from socialist tax-and-spend. I remain
sceptical of Liz Truss’s ability and willingness to deliver real change, (Why are the Anzac and other global trade agreements she oversaw so timidly protectionist?)
In any case, a membership vote is most unlikely to take place, to prevent a result other than the one most Tory MPs (who are largely LibDem remainers) have decreed. I’m mildly surprised that the bookies have not yet factored this into their odds. It will be interesting to see what pretext Ms Truss will give for withdrawing.
July 20, 2022
The Conservative Party has been dealt a bad hand over contemporary leadership and has played it badly. The only hope now is to be bold. Should Mrs. Truss be unable (if leader) to appoint a competent team, specially to the Treasury where only the very best will do, then she dooms herself, clearly, and, alas, us all.
I do not envy her with so many MPs who think suitable Sunak and Mordaunt. For once, adopting Major’s “back me or sack me” approach might be the way to go in office for ousting three prime ministers in succession might be considered a misfortune, but ousting a fourth would look like a reprehensible carelessness.
July 20, 2022
I am very pleased that you’re pleased! Let’s hope the Conservative members live up to their name!
Why does the process need to take over a month more?
July 21, 2022
Completely agree another month of them tearing chunks out of each other. I think the members have already made up their minds. I donāt want to see Fishy Rishi going on about trust. Is that trust with or without the knife.
July 20, 2022
Well, very wooden and tedious, an ex(?) remainer and ex(?) LibDim – but clearly still a little better than tax, borrow, print, inflate and piss down the drain green card holder Sunak. His wife was very sensible to be nondom and so tax avoid Ā£millions – given how wasteful her tax other to death husband is.
July 21, 2022
Truss does seem to have the support of most of the (all to few) sensible Tory MPs let us how they are right and she has really seen the light since being a remainer, a LibDim and a backer of May’s appalling deal.
July 21, 2022
Often converts become the most passionate about their new beliefs. Iāll reserve judgment but Iāve been very disappointed with the previous party leader selections. If she wins she needs to pick her cabinet wisely.
July 21, 2022
Truss is a chameleon who says and does whatever it is that the people she’s talking to at the time want to hear.
She backed remain because her boss at the time (Cameron) backed remain. She backed May’s deal because May was her boss at the time. Now she’s apparently an ardent Brexiteer because she’s trying to appeal to the members of the Conservative Party to try and get them to vote for her.
She’s just a wooden version of Johnson.
July 20, 2022
Many feel Penny Mordaunt would have been better.
If merely 4 MPs had voted differently, a margin of 8 would be nothing. Party members could have expressed their choice more sensibly.
Two of the MPs even spoiled their own ballot papers. Some are just clumsy or careless, yet the outcome of our nation topples out of balance over the edge of such ineptitude. Their names are kept hidden, yet it is we who pay the price.
July 21, 2022
Unlikely four+ would switch directly from Truss to Mordaunt when Sunak is rather in the middle politically. I am no great fan of wooden Truss (not good at thinking on her feet) but she has some good backers. Her first job should be to promise to reverse all Sunak’s appalling manifesto ratting now and to promise to keep to the next manifesto. Also she should abandon the 25% green energy levy/tax, ditch the net zero lunacy now and ditch the ECHR so we can control the borders,
July 21, 2022
You’re right Lifelogic, yet If Liz Truss makes good decisions, claims of ‘wooden appearance’ barely matter.
Loyalty to the Conservative manifesto, on which the Govt was elected is a strength solidly in her favour. It outperforms the former Chancellor’s claim of ‘being honest’ when feebly trying to justify breaking a promise.
Many would agree you’re right on several other issues too. Repetition also has impact, but I recall one instance of ‘etc Ed’ revealing much more in efficient moderation.
July 21, 2022
The ECHR can’t be ditched. Any politicians who’s read the Belfast Agreement knows that. Any politician who promises to ditch it is clueless.
July 22, 2022
Of course the ECHR can be ‘ditched’, i.e. we would replace membership and the text of the ECHR with a Bill of Rights that would apply also to Northern Ireland, replicating all NI-relevant Human Rights provisions, but replacing the ECHR court. The Belfast Agreement maintains ‘Northern ireland’s status as part of the United Kingdom’, and its ultimate arbiter in human rights – in Belfast as in Birmingham – should be the UK Supreme Court. The UK would serve notice to the contracting parties of the changes to be made in the wording at seven places in the Belfast Agreement, and discuss them if necessary.
The ECHR court does not strengthen the Agreement – it undermines it, as does the NIP.
July 22, 2022
The Belfast Agreement states:
“The British Government will complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with direct access to the courts, and remedies for breach of the Convention, including power for the courts to overrule Assembly legislation on grounds of inconsistency.”
The UK government can’t “ditch” the ECHR without either (1) getting agreement by all parties to change the Belfast Agreement, or (2) breaking it.
On recent showing, I know which option I’d expect of them.
July 22, 2022
As mancunius has correctly explained the only real change is likely to be that our Supreme Court will be the highest court.
So I could see both sides Northern Ireland eventually agreeing to that change.
The Belfast Agreement was written in 1998 way before leaving the EU happened.
July 21, 2022
Did Sunak’s team ‘lend’ votes to Truss in order to keep Mordaunt off the members’ ballot? Mordaunt would have taken the Tory Party back to its trajectory before David Cameron defeated David Davis in the membership ballot with the great assistance of the BBC; is that why she was subjected to withering fire from all directions? More third world immigration, more warmongering as the heirs to Blair celebrate their victory over the English.
July 20, 2022
While the Conservative party has spent the last week navel gazing, a full-blown Eurozone storm appears to be brewing in Brussels. The future of the Italian government is very uncertain and, like Bailey in the UK, Legarde is contemplating interest rate rises.
Given the dire state of several Eurozone economies, including Italy, that is the last thing the single currency needs. Inflation across the Eurozone stands at 8.6% but in several member states it is considerably higher, being in double figures in Estonia where it is an astonishing 20.1%, and Lithuania and Latvia are not far behind at 18.5% and 16.8% respectively. Meanwhile, interest rates spreads on individual member states debts are increasing. Legarde knows the Italy economy is too big to bale out, so she wants to take in expiring Italian debt and replace it with Eurozone-wide paper, in direct contradiction to the treaties, and certain to cause the German Constitutional Court to intervene.
Can they find yet another way of kicking the can down the road? Interesting times.
July 21, 2022
Not to mention Dutch farmers rioting – how strange none of this gets very much prominence on the main TV channels. You’d think everything was going swimmingly in the EU.
Not that it helps us of course but I do tire of hearing about how badly things are going here (outside of the EU) without it being set in context. Life inside the EU is certainly not a bed of roses currently and isn’t going to get better any time soon. With the underlying structural basis of the Euro so deeply flawed, it was always going to lead to trouble and I fear that time is fast approaching.
July 20, 2022
Yes, you could do better….if CON MPs weren’t so cowardly and a few more of them were conservatives, rather than LibCONs or Social Democrats.
Unfortunately they’re not, so the future is looking extremely bleak ….. whichever one of them gets installed in No.10.
July 20, 2022
Donna – Agreed but remember Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.
July 21, 2022
No ….. but we don’t need someone in No.10 who is largely responsible for creating the mess and whose policies are making it worse, so on the basis that CON MPs have ensured the Party members have a choice between two evils, he is right to choose the lesser evil.
July 21, 2022
Sunak says judge me on my record – I have done – your were an appalling, vast tax increases, a lock down enthusiast, gross manifesto ratting, expensive net zero energy Chancellor with a tax avoiding wife clearly not attached to the UK and a green card. You fail to understand real economics like so many PPE graduates.
July 21, 2022
+1
July 21, 2022
Sunak wrote his own suicide note, or did some SPAD with a sense of humour write for him?
July 20, 2022
LIz will also have to tackle the MPC otherwise Bailey will put up interest rates by the half percent he mentioned in his speech earlier this week. The last thing we need now is interest rate rises as enough money has already been taken out of voter’s pockets to dampen inflation by the increase in NI, energy and road fuel costs.
Interest rate rises would have little effect anyway because 80% of inflation has been caused by factors the UK can do nothing about.
July 21, 2022
The counter argument is that with the US raising rates agressively, you need to raise UK rates to protect the pound. A lower pound helps exports but since it’s the price of fuel and food that is driving inflation (much of it imported) we don’t really want a weak pound at the moment.
July 20, 2022
I am pleased she made the final 2.
July 20, 2022
I agree that Liz Truss is the better choice of the two.
It is interesting to see how Mr. Sunak is presenting himself as the one most able to beat Labour at the next election, but nothing about what he plans to do in the intervening two years to address current issues.
However, Ms. Truss is at least stating that she’ll be doing a number of things to get the party back on track with the voting public. If she manages to deliver on a number of her promises then the results should make up for what are perceived to be her current weaknesses.
I didn’t vote for Boris, because of his persona. I voted for him (the Conservative Party) because he promised to deliver on the issues that were of a concern to me. Disappointingly for me he failed to deliver on a number of his promises and embarked down the Net Zero rabbit hole with no rational plan, costing or strategy on how to get there and it wasn’t going to get any better. As such, I do not mourn his loss.
Do the majority of the voters really vote for the personality of their PM rather than what they’ve actually achieved while in post? If so, they deserve what they get.
July 21, 2022
Truss may have the better policies, but she is totally robotic and wooden. She never smiles and she never answers the question put to her: she just repeats her pre-prepared message like a dalek. She cannot possibly win an election. The idea is laughable. Of the two candidates, Sunak is the only one that the ordinary voter might want to go for a drink with. He has a winning smile and a natural charm. Truss is death warmed up. Looking ahead, the choice isn’t between Sunak and Truss. It is between Sunak and Starmer. Conservative Party members should pick a possible winner, not a certain loser.
July 21, 2022
when did the mandatory open mouth smile come in ?
what happened to the closed mouth grin ?
July 21, 2022
I’ve only met her once, but she has a very nice, if slightly reserved, smile.
Never judge a book by it’s cover.
“Britannia Unchained” has a few interesting comments.
July 21, 2022
With Truss as PM we are guaranteed to lose the next general election.
With Sunak we will only probably lose.
Lets face it, the cult of Boris won us many votes and whilst I am no fan of his at all it is clear that, without him at the helm, we are toast in 2024.
July 21, 2022
But what’s the point of winning if you’re served up a loser’s menu?
July 21, 2022
There comes a time in every collective relationship where one has to re-evaluate one’s position. Is the association still of mutual benefit, or has the group moved so far away from its original concepts that to now belong just brings feelings of regret.
It is clear that the TORY party wants nothing to do with their old policies, those same policies that made Britain great. By and large they want to emulate and overtake labour in creating a globalist socialist world run for corporate profit, while reducing freedoms.
Tory party members and those that once supported the Tories want something very different from what is being made available to them.There will not even be the option to reject both WEF supporting candidates that the Tory party has decided will be the only choices.
Certainly if I were a true Tory MP, I would be disassociating myself from the party, and looking to form a new / real conservative party – God knows how many real Tory MPs are left, but there has never been a better time – a greater need for the sensible MPs on the right to break away, and provide us with a real alternative to global tyranny and incompetence that we have suffered for so long now.
July 21, 2022
[…] āI am delighted Liz Truss will be in the final with Rishi Sunak. I want a change of economic policy as readers of this site will know. Liz Truss will give us that change. Rishi has accepted Treasury and Bank advice which has given us a high inflation and if unaltered will give us a recession next year. We canĀ do better.ā (link) […]
July 21, 2022
The real proof of the pudding will be in the eating…
Let us just wait and see.
July 21, 2022
But what’s the point of winning if you’re served up a loser’s menu?
July 21, 2022
I’m hopeful in Liz Truss, one positive is she has delivered on what she promised, sadly quite a rarity from a politician.
At the same time there is a big risk, if she selects the right team I’m sure she can succeed. As for Mr Rishi, he feels like the safe choice, as described its “steady while you sink”.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of the day isn’t standing up to international strongmen like Putin, a job Boris performed admirably, but standing up and forcing your will on a disagreeing civil service. The failure so often to do this has resulted in listless governments that don’t get what they promised to their voters done.
July 21, 2022
Hello Sir John,
The sad part is that 242 MPs voted for a socialist chancellor who is so rich he has no idea how people live & get by on an ordinary income & a plainly woke airhead whose co-written book shows her intellectual limitations. I agree with the suggestions that Liz Truss should appoint you Chancellor but I also feel you need to give a series of seminars to your fellow MPs on what conservatism is. It is painfully obvious that 242 of them don’t have a clue!
July 21, 2022
Although I’d prefer a Badenoch/Truss final, at least there’s someone in there who seems to be keen to finish Brexit.
I say “seems” since her history as a remainer and a Lib Dem are cause for concern, in view of May’s performance, but if we accept that people become more conservative as they gain experience then we can give her the chance to do the right things (and we may have no choice anyway, as Truss herself staed in the TV debates, Sunak has said in Cabinet that he’s afraid of EU reprisals if we remove EU law from our statute books).
I can only hope that a sensible energy policy is also on the agenda.
July 21, 2022
Sunak must lose, he would be the death of the country – many people simply could not vote for him, he is truly unelectable:
– Non-dom status
– Tax rises
– Inflation (he appoints the BoE governor and guarantees their bonds)
– Fined over partygate
– Seen as rich and out of touch
That’s just for starters. The media would crucify him.
July 21, 2022
Dear Sir John, This morning I received this fairly typical estate agent’s circular headlined “A strong summer market”. To quote: “The first half of 2022 has seen an extremely active lettings market with demand to live in London at an all-time high. Prices have increased on average by 22 per cent over the past 12 months and have seen the highest levels of rent being achieved right across the capital”.
At a time when most ordinary families face a struggle to make ends meet, the economy has become horribly distorted and needs sorting out. The combination of ultra-loose monetary policy for 13 years with the huge rise in public spending and debt to cope with Covid19 has brought a reversal of the proper roles of Bank and Treasury. The Bank has tried to influence economic activity instead of price stability. The Treasury, instead of concerning itself about short-term employment stability and trend growth is now worried about general tax cuts boosting inflation. And, for different reasons, both seem more concerned with maintaining strong asset prices that with the real economy.
July 21, 2022
Dear Sir John, You argue that general tax cuts are needed (as distinct from temporary relief from the Green Levy and petrol duty) because today’s tighter monetary policy will look after inflation. But this is only true in the sense that alcoholics who cut their daily whisky intake from a bottle to half a bottle are looking after their health.
A neutral Bank Rate would be about 3.5 to 4 per cent, that being the inflation target plus the trend rate of growth. It would obviously need to be much higher to restore monetary stability without a prolonged recession.
Inflation had become excessive by the autumn of last year, well before Mr Putin’s latest war. Yet Bank Rate will only now rise beyond 1 per cent.
You rightly argue that the Bank’s buying of government debt went on far too long. When this programme started, selling down this debt was said to be the first line of defence against inflation. But what happened? From June last year to January, holdings went up from Ā£697 billion to a peak Ā£760 billion. In March they fell Ā£25 billion to Ā£735 billion, where they remain as of June 2022.
July 21, 2022
“Then there were two” – indeed but I have to ask is this the best we can offer?
One wears his clothes two sizes too small probably in the interest of fashion and the other totters along with a handbag thinking she’s Mrs T – pretenders both – and with the departure of Boris who modelled himself on Winston I have to wonder Is there anything real left in politics anymore?
July 22, 2022
I see Truss has been caught out making inaccurate statements about the area of Leeds she grew up in.
July 22, 2022
Well one Labour supporting Guardian writer who went to the same school has a different view about the area and the school.
Good try Peter
July 22, 2022
Haven’t read anything by any Guardian journalists about it, but have heard and see the views of people who actually live there. They didn’t recognise Truss’s description of it, nor did they seem to appreciate her doing it down.
July 23, 2022
Just dIifferent opinions by people who don’t like the Conservatives in general.
They don’t want Liz Truss to win.
July 23, 2022
As an aside there are 4,190 secondary schools in the UK, of which 2,894 state schools actually sent some (usually single figures) of their pupils to Oxbridge (2021 figures, suttontrust.comā).
If one attended a secondary school that allowed one to go on to Oxford, it is somewhat difficult to imagine it must have been such a bad school within the sink estate that Roundhay is said to have been.
Obviously one might possibly have been a genius who would have whatever the circumstances been able to overcome all such difficulties and enter one of the top three Oxford colleges.
So, isnāt it possible that this candidate is trying to rewrite both geography and history?
Or P2, do you have any firm indications whether it is the case or not? I am waiting (as usual) with bated breath for the argument supporting your point of view. Has Liz had to surmount incredible difficulties to enter Oxford U. or not?
Your grasp of all the news is such a precious addition to this blog. Thanks in advance.
July 23, 2022
That certainly defines as an aside hef.
But thanks for adding your usual grumpy sarcasm.
The more all you lefties continue your anti Liz Truss campaign the more we who actually have a vote realise that out of the two candidates she is the best.
So thanks for that.
July 23, 2022
āShe is the bestā is some absolute statement. She might be the best for you. Not everybody shares your certitude.
July 23, 2022
I see that Malcom Rifkind, Norman Lamont and Chris Patten who actually served in Mrs Thatcherās cabinet seem to find Lizās idea of decreasing taxes while borrowing an extra Ā£30 bn something rather strange. But who are they when the great P2, the well of political science, has spoken.
July 26, 2022
[…] Later that day, he wrote a brief diary entry, ‘Then there were two’: […]