To be starting to really worry about Liz Truss

[Anothernamechangeplease]

OK, so I'm not a Tory. I hate Boris, and despise the rest of them. I don't hold or much hope of any of them actually doing anything to address the problems that we're currently facing, because I don't think any of them actually give a toss about ordinary people. Of the two candidates that are left in the Tory leadership contest, I would pick Rishi, because I think he has a more realistic understanding of the economic challenges, but obviously, I'm not a party member so I have no say in the matter.

Nevertheless, I have been relatively sanguine and the prospect of Liz Truss as leader, a) because I figured that things couldn't get much worse than the shit show that we have had under Boris, and b) because I am pretty sure that she will be utterly unelectable when it comes to the next general election, so worst case scenario would be that we have another couple of years of crappy Tory government, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, and then we can be pretty confident of getting shot of them. So, pretty shit all in all, but survivable.

But listening to everything that she is saying she wants to do, to the economic forecasts, and to the analysis from both within and beyond the Tory party, I'm starting to get really very worried. All this talk of huge tax cuts and massive reductions in public spending...I fear that she is going to make the looming economic crisis infinitely worse at a time when we can least afford to risk it. Nearly all economists seem to agree that her plans are going to make things worse, not better.

We are already at breaking point. Public services are on their knees. Businesses are struggling to stay afloat. People both in work and out of work are struggling. The most vulnerable are already having to choose between bare essentials such as eating and heating. Inflation continues to soar, energy prices are going off the scale, interest rates are going up... and she is about to make it worse! We just don't have the resilience in the system to cope with this.

I am actually very worried about what is going to happen. This could be very bad indeed, and a lot of people are going to suffer. If we end up with austerity on steroids in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis, there will be massive civil unrest, surely?

@Rookiemistake whoever is in opposition always moans that the media is biased against them. I certainly don’t see much ‘pro government’ coverage. I would argue that the problem is the media is too focused on viewers/engagement for any purpose rather than ‘boring’ scrutineering which is what’s needed. Plus too many pundits on both sides bleating in a way that’s not centrist enough for the majority. ‘Energy companies are profiteering and evil’ is just as much a turn off for me (who is very concerned about the crisis) as ‘no more handouts for the poor’.

She has said she'd have Mad Nad and the Minister from the 18th Century in her cabinet though. How low we have sunk!

Hollyhead It's not that the media is biased against them per se. It's the fact that they don't get the coverage except for if it suits the narrative. I read a Tweet today lamenting Starmer for sitting back and watching. I wouldn't know,, there is hardly any coverage of what he actually proposes whereas I know exactly what Sunak and Truss propose to do. I'm sure he's not sat on his arse doing nothing though.

Everyone criticised Boris for shagging everything in sight also. He is male as far as I know.

Rishi's tax cut proposal was also fantasy but he was proposing to do that once the economy (he hopes) has recovered in several years. When he knows the Conservatives are highly unlikely to be in office anyway given the mess they have made of literally every big decision. Truss is planning to cut taxes immediately then blame the Bank of England for the increased inflation/ longer recession that causes. And the taxes she intends to cut will barely have any effect on normal households, anyway. Surprise, surprise.

Agree it comes up often but it’s more about getting clicks and viewers these days using whatever - eg partygate type stuff. It doesn’t help Johnson / Sunak or whoever either who have taken a hit

He is sitting back, watching Sunak and Truss oppose eachother and taking notes for the next GE. No point getting in the way as the Conservative party wrecks itself.🤷‍♀️

Anyway, Starmer is the leader of the Opposition, Tories are hardly going to do as he asks.

Yeah I am worried,

I don’t think people really get this.

They talk of high interest rates in the past in the 10s and how devastating that was. What they don’t realise is that most people were used to paying higher interest anyway. Going from 8% rates to 15% baserates is only doubling the cost of repayments in early 90s. Going from 0.5% to 1% is the same percentage relatively and we are already there. It’s going to keep on going.

If it goes up to 3 or 4% then it’s 300/400% increase and keep on going.

Basically most people who moved in the last decade are likely loosing their home. We moved last year 😱

Basically most people who moved in the last decade are likely loosing their home

How’s that going to work? Who’s going to buy all those houses?

I don’t think the leap will be quite that bad lemon, though it’s still v grim. If you’re paying capital and interest, it’s only the interest part that will be doubling. A 0.5 increase is about £35 on £100000 over 20 years I think. But v hard indeed on top of the increased fuel bills.

Probably Jacob Rees bloody Mogg.

LOL. Many people have mortgage for hundreds of thousands of pounds. After saving for decades for the required deposit. Because that was the ONLY way to own a house where their jobs and families and friends and support networks are. And the Government actively encouraged this through "help to buy" etc. and are now going to what? Call these people irresponsible for taking them up on their own schemes that they promoted, and bankrupt those families?

Great. 😒🙄

I have never used such a scheme personally btw, but they were heavily promoted: encouraging people to take 5% deposit mortgages etc.

I think it's gaslighting to then blame those people for doing what the Government specifically encouraged, especially when they had no other realistic option of home ownership, and renting is so awful because said Government also made that an awful long-term option, especially for anybody with children.

Stop excusing these idiots for ruining our country. Start asking them why we have the most expensive childcare in western countries, one of the worst health systems in those countries too, higher crime rates than most, lower literacy and one of the worst education systems in those comparable countries. That would be a hell of a coincidence but that statistics prove it to be reality. Are Conservative members entirely immune to facts on all issues, not just Brexit?

I just can’t believe that the Conservative Party is walking so smugly into this. Are they that cocky they think we’ll all forgive them a ferocious recession, rampant inflation and huge bills that will leave families shattered?

There has been a sea-change in tolerance levels since Thatcher and it’s playing out on social media that didn’t exist 40 years ago.

And Penny Mordaunt is sucking up for a Cabinet post. Probably wants to be the new Foreign Secretary. God help us all.

Going from 8% rates to 15% baserates is only doubling the cost of repayments in early 90s

You believe that house prices (and therefore the amount borrowed) are the same proportion of incomes/ inflation adjusted GBP as they were in the early 90s?!?

Delusional. At best.

That's not quite how it works.

www.mortgagecalculator.uk/

A £180,000 mortgage on 0.5% over 25 years is £638 a month or £75 on interest only

If it goes to 1%, then it's £678 / £150 on interest only

So the increase is £40 on a traditional repayment mortgage

At 2%, it's £762 - so a £124 a month increase / £300 on interest only

People on trackers / coming off low fixed rates will see an increase, on top of other increased bills, but it's only 100 / 200% if you are on interest only

However - at 5%, it's £1053 a month from £638 at 0.5%

The Bank of England insisted an affordability tests to ensure people could afford a mortgage by stress testing to see what would happen if interest rates increased

They have stopped doing that now - but they didn't foresee people having to pay much higher fuel bills and other bills.

How have I missed this thread? This woman has every alarm bell in my tiny brain ringing.

I can't bear Liz Truss already and her smug levels will be off the scale in September once she is a mouthpiece for the ERG / Boris Johnson. Tough times ahead.

Truss and Mordaunt are opportunistic liars. Sunak and Mogg are avaricious liars.

How defiled the Conservative Party now is. Poor old Ken Clarke on Twitter really despises the current contenders and Cabinet.

Truss genuinely strikes fear in me and I can't figure out why.

It's not just that I dislike her or that I dislike her policies. It's that I get hair standing up on my neck when I see her speak. I have a genuine fear response to her.

Poor old Ken Clarke on Twitter really despises the current contenders and Cabinet

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick here and you already know this but the Ken Clarke Twitter account is a parody. I don't think he's on there in real life.

Nooooo! I was hanging on my tattered sanity through that Ken Clarke account.

Oh well.

I'll have to go back to really loathing Penny Mordaunt as a back-up.

I can imagine Truss showing no mercy in a humanitarian situation. No conscience or empathy, like a school bully who's really bloody good at it and not getting caught out because they have just enough intelligence to be slippery.

She has a very boring voice. That gives her a robotic quality. 'It's a machine. It cannot be reasoned with', to quote the ill-fated Kyle Reese.

Yet she has that prissy quality about her, too. If I ever decided to make a prissy-mannered android and forgot to programme it with the laws of robotics, I reckon it would turn out like Liz Truss.

Nooooo! I was hanging on my tattered sanity through that Ken Clarke account.

Sorry! It's one of the better ones I think because it does seem like the sort of thing Ken would be thinking.