Breaking news: Liz Truss is the next PM

[ErmagerdtheQuern]

God help us all.

You literally cannot cut taxes and invest in public services. Dh is a Doctor and he says it literally RIP to the NHS now, it’s game over. He could work another 10 years but he’s considering taking early retirement now as he just can’t face more cuts to services.

'protecting the oil companies is her big priority.'

Protecting the oil company's investment in the UK is her big priority.

There is a global demand, prices have shot up. If we start taxing oil companies over and above what we already do (40%!) why on earth would they invest more here, what incentive would there be? They have got us over a barrel until the Ukraine crisis ends and energy prices reduce.

Countries have always borrowed more in times of crisis. Haven't we only recently paid off the debt from ending the slave trade?

As an aside I've no idea why China hasn't been held to account for the massive costs of Covid that they initially lied about and allegedly leaked from a lab, accidentally or on purpose who knows. £100 billion would more than help towards the energy crisis.

The huge increase in energy prices means incredible profits for energy companies. Their costs have not increased. The price hike is caused purely by competition from Russia being restricted by the war. The term for that is war profiteering and the Tory's plan to save their profits put yet another huge bill on to future taxpayers with yet another huge loan. There was a time when the Tories didn't believe in magic money trees believing them to be a dastardly socialist invention no longer it would seem.

The mantra is to spend and no tax as Rishi Sunak quite aptly said the actions of the economically illiterate.

No real bump for Truss, or drop for Labour, since she came to power:

YouGov
Latest Westminster voting intention (6-7 Sep, first since Liz Truss became PM)

Con: 29% (+1 from 31 Aug-1 Sep)
Lab: 44% (+1)
Lib Dem: 10% (-1)
Green: 7% (+1)
Reform UK: 3% (=)
SNP: 5% (=)

I would like to see Lib Dem polling higher so they can be kingmakers and demand PR - but I suspect come to the election a lot of folks will be tactically voting against the Tories which is probably not reflected in a simple poll. Reform successor to UKIP will chip away on the Tory front as well. YouGov Zahawi's company lest we forget tends to favour Tories more often than not.

Electoral Calculus's current prediction is a Labour majority of 16.

www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html

The 'magic money trees ' were growing whilst the country was putting up with austerity measures to pay back the borrowing to bail out the banks
If the banks were to collapse again I dread to think what they will do :(
We will have austerity again I suppose in a few years time as well , it all feels so neverending
and depressing

@JaniieJones ”They have got us over a barrel until the Ukraine crisis ends”

This comment reminded me of the covid days. Believing it’ll be short term and we were all making sacrifices until the covid crisis ends.

Cost of living: What do Covid, war and drought have to do with my bills?

I read that headline “Covid, war and drought” and thought of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. Looks like we have 3 of 4. Eek 😬

It's a stick everything on the credit card and hopes that the interest rate doesn't go up from the introductory low offer and that you are using it to pay for the weekly groceries but the prospect of a brilliant job will turn up down the line enabling you to pay it off over say 20 years. Maggie will be turning in her grave. They should have no standing charges and a low rate say for the first 2000kw say so that the poorest will get the most protection.

Life hasn’t really been the same since the crash of 2007/2008.
It was pretty bad in 2008, lots of people lost their jobs. Labour were in government, I’m not blaming them on a global crash but things were hard back then.
Then Cameron came in and made 20% cuts across the public sector.
Lots of prison officers and police officers left with early redundancy.
It was very short sighted, just to save a few quid. The reality is it would probably cost alot more to get the numbers back up to what they were in pre 2008,than it was to cut the numbers in the first place.

@Sporty2022 ”Life hasn’t really been the same since the crash of 2007/2008.”

Agreed. That’s clear from the saving’s account interest rates. They haven’t gone back up really.

“It was very short sighted, just to save a few quid.”

But the nature of democracy and short terms in government is also short-sightedness. What helps HERE and NOW… to get in power and stay in power.

Arguably, China’s strength in not having a democracy is that their government has been working on a long-term strategy to become a world power.

Arguably, China’s strength in not having a democracy is that their government has been working on a long-term strategy to become a world power

This is a good point. There’s pros and cons of course but thinking in terms of decades rather than years is great for various issues.