Oh will you look at that! A government u-turn!

[tenbob]

AIBU to think this government is now totally dead in the water..?

Wonder what all the Truss handmaidens tying themselves in knots to defend the tax cut will say now..?

I think part of the problem is that Liz Truss has made so many U turns already!! Andrew Neill listed all the U turns she’d made (during the leadership election, so even before she became PM) and it was kind of funny but also embarrassing - and obviously it paints her in such a bad light.

And that's partly on her team as much as her. The Tories absolutely did wrong giving her the leadership though she's making May and Johnson seem like good leaders

I believe there is a way of landing a kamik(W)aze upon the pensions infrastructure which will send the triple lock floating down the river as a logical consequence. In that sense, they would do away with it and evade responsibility.

The government has a conundrum.
All people need a buffer from the energy crisis.
However certain public spending only benefits a smaller percentage. Usually with zero ROI.

It's the lesser of two evils problem.

The problems on 1976 seem from Barbours 1973 "boom" budget so not quite the gotcha.

This. Honestly so sick of ideology before basic economic knowledge.

Depth of feeling means sod all. They have a huge majority, and this is a political decision not an admission of fault.

Unfortunately.

At this point it's far more likely than not that tories will replace her well before the next election. They're addicted to regicide anyway but now you couldn't blame them.

Alexandra2001
Not in Govt in 2019, its irrelevant

It is relevant - Keir Starmer posted this news item on his Facebook page 23 November 2019;

Labour pledges £58bn for women caught in pension trap

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/23/labour-fifty-eight-billion-pound-pledge-women-pension-age-trap

Hmm, no it wasn't. Better read some actual history books, mate.

The fundamental problem with this U-turn is that it was ONLY needed because they failed to listen before the decision was made

They bypassed all the usual systems for sanity-checking - the OBR, leaking to the press, party sounding boards

They pressed ahead because of total arrogance that they knew better than everyone
Even when the markets went ballistic, they STILL claimed they knew better than everyone. This wasn’t the market reacting to a terrible budget, it was ‘city boys’ being petulant etc

There is nothing wrong with a u-turn when circumstances change or an honest mistake has been made

But there is a lot wrong with bad decision making followed up by gas lighting followed by weasel word climb downs that don’t actually apologise for the monumental cock up

it would never be tolerated in the corporate world, either

They only have a huge majority until incredibly pissed off MPs start defecting…

Or MPs reading the mood of their incredibly angry constituents and wanting to be re-elected start defecting

Not a dumb question at all. The issue related to the volume of this long-dated gilts owned by pension funds and because gilt yields were rising / prices falling this was causing issues for the pension funds that were engaged in liability driven investment (a way of protecting themselves against interest rate and inflation changes particularly relevant to final salary schemes). It doesn't matter who the BoE bought the gilts from as long as the effect was to stabilise the price and stop it falling any further / stop yields rising. Purchasers would normally be pension funds, insurance companies etc. especially where they may have longer term liabilities and so want long dated debt.

Governments issue debt instruments all the time and they are traded on the markets.

I was talking about Sunak not Boris.

Boris is hopefully toast. Tory party was dead before Truss took the reigns. She’s just dealing the finishing blows.

I have thank you. Mate.

I also lived through it. Mate.

Barber 1972. Mate.

SleeplessInEngland · Today 07:34
Kawteng confirming it on Twitter now (Truss obviously wants him to take the blame). And it only cost the BoE £65 billion in the meantime. These fucking people.“

indeed. Reprehensible.

Or where you replying to @BoxcarMilly ?

PM Truss was never really a Tory. She was a Lib-Dem sleeper agent sent to destroy the Tory party.

Mission accomplished🧨🧨🧨😄

They are tanking the economy on purpose, get the pound under the dollar and when they sell the NHS because it's simply unsustainable with NO money they can 'give' it away to US company's for a pittance. Then Truss will be fired and find herself a cushy job on the board, or advising for these very same US firms.

Shepandawing · Today 07:44
People complained bitterly about a policy, the policy is changed after the government listened, People complain bitterly still 🙈“

it has cost us all billions and resulted in people’s mortgage offers being withdrawn or being reissued at higher interest rates.
do you not understand that?

TBH, I'd rather have one who listened to experts on the economy, who weighed up the pros and cons and considered the social as well as the economic effects of any decisions, who thought carefully about what needed to be done and both the long- and short-term repercussions of any actions, and who made sure that everything was carefully costed and justified, rather than one who gave the task to an arrogant idiot who didn't even have the sense to consult people who knew what they were talking about before just picking numbers out of the air without any rhyme or reason except to penalise the poor to the benefit of the rich (not to mention socialising with individuals shortly before the mini-budget, who then by sheer coincidence did a bit of trading which netted them millions).

If you wouldn't rather have a thoughtful and intelligent leader sensitive to the needs of the population and the economy, and prepared to listen to people with expertise in the relevant areas, then there is something wrong with your thinking.

@Emotionalsupportviper excellently put. I totally agree with you

I wouldn't be at all surprised if you are right.

They can't wait to sell off at least the profitable areas of the NHS. Then quietly dump the rest . . .

Not the main point but did anyone notice how KK’s glasses were on so wonky on the BBC today? One arm of the glasses was like 2 inches above his ear so the glasses were diagonal across his face. It really gave the impression of shambles. Made me feel a bit sorry for him tbh, someone should have told him.

there is a lot wrong with bad decision making followed up by gas lighting followed by weasel word climb downs that don’t actually apologise for the monumental cock up

Yep.