Salazar was not the only dictator who held to that view: his next-door neighbour, Francisco Franco, clung on to the bitter end, partly through a similar mindset. No doubt there were others. The dictators knew they had power and could hold on to it. For Liz Truss, somehow elevated to the rank of Prime Minister, she cannot count on that certainty. So she looks delusional.
This was the impression given by her appearance on the BBC’s new Laura Kuenssberg show: the Corporation might have wished they could still call on the services of Andrew Marr, or perhaps Andrew Neil, but then, Ms Truss may well have bodyswerved both. The revelation that reinforced that impression was when she admitted that the cabinet had not been consulted, or even informed, of the decision to abolish the 45p income tax rate.
Liz Truss? Can I monetise that?
Which gave Ms Kuenssberg the opening she needed: “How many people voted for your plan”? It was a fair question: the mini budget goes against the manifesto on which the Tories won the last General Election. If she is going to change course so radically, she should be seeking her own mandate. But her apparently dictatorial leanings (plus her lack of popularity) mean she won’t.
It looked like she would cut public spending, for which she also has no mandate. This was covered with a fog of verbiage: “Truss sending pretty clear signal she will cut spending - tho she calls it ‘input' … I believe in outcomes … how does it feel for a patient? Quite often the debate focuses on the input…” noted Paul Waugh. She was asked to confirm or deny this.
Liz who?
He went further, as BBC economics editor Faisal Islam observed: “headlining a Budget on 45p shows ‘wrong values’ … And pressed on whether he would vote for such a Budget he answers ‘I don’t believe it’s right’”. Which sounds like an abstention at the very least. How many more Tory MPs will defy the whips and threats of deselection? Can she pass the budget measures?
And that is where the dictator’s delusion splashed across the front page of the Tel comes unstuck. Those who already held absolute power, and the ability to keep it that way for the foreseeable future, could call themselves indispensable. Another of what Robin Day memorably and rightly called “here today and gone tomorrow politicians” could not.
With as many as 70 Tory MPs ready to call for Ms Truss to go, either she changes tack or they remove her. Multiple opinion polls registering a Labour lead of 30% or more may have caused push to come to shove. The Telegraph front page may be the last straw. This week’s Tory conference could be very eventful indeed. As could its immediate aftermath.
The time of Liz Truss was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
34 comments:
The dangerous buffoon Bozo followed by the outright moron Cheese Truss. Preceded by Offshore Cameron and Hostile Environment May.
So the Cheese goes and some other spiv/spivette comes in to appease "the markets".
All while Britain continues to rob the poor to give to the rich.
Careful, Tim.
Extrapolating from the entropic progression curve plotted by the Tories' last four attempts at producing a prime minister, from Cameron to May to Johnson to Truss, it would seem obvious that their next attempt will involve a run-off between Francois, Fabricant, Williamson and Dorries.
Sorry, Tim. Forgot to add a final sentence in my 15.04 above:
'Of course, any of those four would be preferable as prime minister in 2024 to Starmer and his gang of etc etc etc and that is why we should all, in our different ways, work to ensure that, whichever of them is chosen, or even if honestly-sociopathic and totally but honestly incompetent and thieving Truss is still there, we are all able to wake up the day after election day 2024 and bask in the virtuous glow of another principled Labour defeat'.
Good point Bertie.
It might be that most political parties have had diminishing returns in their leaders (even i can't justify Ed Davey), but the Tories have been particularly bad.
There might be a play in that. Though I will be watching This England carefully for ideas.
16:37.
Too late, Silly Billy Bertie. Now you sound like far right tory Steve Baker and his "apology". Both of which are as "trustworthy" as the public record of Quisling "loyalty".
STILL 1 out of 10. Tsk tsk.
@Bertie
The Labour Right: “We hate you on the left so much we’re going to burn our party to the ground so we can stand on top of the ashes and now we’ve taken control again we’re going to purge whoever remains from the left of the party, oh and by the way, at the next general election make sure you vote for us. Now f*ck off”
Also the Labour right: "Oh, and the voting public can definitely trust us, it's not like we've ever lied or acted horrendously to win power"
Kamikwasi apparently feels “humility and contrition” after the tyre-screeching U-turn on the higher income tax rate. Is this another example of “I mis-spoke”, viz. he meant to say “acute embarrassment”?
Worry not. Everything will be "fine" after an unprincipled Labour "victory" at the next general election.
Ask the people of Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Aghanistan and Yugoslavia. Then ask the quarter of our population in poverty, NHS staff affected by Milburn's privatisation "concordat", the homeless, Hillsborough families ignored by Bliar/Brown/Straw, and other victims of the 2008 Greatest Depression.
Yeah, government by red tory Starmer/Reeves Quislings and their apologists. That'll solve everything.
Not.
Gulliver, you're still kidding yourself that in 15 months or so you will be able to avoid choosing between Labour and the Tories, one or other of which will win. That's the way of the UK political world, flawed though it is. And when the results come in you will be to some extent pleased, relieved, disappointed, annoyed or whatever.
There IS a difference between the parties, though to recognise it might require a little more subtlety and nuance than Old Infantile Disorder* is capable of, But then, some people will claim that there's no real difference between having your face slapped and having a 4lb club hammer applied to your cranium as 'they're both head-centred physical assaults'.
Politics is 'a rough old game' with a high percentage of ruthless and unprincipled bastards playing but it's naive to imagine that it is ever likely to be anything else. O.I.D's* refusal to engage with it or to make a choice seems to me to be simply self-indulgent, narcissistic onanism.
(Or/and an opportunity to daily siphon off a quantity of his/her surplus resentment and bile).
* V.I.Lenin
Old tankie Anonymous will tell you that there's no difference between the parties but then some people think that there's no difference between Bach and
Part 4 of the Al Jazeera exposé The Labour Files:
https://youtu.be/db-Gpmfajp8
Demonstrating again that red tory Starmer Quislings are at least morally corrupt, if not actually criminally corrupt. Beneath contempt.
13:39.
"Nuance" the replacement for appeasement. The waving of a white flag/piece of paper all over again. A weasel word suitable only for weasel Quislings.
But here's how courageous people deal with such cowardice:
https://youtu.be/FdP8ki9RMOk
The next general election will be nothing more than a "choice" between thieves, blue and red. That's how deep Britain has sunk into a political sewer.
They may be unprincipled M25 cesspit morally and criminally corrupt red tory Starmer/Reeves Quiffed Quisling meff running dogs of capitalism, Anonymous, but al least they're *our* unprincipled M25 cesspit morally and criminally corrupt red tory Starmer/Reeves Quiffed Quisling meff running dogs of capitalism. Innit.
(Though not *yours* obvs).
......... Bachman Turner Overdrive.
2 straight questions, Anonymous 13.39.
Assuming you're over 18, you'll have the ability to vote in the GE in 2023 or 2024.
1.How will you vote?
2.If you lived, like me, in a Tory/Lib Dem marginal where the incumbent's majority is in the low thousands and you know that to abstain will help the Etonian Tory (who has previously fought a racist campaign) retain/regain their seat; to vote Labour will help split the anti-Tory vote and assist the Tory; and to vote Lib Dem will go against your beliefs but help keep the Tory out and the chance of a Tory election victory diminished, what would you do, knowing that whatever you do will make you partially responsible for the local and national outcome?
No diatribes, please. Explain to us your choice and its reasoning, showing some recognition of the consequences of your (admittedly very limited) choice.
(The election is a fact, so please don't posit alternative and unrealistic realities, no matter how attractive).
@Bertie
Following Iraq and then when MilliBalls were offering austerity but just a tad less intense that CamerBorne, I managed to avoid voting Labour or Tory, pretty sure I can do so again.
Politics is transactional, the Conservatives understand that, when Labour give me a reason to vote for them I might reconsider but so long as their default position towards people like me is "F*ck you", then they can do likewise.
But I'm sure they can win without me, just look at all those Tory donors falling over themselves to give them money. I'm sure they don't want anything in return and if they do I'm equally sure it will align with what's good for the rest of us.........
22:48.
Assuming you're under 75:
1. How I vote is none of your business.
2. Where you live or vote is your business, not mine. An irrelevance.
3. Just for starters, Britain needs to become a democracy. Which it isn't and never will be at the current rate. It is a nation in headlong inflicted decline toward the far right, and has been since 1979. It is now a de facto one party capitalist state like the USA, an obvious client of the latter. The country may even cease to exist if nationalist factions have their way. It is equally obvious where all this is headed, at least to those with the ability and wish to see.
The time for mealy-mouthed wishful thinking and pathetic hand-wringing is long past. But I don't expect a tin drummer like you to understand that.
@Bertie
Just so we’re clear here, I WANT to be able to vote for the Labour party, when they offered a transformational agenda that could have benefited most of the people of this country I was more than happy voting for them in 2017 and 2019, but then most of the PLP and the Labour right decided this was beyond the pale and scuppered the party to the detriment of all those people who would have benefited from “that” Labour government.
The question I ask myself now is, could “this” Labour party offer the same transformational agenda and I think we all know the answer to that question, and it’s linked to the reason multi-millionaire Tories are prepared to donate money to them.
It is good that the Tory’s are now on the ropes, but let’s not delude ourselves that it’s because of the big brain geniuses in Labour or anything they're offering the electorate. It’s largely because the press (particularly the Murdoch press) have decided to tell their readers the truth for a change (and this will continue for so long as it suits them, not us). We saw that once they decided to eventually report all the stuff they knew about de Pfeffel his ratings tanked, they haven’t even given Mary a honeymoon before laying into her (not Rupert’s chosen one you see). Except for Beergate (and I’ll come onto that), Starmer has had the easiest ride any Labour leader has had in at least 15 years. But Beergate is a lesson Starmer hasn’t taken on board, it took just one newspaper about 10 days of relentlessly adverse headlines to get Durham Police to re-open their inquiry into his curry night, and although he was cleared (again) the sort of concerted attack his predecessor endured for years will do for Starmer in a few weeks (maybe the weeks running up to an election?).
Final though, in the 2010’s the SNP, Conservatives and Labour dramatically increased their memberships, the SNP and the Tory’s used this as a springboard to secure their dominance, Labour decided it would be a grand idea to accuse their new members of being Trots, Tankies, Racists etc, and here we all are…..
10:12.
If current corruption continues I doubt there will be a "concerted attack" on Starmer and co. Maybe a warning "scandal" or two, but that's all - rememember the timing of the "expenses scandal" (which was known for many years previously) just prior to an election?
Starmer is an acceptable stand-by if the tories can't sort out their most recent mess. That's his function and that's what he's happy to settle for. Expect nothing more.
Thanks, Gulliver. I agree with pretty much all you say but the difference is that I don't think there's much we can do about it. ( I see Andrew Murray has just published 'Is Socialism Possible in Britain?: Reflections on the Corbyn Years'. Might be worth a read.)
My focus, as a cynic/disillusioned idealist, is on limiting the damage the Tories have done, are doing and will continue to do. If that requires strategically forgetting many aspects of Labour's actions then so be it. What's the alternative currently?
Anonymous....Your response was as evasive and graceless as expected. You seem to live in an alternative universe where 'becoming a democracy' is offered as a plausible suggestion before deigning to vote can even be considered.
Unless, of course, that was a joke. Most bitter and twisted, malevolent ranters have some kind of saving grace; often it's humour. No sign of that with you unfortunately.
And then there's this:
https://www.medialens.org/2022/mass-media-omerta-burying-al-jazeeras-the-labour-files/
Evidence of media corruption.
And this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/un-report-uk-poverty-austerity-government-cuts-special-rapporteur-benefits-callous-a8636901.html
@ Bertie,
A quote often attributed to Einstein goes “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
I think we can describe the UK as being, at best, a very well managed democracy and Labour have now been brought back into the “acceptable” level of political thought. There will be no meaningful improvement in any of the things that matter, the people now back in control of Labour are the same people that brought you Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary, David Blunkett as Home Secretary, further deregulation of financial dealings, more privatisation, PFI and “Control Immigration” coffee mugs. If you don’t believe me then I refer you to Rachel Reeves latest utterings.
Voting Labour will lock-in the damage already done by the Conservatives, nothing will get meaningfully reversed, anything decent they do enact will be easily retracted when the Conservatives next win power (see Sure Start) because Labour will not use whatever power they gain to make the structural changes necessary to make them long term (which is why Tory millionaires are now happy to donate money to them). The privatised utilities will not be brought back into public ownership, there will be no PR and Union laws will stay as draconian as they have been since the 1980’s.
You imply that not voting Labour (even while holding your nose) would be a wasted vote, I put it to you that voting for “this” labour party is wasting your vote.
When I voted tactically to keep the Conservatives out in 2010 we ended up with a Tory/LibDem coalition, when the genius’s of the second referendum campaign told us to vote Lib Dem 2019 we ended up with a massive Tory majority so I will, as I have done for some time now, vote for the party that aligns most closely with my views and aspirations, this is democracy isn’t it?
14:32.
Sigh. An even Sillier Billy Bertie.
This increasingly desperate red tory trolling of yours is tipping you over the edge. Ignoring EVIDENCE is a clear sign of agreement with internal sabotage. Which by implication makes you as guilty as the racist saboteurs who put blue tory thieves into Downing Street. Sadly for you, that's what you will see every time you look in a mirror.
Thus the inevitable fate of all internet trolls. An object lesson.
Tsk tsk.
And this:
https://truthdefence.org/labour-has-been-exposed-as-racist-corrupt-and-criminal-where-are-the-headlines/
And that George Soros has something to answer for:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/leaked-labour-report-should-have-been-explosive-scandal/
Did you know the Quiff Quisling drinks in the Pineapple in Kentish Town - a boozer so bourgeois that they have a regular feature called 'cheese Thursday'? As bad as it sounds.
It's a good job Violet Elizabeth Truss doesn't know about this disgraceful traitorous sell-out......
Every now and then the Graun has to let one through to prove it is "liberal". Or something.
Here's an absolute beaut: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/05/rightwing-thinktanks-government-bbc-news-programmes
Again, Gulliver, I agree with most of what you say. It's pretty much what I've been arguing for years. Blair's great failure among many (apart from falling in love with Bush and pledging to follow him anywhere) was in not using his majority to educate the electorate into seeing the link between taxes and services and recognising that 'tax cuts' are no such thing and the ideology which obsesses about them is merely the rationalisation of self-interest. Anyone who expected socialism from Blair must have been an idiot, but he could have made some attempt to position Labour as a solidly European social democratic party.
I'm not quite sure what your last 2 lines mean as it rather depends on what parties (or individuals) are standing in your constituency.
As I say, my expectations of any of them is low; but one look at Braverman, Patel, Kwarteng, Truss, Philp, Coffey and the rest of the scumbags tells me all I need to know about which way to vote next GE.
Btw, any idea what drinking in a 'bourgeois pub' has got to do with anything? Or are we still living in the times when drinking and eating anything other Red Barrel and a Steak and Kidney pie was considered 'posh'.
And, Anonymous. For God's sake get off that laptop and Youtube and get yourself some fresh air. Getting socialism in this country in your lifetime just isn't going to happen. Find some accommodation with reality. It'll make you happier and it might even make you less of a tedious arse.
@Bertie,
To clarify my last paragraph, don’t vote to keep somebody else out (The Conservatives) or to enact a very narrow policy (voting LibDem to get a 2nd Referendum). The last 10 years have shown this ends badly.
17:35.
A "bourgeois pub" is an ale house frequented by lower middle class Quisling Labour types like Starmer/Reeves and other political chancers.....especially on "Cheese Thursdays", and when planning far right racist sabotage of election prospects. You know, like your local ale house.
Only here to help.
Thanks, Gulliver.
But having looked at the Labour nominations for 'ennoblement' today, I can see I'm going to need an even bigger peg.*
*( As 'Wills' said to Rose Hanbury.....allegedly)
How U of you, Anonymous!
Who'd ever have thought that the Tedious Arse spent his leisure time absorbing the edicts of Alan S C Ross and Nancy Mitford?
Still, after hours and hours of John Strachey it must come as a welcome contrast.
20:48.
Yeah, yeah.
Now... about Labour Party corruption and its far right racist treachery and criminality...y'know, CONTEMPORARY ISSUES....
Hello?....Hello?....
Interesting points in Momentum man Michael Chessum's Observer article today.
Thinks a break from Labour is inevitable but thinks PR is necessary for this to work. (Paradox? Contradiction?)
Worth a read. Ends ominously with this:
'the crucial issue is not how we can take over the Labour party, but how we can end it.'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/09/labour-riding-high-but-left-will-never-thrive-within-its-ranks-it-has-to-go-its-own-way
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