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[Lidku]

I wanted to make a thread that focuses specifically on the UK, especially with the ongoing crisis on whatever its new Prime Minister Liz Truss is doing the economy right now.

The Armchair Economics Thread in particular seems to not like to discuss politics (from what I saw), so making a dedicated thread that allows for economic AND political discussion for this UK-specific developing event would be optimal, in my opinion. Hopefully this thread concept doesn't flop.

[EuchreJack]

Thanks for making the thread!
I feel like the torch has been passed.

[hector13]

Conservatives, min. They know how to make it work for everyone*.

*… who makes upwards of seven figures a year.

[Great Order]

Yeah, the SS Brexit seems to have pulled in to port. The whole project was fucking stupid in the first place, but now we're seeing the end result of what happens when you make a stupid decision and let it be run by complete inbred populists. The smartest guy (ie Cameron, though I hate to say it) in the Conservative party left. May picked up the torch only to be stabbed in the back by a combination of hard brexiters, remainers, and people who just didn't like her THEN she stabbed herself in the back by calling an early GE, then Johnson came in and, knowing he wasn't that good, torched the Conservative party so anyone who could do a better job than him was no longer there. Once the UK got fed up of the Funny Man (Seriously, we elected him because he was a "character". How about people who know what they're fucking doing?) and realised that shoving a clown into a position of power is a bad idea, he got the boot. Then came Truss, who promised everyone in the party loads of money, everyone said "That's unworkable and she'll cause economic ruin" and the membership went "No it won't". She got in and, what do you know, economic ruin.

Where's Chaos With Ed Miliband when you need it?

[Lidku]

If that Rishi Sunak was chosen by the Tories, instead of this Liz Truss woman, would this sudden economic blowout be completely avoided?

Also, does anyone else think that Sunak man was not chosen because of his Indian descent? I could be totally wrong, as I only have a surface knowledge of UK politics at the moment... but I just have a gut feeling that could be the case of why he was not chosen..

[Great Order]

Sunak wasn't exactly great, but he was a darnsight better than Truss. His ideas actually had a degree of forethought, Truss's forethought was "I think tax cuts are good, QED they are"

I've heard other people say that being non-white might have influenced it, but if I'm honest I suspect the biggest issue he had was he was actually somewhat grounded in reality. Rather than Truss's "I'll give you tax cuts and it'll work" his was "I'll do what I can", and the Tory membership are apparently mind-numbingly stupid because they went with Truss's blatant lies despite everyone telling them it was stupid (Oh hey, that sounds like something that happened 6 years ago...)

[hector13]

Truss was playing to the peanut gallery, Sunak appeared to want to actually fix the problem at hand.

[EuchreJack]

...yeah, it was a good thing that this discussion moved out of the Economic Armchair thread. 

[Great Order]

I am, it should be noted, incredibly pissed off at the situation. I'd be less so if Truss wasn't so goddamn pigheaded and went "You know what guys, you're right, I fucked up"

Instead my future gets tossed away by an undemocratic mandate chosen by absolute braindead morons.

[hector13]

The case for independence!

I jest. Mostly. Maybe. A little.

[Lidku]

Will the other parties in the UK call for a special election of somesort to remove her from power? It seems her policies right out the gate, are doing a lot of blisters to the UK right now.

[hector13]

She can only be removed by a vote of no confidence, either in parliament, or by her own party, neither of which are likely to succeed.

I can’t remember when the next election is, I think 2024?

[Great Order]

Will the other parties in the UK call for a special election of somesort to remove her from power? It seems her policies right out the gate, are doing a lot of blisters to the UK right now.

They can. It won't do anything though, only Truss can call a GE and all parliament can do is boot her out and elect another PM. Granted, she might get booted given the polling.

[Starver]

(Yet another reason to dismiss the idea of Elected Head Of State idea. Whether directly/college-'elected' or appointed by the PM, depending upon which country you want to emulate, I think it shows that the ultimate Sortition method of 'accident of birth' (with fallback options) turned out better than than many of those put into power by electorate/selectorate/general political repositioning.)


I think there are already rumblings within the Tory party about (despite convention/1922 rules) deposing her, but hard to tell how much of that is "the srong person won" before considerations about what she and the quasi-chancellor just did (or did not!) do. There are also Labour calls to recall parliament to 'deal with things' (it's being Party Conference season, Labour having had theirs, Conservatives probably still trying to work out who has sent back RSVPs in a negative manner, not sure when and where LibDems/ScotNats/Plaid/others will (or have had) their get-togethers. I suspect that there could be enough Tory rebel-rebels to tip the balance, right now, if there was a Commons vote of no-confidence and nobody much more than the DUP[1] balked at it for ideological reasons. This doesn't spark an Election, though ((ninjaed!)), probably just roll up a new grudge-match amongst a new set of Tory leadership challengers, assuming party-defections and/or semi-voluntary by-elections don't tip the balance of power to a different party.


My take on the financial issue is that it was a "go fast and break things" philosophy, being applied to put a stamp on the new top-table/front-bench pairing's ascendance and rapidly reshape the financial landscape. Perhaps the upper level tax breaks were supposed to help gain sympathies from those with direct (as opposed to trickled-down-upon) interest in the movement of money. It might even be going 'to plan', but only if the plan is a lot more radical than I'd believe could be intended. Like to raise exports, of anything we still can actually export, at the expense of basically everything else.

It's not looking brilliant, though, in either execution or justification. Moody's looked like it was going to downrate the nation by a notch or two, last time I heard, which certainly won't help.


[1] I think they're still supporting the Tories, not yet been significantly put off by something that offends them. Like any vestige of human decency.

[Great Order]

An MP's warned that the triple-lock might be up for axing.

Which would bring the government into "Piss literally everyone off" territory. Lower, middle and upper classes all hacked off, then start chopping your base at the knees too.