Current Affairs The Conservative Party
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Abertonian
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They've been infighting for at least 30 odd years, the one thing we can guarantee is the plotting will continue. Expect the ERG to start being as obstructive as they were under May once Lord haw haw and Steve Baker are dispatched to the backbenches
It's not a tactic labour ever chose to employ
Anyone who’s confident that the tories will get wiped out next election should look at the Twitter replies whenever Gary Lineker tweets anything even remotely left wing and political.
Make no mistake, British right wingers are just as deranged as the hardcore MAGA bunch
Make no mistake, British right wingers are just as deranged as the hardcore MAGA bunch
Don't use Twitter as an indication for anything mate - especially on politics.
Labour would piss an election if it was called now.
Oh I agree completely mate. Issue is the public and media have short memories, and my worry is whether they’ll remember all of this come 2024
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
If it was called now, which is why it won’t be…..
NeroCeasar
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I normally just read and don't post in the British political threads because fundamentally it's more fun that way, but I thought this was an interesting and most likely correct take of how things have come to this point. It's from an Irish website called The Currency
Good morning,
It would be easy to dismiss the political chaos in the UK in recent days as the logical outcome of a hapless prime minister implementing reckless economic policies. And yes, Liz Truss was indeed hapless, and her economic policies were utterly reckless.
But the staggering rise and fall of Liz Truss highlights a deeper and more dangerous malfunction within Britain. Quite simply, our nearest neighbour has no idea of where it stands in the world, or what its own political economy should look like.
The nation, as manifested by its policymakers, is confused, divided, and increasingly alienated.
I take no pleasure in writing those words. It was just over a decade ago when the UK lent Ireland €3.8 billion as part of the €85 billion bailout.
Since those dark days, Ireland has dusted itself down and rebuilt both its economy and its sense of self. The painful austerity of the troika years could well have provoked anger with the technocrats in Brussels and Frankfurt who demanded cuts to spending and increases in taxation. Instead, close to nine years after Ireland exited the bailout and regained its economic sovereignty, our relationship with Europe has never been stronger.
The economic model that has underpinned Ireland's recovery – seducing multinationals and foreign direct investment – is not without its risks. The fact that so much of our taxation comes from so few companies is clearly a massive threat, something Irish policymakers readily admit.
But it is an economic model that has widespread political buy-in. Sinn Fein might want to do a lot of things in government, but one thing the party would dare not touch is Ireland's corporation tax regime.
In the decade since it helped Ireland in its time of need, the UK has become a more divided nation. The Brexit vote was an obvious expression of that division.
A duped public bought into the idea that Europe was killing the British economy with its nonsense regulations and rules.
As events have since shown, Britain's access to the European market was masking a growing productivity and growth crisis in the UK. Without easy access to its neighbours, this crisis was exposed and became more pronounced.
Suddenly, Britain found itself politically isolated, and with no clear idea of what its economic model should be.
Theresa May was too busy trying (and failing) to cut a deal with Europe that was acceptable to her party to worry about a growth strategy for the economy.
Boris Johnson had 'levelling up', a mission to give people and communities that feel they were left behind a chance to catch up. However, the nonsense that enveloped his premiership meant he was always unlikely to hang around long enough to turn the rhetoric into something close to reality.
Liz Truss replaced him on a platform of growth at all costs and an end to what she blithely dismissed as "abacus economics". The trouble, however, is that most people like the books to add up, particularly the financial markets you are asking to borrow money from.
It's hard to fault Truss's diagnosis: chronically low growth is, clearly, Britain's most pressing problem. The issue was with her solutions.
Truss and Kwarteng argued that lowering taxes, particularly on high owners, would ignite the economy. But the UK's income and corporation taxes are not exceptionally high. The idea that tax cuts ignite the economy fell out of favour thirty years ago.
Fixing the UK economy is a bigger job. It requires a long-term structural approach to redesigning the economy (particular in the north of England) as opposed to unfunded and uncosted tax cuts and spending hikes.
It is worth noting that Ireland needs to start thinking about its long-term structural approach for when the multinational money ends. Stephen suggested last week that we should use some of the multinational loot to create a new economic model around offshore wind, and there is certainly merit in ensuring we are buffered into the future.
But it is easier to have that conversation when your economy is growing, and you have money in the bank.
Britain, however, is heading into a recession. The UK government has pushed the blame on the pandemic, inflation, and global political instability. All are factors, but the core reason is Brexit.
Research published by the ESRI last week showed that Brexit reduced UK trade with the EU by between 15 and 20 per cent. Inflation and Covid just made a bad situation even worse.
Fixing the problems caused by Brexit requires first acknowledging the problems caused by Brexit, and that's something the Conservatives can never do.
The Conservatives can't admit Britain's success since the 1980s was built on openness and trade with Europe. They can't admit that the UK's most important sector was service exports — the sector they threw under the bus in Brexit negotiations.
As John Looby put it last week: "Politics matters. Politicians matter. Voting decisions matter. The tribal indulgence of Brexit is progressively impoverishing those who voted for it. Maybe they're surprised; maybe they're not."
In the days after Ireland's recent budget, I asked Paschal Donohoe about the bubbling financial crisis in the UK as a result of Kwasi Kwarteng's mini budget. His response was to the point: "The events of the last number of months have reminded me very, very strongly of the shield that is the euro, and how important our membership of the euro area is."
The UK is unlikely to join the euro. But hopefully, it can rebuild its relationship with the European Union.
The country needs to start facing some difficult, hard truth, as opposed to looking for silver bullets.
Good morning,
It would be easy to dismiss the political chaos in the UK in recent days as the logical outcome of a hapless prime minister implementing reckless economic policies. And yes, Liz Truss was indeed hapless, and her economic policies were utterly reckless.
But the staggering rise and fall of Liz Truss highlights a deeper and more dangerous malfunction within Britain. Quite simply, our nearest neighbour has no idea of where it stands in the world, or what its own political economy should look like.
The nation, as manifested by its policymakers, is confused, divided, and increasingly alienated.
I take no pleasure in writing those words. It was just over a decade ago when the UK lent Ireland €3.8 billion as part of the €85 billion bailout.
Since those dark days, Ireland has dusted itself down and rebuilt both its economy and its sense of self. The painful austerity of the troika years could well have provoked anger with the technocrats in Brussels and Frankfurt who demanded cuts to spending and increases in taxation. Instead, close to nine years after Ireland exited the bailout and regained its economic sovereignty, our relationship with Europe has never been stronger.
The economic model that has underpinned Ireland's recovery – seducing multinationals and foreign direct investment – is not without its risks. The fact that so much of our taxation comes from so few companies is clearly a massive threat, something Irish policymakers readily admit.
But it is an economic model that has widespread political buy-in. Sinn Fein might want to do a lot of things in government, but one thing the party would dare not touch is Ireland's corporation tax regime.
In the decade since it helped Ireland in its time of need, the UK has become a more divided nation. The Brexit vote was an obvious expression of that division.
A duped public bought into the idea that Europe was killing the British economy with its nonsense regulations and rules.
As events have since shown, Britain's access to the European market was masking a growing productivity and growth crisis in the UK. Without easy access to its neighbours, this crisis was exposed and became more pronounced.
Suddenly, Britain found itself politically isolated, and with no clear idea of what its economic model should be.
Theresa May was too busy trying (and failing) to cut a deal with Europe that was acceptable to her party to worry about a growth strategy for the economy.
Boris Johnson had 'levelling up', a mission to give people and communities that feel they were left behind a chance to catch up. However, the nonsense that enveloped his premiership meant he was always unlikely to hang around long enough to turn the rhetoric into something close to reality.
Liz Truss replaced him on a platform of growth at all costs and an end to what she blithely dismissed as "abacus economics". The trouble, however, is that most people like the books to add up, particularly the financial markets you are asking to borrow money from.
It's hard to fault Truss's diagnosis: chronically low growth is, clearly, Britain's most pressing problem. The issue was with her solutions.
Truss and Kwarteng argued that lowering taxes, particularly on high owners, would ignite the economy. But the UK's income and corporation taxes are not exceptionally high. The idea that tax cuts ignite the economy fell out of favour thirty years ago.
Fixing the UK economy is a bigger job. It requires a long-term structural approach to redesigning the economy (particular in the north of England) as opposed to unfunded and uncosted tax cuts and spending hikes.
It is worth noting that Ireland needs to start thinking about its long-term structural approach for when the multinational money ends. Stephen suggested last week that we should use some of the multinational loot to create a new economic model around offshore wind, and there is certainly merit in ensuring we are buffered into the future.
But it is easier to have that conversation when your economy is growing, and you have money in the bank.
Britain, however, is heading into a recession. The UK government has pushed the blame on the pandemic, inflation, and global political instability. All are factors, but the core reason is Brexit.
Research published by the ESRI last week showed that Brexit reduced UK trade with the EU by between 15 and 20 per cent. Inflation and Covid just made a bad situation even worse.
Fixing the problems caused by Brexit requires first acknowledging the problems caused by Brexit, and that's something the Conservatives can never do.
The Conservatives can't admit Britain's success since the 1980s was built on openness and trade with Europe. They can't admit that the UK's most important sector was service exports — the sector they threw under the bus in Brexit negotiations.
As John Looby put it last week: "Politics matters. Politicians matter. Voting decisions matter. The tribal indulgence of Brexit is progressively impoverishing those who voted for it. Maybe they're surprised; maybe they're not."
In the days after Ireland's recent budget, I asked Paschal Donohoe about the bubbling financial crisis in the UK as a result of Kwasi Kwarteng's mini budget. His response was to the point: "The events of the last number of months have reminded me very, very strongly of the shield that is the euro, and how important our membership of the euro area is."
The UK is unlikely to join the euro. But hopefully, it can rebuild its relationship with the European Union.
The country needs to start facing some difficult, hard truth, as opposed to looking for silver bullets.
Preventing the will of the people will really hurt them long term. There's an argument to allow the GE hammering to happen, to give Labour a few inevitable bad years so at least they're competitive again in the foreseeable future.
Rishi Sunak isn't even wanted by their own members.
They're a mob. A lot of them should be facing criminal convictions - covid procurement scandals was tip of the iceberg.
Sunak new PM
No surprise
No surprise
Isn’t democracy fun?
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