I have been revisiting the excellent Anthony Seldon’s Truss at 10. It is about the crazy, calamitous, and thankfully, short lived premiership Liz Truss. It was really something to live through. The other night on Have I Got News For You a former aide to Boris Johnson (do some people have no shame?) was ranting about how all Labour government’s run out of money. She was looking quite happy with herself having scored a clear political point. It lasted about 3 seconds until Ian Hislop said the two magic words ‘Liz Truss’ and all the smugness disappeared in a heartbeat.
It really is a killer argument against the Conservative at the moment. An argument that they have no answer to because, well, there isn’t an answer. Until they can come up with an answer they’ll never be trusted with the economy again.
At the moment the Conservatives are congratulating themselves on their new economic plan. They have suddenly found £70 billion pounds of savings that they can use for tax cuts for the rich. They argue that Labour is incapable of doing anything and only the Conservatives can be trusted with the economy. To which there are two legitimate arguments:
- How come they have just found this magical £70 billion. Why didn’t they do so when they were last in government only two years ago?
And
- Liz Truss. How can a party that cheered her on whilst she almost crashed the economy now be trusted to run the economy? Pretending the last 14 years of Tory rule never happened isn’t good enough.
Strangely enough the British 2024 General Election seems to be recurring in the United States of America where, if the polls are right, then something unusual is about to happen. Many safe Republican districts and Senate seats are swinging towards the Democrats. (Sounds familiar) As they get closer to election day it looks more and more like the Republican Party is going to experience their own Conservative melt down. If this happens then goodness only knows what will happen in the White House. At least the Conservatives in Britain quickly got rid of Truss but the damage was done. Will the people around President Trump do the same? I haven’t got the first clue but if they don’t then the Republicans could be facing a generational shift in their fortunes.
A word of caution. First I am watching things from afar and only have my own shallow social media pond to guide me. Second, trying to predict something that will happen in another country based on what happened in your own is a fools game. But here I am playing it nonetheless.
If any American were to read this they could rightly tell me to keep my nose out their elections and that would be fair. It is just that we have been through this and if the collapse does happen I am not sure anyone on the other side of the Atlantic, or whatever President Trump thinks it might be called, has really woken up to what it means.
It certainly won’t be business as usual.
