A week is a long time in politics
Updated: Apr 17
They say a week is a long time in politics.
Surely nothing can epitomise that more than MPs returning from summer recess on Monday 5 September and by the Friday there was a new prime minister, cabinet, and even a new Monarch, too.
Liz Truss has been known for that speech about cheese and for her u-turn from Remainer to staunch Brexiteer, but nothing will go down in history more than the bleakest mini-budget delivered by her chancellor. A budget for the super-rich. A budget that crashed the economy. A budget for Tory donors.
Now even at the time of writing this, the placeholder Prime Minister looks set to become a pub quiz answer alongside Kwasi Kwartang (I suppose we can be thankful it’s a pub quiz and not a zoom quiz) having sacked him, favouring Jeremy Hunt instead. The fourth Tory Chancellor in four months.
The man who has ripped up Truss-enomics mere hours after his appointment. Most of what he’s torn to shreds we can be content with, but his watering down of energy support in nothing short of a disgrace.
Austerity 2.0 is set to be bleaker than I dared to imagine a few short months ago.
These first few weeks of Truss’ government have shown her slogans spouted during the leadership contest are not empty meaningless words. She blamed workers unable to pay their bills for a lack of ‘graft’ and now the Prime Minister is dead set on pursuing her anti-trade union bill. One that takes an axe to hard-won workers’ rights. Not only that, but the reckless mini-budget has led to the value of the pound falling to a record low while interest rates are sky high – meaning it is now near impossible for people to re-mortgage their homes or buy their first property.
I feel uncomfortable calling for anyone to resign, but when it comes to a prime minister who has committed such swift and catastrophic damage to the lives and livelihoods of my constituents, it really is time for Liz Truss to find the door.