Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2022 10:03:09 GMT
Really, Polly Toynbee?: "The evil potion of the great Brexit lie, imbued with wartime myths of British exceptionalism, that wildly misled so many is now wearing off."
(Excerpts from Polly Toynbee's article in the Guardian.)
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/20/truss-gone-tory-kwarteng
Truss is gone. The ideological hobgoblins she brought in and others of her fraternity turned on her. It’s not been “take back control” but out of control. Even two more years of this Tory disaster is unthinkable. Whether it’s tax cuts splurging on the rich, or the return by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to thumb-screw austerity, the country can’t take either option. Nor will markets be much soothed as long as the party that enabled all this and drove us over the Brexit cliff remains in charge of our weakening economy.
Look at where it has taken us: Cameron and Osborne’s cuts at a time of recession, when every precedent said it was time to invest, led to negative growth in household income, and the UK performing worse than any other country in Europe bar Greece and Cyprus. Post-financial crash, incomes in France grew by 34% and in Germany by 27%, while ours fell by 2%, according to the Resolution Foundation.
Look what the Tories’ Brexit did. The British economy fell faster behind those in the EU: it was 90% of the size of Germany’s in 2016, and now it has fallen to 70%. Our trade to the EU has fallen by 16%.
But Britain’s loss has been far greater than those whom Truss liked to call “bean counters”, with their “abacus economics”, can measure. Reputation is priceless, though it too is weighed on the scales of the mercurial markets’ confidence in our debts. No reputation manager can fix the shame of being laughed at abroad. Sober countries look on amazed at how the Conservative party – yes, the party of bowler hats, the Carlton club, black and white balls, garden fete fundraisers – has melded into the realm of disreputables such as Trump, Bolsonaro, Berlusconi and Giorgia Meloni.
The evil potion of the great Brexit lie, imbued with wartime myths of British exceptionalism, that wildly misled so many is now wearing off. Labour should seize the moment without fear to keep reminding voters what harm the Tories’ particularly pernicious brand of Brexit has done to them. This time the politics of the Tory party, in all its egregious forms, is not distant Westminster night-time scuffles in mysterious voting lobbies but an ideology that is doing appalling damage to every household, in ways everyone understands all too well.
(Excerpts from Polly Toynbee's article in the Guardian.)
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/20/truss-gone-tory-kwarteng
Truss is gone. The ideological hobgoblins she brought in and others of her fraternity turned on her. It’s not been “take back control” but out of control. Even two more years of this Tory disaster is unthinkable. Whether it’s tax cuts splurging on the rich, or the return by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to thumb-screw austerity, the country can’t take either option. Nor will markets be much soothed as long as the party that enabled all this and drove us over the Brexit cliff remains in charge of our weakening economy.
Look at where it has taken us: Cameron and Osborne’s cuts at a time of recession, when every precedent said it was time to invest, led to negative growth in household income, and the UK performing worse than any other country in Europe bar Greece and Cyprus. Post-financial crash, incomes in France grew by 34% and in Germany by 27%, while ours fell by 2%, according to the Resolution Foundation.
Look what the Tories’ Brexit did. The British economy fell faster behind those in the EU: it was 90% of the size of Germany’s in 2016, and now it has fallen to 70%. Our trade to the EU has fallen by 16%.
But Britain’s loss has been far greater than those whom Truss liked to call “bean counters”, with their “abacus economics”, can measure. Reputation is priceless, though it too is weighed on the scales of the mercurial markets’ confidence in our debts. No reputation manager can fix the shame of being laughed at abroad. Sober countries look on amazed at how the Conservative party – yes, the party of bowler hats, the Carlton club, black and white balls, garden fete fundraisers – has melded into the realm of disreputables such as Trump, Bolsonaro, Berlusconi and Giorgia Meloni.
The evil potion of the great Brexit lie, imbued with wartime myths of British exceptionalism, that wildly misled so many is now wearing off. Labour should seize the moment without fear to keep reminding voters what harm the Tories’ particularly pernicious brand of Brexit has done to them. This time the politics of the Tory party, in all its egregious forms, is not distant Westminster night-time scuffles in mysterious voting lobbies but an ideology that is doing appalling damage to every household, in ways everyone understands all too well.
