'A budget that harms everyone except the rich.'

@MartinII The presentation is poor but then bluster can only hide so much. We've been through a long period of austerity following 2010 which has left councils and the NHS desperately underfunded .

Of course everyone can point to a few individual spending decisions that they disagree with. The cost of low traffic schemes and overseas aid is dawrfed by this mega tax cut.

Market investors are savvy because they have jobs and reputation in the line so they have to be. It comes down to the fact that they don't believe that Kwateng's plans are credible or plausible. Since I posted this, the BoE has had to spend big sums buying govt bonds just to prevent a total collapse in value. Such a huge rupture can't be just put down to bad PR alone.

This is not a left critique. The left critique says that these plans are immoral. The markets sat that they are highly impractical. Both critiques are completely correct.

@Burnley123 I certainly agree that it’s not just a question of presentation. But the lack of sensible presentation reinforces the substantive objections. Many people, not only on the left, regard the policies as immoral because they seem to benefit the rich at a time of recession and inflation. Of course their purpose is not to benefit the rich for themselves but to benefit everyone by enabling the rich, and business, to stimulate growth. But that argument hardly gets a hearing, and as you say few people believe it is plausible.

What has certainly changed is the political weather. For the time being at least almost everyone, Tories included, regard voting Labour as a safer option than voting Tory - note how support for the Libdems has collapsed in this week’s polls. As a betting man I would have a few quid at a good price on Truss being fatally wounded at next week’s conference. Not likely but not completely inconceivable.

@MartinII I appreciate the honest analysis.

@Crazywaterspring That and austerity for the working class and poor to pay for the free giveaways to the wealthy.

@whowasthatmaskedman Its worse than you think. Read the article I linked for more.

@Burnley123 I get that this budget is awful and the selling of it is the worst thing since "New Labor" Its money they dont have going to places its not needed while those in need suffer and are expected to pay for it later. Its the cows that get milked and the sheep that get shorn. The farmer is the only one who profits..😷

@MartinII and everyone who owns any Pound Sterling.

@MartinII He's centre left.

It's not just his opinion, it's the markets. They are not left wing but are betting against Truss!

@Burnley123 Yes, and part of the problem is the government’s total failure to explain its policies properly (see my separate comment below). Perhaps they don’t have an explanation!

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow A lot of people are close to the edge anyway because of the cost of living crisis. Inflation is an issue everywhere but we have it much worse than any other G7 country. A combination between Brexit, Covid and lack of energy independence is hitting us hard.

Yes, I would say that riots are likely.

@Burnley123 Sadly from what I have been able to glean on my own that is no surprise. I have been reading for a little while now that for the same reasons Northern Ireland could be a powder keg too if the incompetence at the top continues.

@supersnipe That's a brilliant cover. Thanks for sharing.

It tells you something when even the intelligent centre-right publications are lambasting them.

@Burnley123 I quote from their editorial page:

In its first weeks, the new government has shredded its own reputation, unleashed higher inflation, forced emergency action from the central bank, and made growth harder. Just imagine what it can do in a month or two.

@Northwest Thanks for sharing. I'll read it now.

@Burnley123 The British currency is in freefall. But I guess Truss is doing something about it, or at least something to reassure the world that dropping the top tax rate, will tame inflation. Either that or asking to borrow a magic wand from JK Rowling.

@Northwest Rowling

@Havesomefun2 Fair enough. It is what it is.

@Burnley123 at the moment I live of the state because of health problems but iam so ducking board

@Burnley123 didn't know. So all cities i in the uk are full of the tents from homeless workers. Just like in the USA and the lifespare under 70 years, covid rages and the hospitals are all failing. People bullying the mask wearers. Sorry! Not one upping you. Your lives matter. Ours are nothing. We are the cast offs if former hateful eu and uk centuries.

@Roundandroundwego I'm talking about govt competence.

Brits have more debts than Americans or EU citizens. Our inflation is substantially worse than either and we have much less revenue than the USA per capita.

Homelessness is likely to skyrocket because of our govts kamikaze policies.

@Burnley123 we're kinda aware here, but we've lived in a sick, overworked state killing the ecosystem, surrounded by poison herbicides used on every road, with anti intellectual gun toting bullies setting the tone sinc 1970 and people in the UK certainly don't know or care and didn't say anything. Same for European people. People in the USA can't think.

@SW-User I didn't. It's the Austrian school who most influence his thinking though!