No.259 - Welcome to 'The Anti-Growth Coalition'
Dear James,
So now we know. The cause of all the problems that have faced our nation for the last ten years has been identified. It’s the ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’. In other words, all of us. Unless of course you happen to be one of that tiny minority of the UK population who voted her into the top job one month ago. Into this category of saboteurs are green campaigners, Remainers, trades unions, Lib-Dems, Labour Party members and the SNP. She might also have added you James and the rest of the Tory Party plus the 75% majority of the population who currently, according to the latest opinion polls, thinks she’s lost control of the economic situation. But that would have been a step too far even for this rabid populist replacement for the last dud.
Your party James is in tatters. Played out in full media view, it is tearing itself to pieces amid ministers scrapping with each other, several Truss U-turns, countless unforced errors or self-inflicted wounds and a complete refusal to listen to the country as a whole. According to Truss, ‘We are entering a new era and this means change and change needs disruption’. So the ‘Cummings Philosophy’ of creative destruction with no idea of what to put in its place, is alive and well. All will be fine. Trust me!
Your Party Conference which finished yesterday will go down as one of the most embarrassing in history. On Monday morning, the Daily Telegraph headline was, ‘The Lady’s not for Turning’. An hour later, she turned. The removal of the 45% tax rate for high earners was scrapped. Truss described it as a ‘distraction’ which prevented us seeing the clear benefits of her ‘Growth Plan’. This does not of course mean that she sees the scrapping of 45% as a moral error. She still believes in scrapping it together with bankers’ bonuses. The direction of travel of this government James, is quite clear.
The damage to Britain’s reputation in world financial markets has been done. Kwarteng’s unfunded ‘mini-budget’ of two weeks ago and his refusal to let the OBR review his homework, has spooked everyone. The spooking has caused gilt yields to go above 4% and this translates into higher mortgage interest rates for buyers throughout the country. Today my daughter has had to buy a new five year mortgage at an annual price of £10,400 compared to the £5,200 she has been paying until now. Yes, the pound has recovered to its level before the Kwarteng debacle but this is just because the markets anticipate the inevitable interest rate hikes coming from the Bank of England.
Add to this Kwarteng’s confused standing on November 23rd as his ‘grand reveal’ - it’s still not sure whether it and the OBR forecast will be delivered earlier than that date - and the mess continues.
Truss expects us to believe that her ‘strategy’ will lead to a 2.5% growth rate before the next election. No evidence has been provided for how this miracle will happen. One of the largest components of growth for any particular economy is access to markets. Your party, James, junked 15% of our exports to our nearest market in 2016 and so far the new deals have amounted to much less than 1% of growth compared with the 4-5% loss caused by Brexit.
The next U-turn will probably be the fixing of universal benefits to the rise in wage rates rather than the inflation rate. The ‘economically inactive’ - that notorious euphemism used by Tories to gloss what between themselves they call the ‘benefit scroungers’ or ‘the worst idlers in the world’ (to quote from Truss’s 2010 book ‘Britannia Unchained’) - will be punished yet again.
According your new leader James, you and I are for once on the same side. So welcome to the ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’! Should be an interesting ride. As a fellow member, all I’d ask is for you to stop this unelected, runaway lady, before our nation is plunged into even more uncontrollable financial chaos! Good luck! Really!
BH - Your Concerned Constituent