The fall of the Tory party

Brexit broke the link between governance and reason, between policy and evidence.

Until Brexit, politicians only rarely got away with defying the empirical facts or elementary logic.

But in 2016 they pretended that a country could weaken its trading ties to its nearest neighbours and get richer, which is like saying you can step in a bath of ice and get warmer.

Once the taboo on magical thinking was broken, once fantasy became a Conservative habit, Trussonomics became inevitable – smilingly insisting that you could cut taxes for the richest, make “absolutely” no cuts to public services and control borrowing, all at the same time.

The three weeks since Kwarteng delivered his mini-budget have seen the shattering of the sovereignty delusion.

For Truss and her now ex-chancellor were given the rudest of reminders that in our interdependent world there is no such thing as pure, untrammelled sovereignty.

No government can do what the hell it likes, heedless of others. In this case, the restraint on sovereignty was not the EU: it was the money markets. But their verdict was as binding as any Brussels edict; in fact it was more so.

They ordered the removal of a chancellor after just 38 days in office and the cancellation of the government’s economic strategy.

It is the financial markets that have taken back control

ffs this week I’m seeing a lot more evictions, (mattresses and possessions on the street) soup kitchens, food banks, 4pm crowds in supermarkets for yellow sticker food in an already austerity forced borough of Newham..