The fall of the Tory party

Isn't it just the start of the Tory reelection narrative?

I completely agree with your point about minimal credibility, but I think the markets do care about distribution, in that it was obvious to all (except Truss and team) that reducing the additional tax rate (and other giveaways) was very unlikely to produce much growth, but reducing VAT for instance, may. The markets also didn't like the lack of OBR forecasts and the promise of more unfunded tax cuts to come from Kwarteng.

My point is that just because we are currently running a deficit, doesn't mean we need to cut spending in order to fill the 'black hole'. As we found out in 2011, by cutting spending we actually prolonged the recession by a few years, as compared to the US and other EU countries that didn't implement austerity.

It's almost like austerity is just an excuse to pursue a small state ideology

As we found out in 2011, by cutting spending we actually prolonged the recession by a few years, as compared to the US and other EU countries that didn't implement austerity.

I don’t think the data bears this out. The UK had a deep initial contraction (due to our outsized reliance on the banking sector), but the rate of recovery equalled or exceeded European peers. Look at the UK vs France or (to a lesser extent) Germany on this chart.

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Is it completely tinfoil hat territory to think that Johnson was a Russian asset and that Williamson was knighted to keep quiet about it?

Paul Merton continuing to cosplay as a member of the DUP I see.

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Doesn't that chart show it took us six years to recover to the same extent as France and seven years to reach parity with Germany?

If he was a Russian asset why was he so keen on giving weapons to Ukraine?!

Tin foil hattery aside...

Because not doing so would make it really really obvious.

The point I was replying to was about speed of recovery (i.e. slope of line). UK grew faster than France from a deeper crash. Germany performed better in the immediate aftermath but growth slowed from 2012 (possibly due to the sovereign debt crisis) meaning both countries ended up in the same place.

For me it's hard to conclude from that data that UK policy led to structurally lower growth (until Brexit of course).

ofc

Johnson was an asset but was off payroll by early 2022 as he’d already delivered The Brexit and a KGB officers son into the House of Lords.

Or maybe he was just a bit shit at keeping to his brief.

To be honest, this conspiracy schizzle is more difficult than it first appears.

For me it's hard to conclude from that data that UK policy led to structurally lower growth (until Brexit of course).

I guess the question is whether our line would have been steeper had we not choked off public spending so dramatically. Apart from a doubtless Olympics-related spike in 2012, it's no more than a gentle 'big ring climb' until 2013.

Yes. Not even the Russians could produce something as shit as Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

But, despite his shitness, large swathes of the public still love him.

You’re right though, unlikely to be some mastermind 4D chess at work

Just look at some of the proclivities that other swathes of the public enjoy. The public on the whole are not much of a judge of anything.

If he was a Russian asset why was he so keen on giving weapons to Ukraine?!

Depends on what people mean by asset.

Asset doesn't necesarily mean on FSB payroll and conspiring with Moscow. Asset can also mean under influence of Russian people with Kremlin connections.

If you use the latter definition, then I think its fair to say that Johnson is an asset of Russia. Whether he even realises this himself or not. Another way to describe him would be useful idiot instead of asset or spy.

Another way to describe him would be massive cunt

I’m definitely with the useful idiot description (even if massive cunt may be a more accurate fit) and can’t even imagine the kompromat they might have on him. For sure he’s grifted some sort of angle for himself which will be totally disproportionate to the damage he’s caused but hey, he’ll be ok.

Finally, imagine the howling and frothing if this was a Labour politician with even half as much circumstantial evidence

This should be a sticky for every page (maybe them to cover all bases)

Williamson resigns

1 down 30 to go

From twitter - at least he got to resign this time rather than being sacked like the last 2 times.

But I thought that he’d done nothing wrong?

Too early to buy a lettuce?