You can expect to see a fair few articles from us on the latest incarnation of the Blukip/ERG Conservative government, each one seemingly more crazy and disastrous than the last. Currency traders are referring to Truss as “Daggers” : as in Dagenham, two stops past Barking… Funny, but not funny. Not funny at all.
We are now, it appears, in the midst of a lunatic, reckless experiment in the imposition of unfettered libertarian ideology. It’s making some very rich or even richer. It’s making millions scared, angry, poor and desperate.
Truss said she did not care about being unpopular. She seems not only not to care, but to be actively courting unpopularity. She, KamiKwasi Kwarteng and the rest of the cabinet of know-nothings-and care-even-less are destroying the country, reneging on election promises, tearing up the manifesto and indulging their fossil fuel donors, hedge fund backers and sugar daddy sponsors with a raft of measures for which there is NO MANDATE. What is more, they have the gall to describe themselves as ‘new’, conveniently forgetting 12 years of Conservative rule.
If they are ‘new’, why have they not held a general election to give their deplorable policies as much legitimacy as our ludicrous first past the post system will allow? As if we did not know…
One theory is that they realise they’re finished electorally, so they’re making one last trolley dash, grabbing what’s left of the nation’s assets to flog off to their mates and trashing every right, protection and regulation that stands in their way.
Maybe they are now so power-crazed or off their heads on chemical substances that they will decide to halt the democratic process altogether, especially now that Labour have made a manifesto commitment to proportional representation (YAY!). Electoral reform would almost certainly see the Conservative party split and allow old-school, centre-right, one nation Conservatives to either reclaim their party or create a new home for themselves. And, yes, the same would almost certainly happen with Labour with the Corbynistas breaking away.
You know, we may well be at that darkest before dawn point. We may be on the brink of a new democratic age.
Meanwhile, we have to face the reality that is before us and the havoc Truss and her cronies can inflict on an already battered nation:
- Slavish devotion to the myth of trickle down economics
- Tax cuts that benefit the most wealthy and will starve public services of funding
- Deliberate sabotage of the NHS to make ongoing privatisation appear the only option
- A deranged appetite for fossil fuels
- Absolute disregard for the climate emergency and net zero
- Attacks on human rights and exit from ECHR
- War on the poor and vulnerable
- Deregulation to remove the ‘inconvenience’ of safety/health/animal and workers’ rights/environmental impact/local opinion etc
- Crackdowns on protest
- Denial of access to justice or judicial review
- Vilification of those who challenge them or call them out
- By-passing of parliament/parliamentary scrutiny
- Disregard for ethics and the rule of law
- Falling out with our allies through arrogance, ignorance and exceptionalism
- Destroying faith in democracy
It’s already dark. It is going to get very dark indeed. And cold. We’ll need to keep each other going and hang in there for that new dawn. Remember: there are a lot more of us than there are of them. We just need to pull together for the greater good.
