A weekend is a long time in politics.
A Tory MP, sounding very nervous I thought, was on the radio a few minutes ago blaming yesterday’s run on the pond and gilts on the Bank of England.
Apparently it took its eye off the ball, just at the same time that the Chancellor launched the most incompetent, stupid, economically illiterate, irresponsible, shameless budget in British history. What a coincidence, what are the odds?
Either that or it was City spiffs, according to the Tory Red Tops they are shocked to find that the City is full of people trying to make a profit and who can count. The ones who have just had their bonuses caps removed are now making huge bonuses because of the Chancellor.
In a sense you can see why Tory MPs would push this tosh on the general public. The swivel eyed loons have waited decades for what the papers called “A real Tory Government”. They can’t believe they are not right, not now, not ever.
But to see it crumble before their eyes must hurt, to see it turn to dust because of the markets, those lovely perfect markets, must really hurt.
But the fact is they have destroyed the country’s reputation with one mad splurge of borrowed money. Their fantasies were just that, fantasies.
So given that, this may not be the time to slag off the Bank of England or the markets. Not when you need them to be kind to you.
The Chancellor gets this, he has made a massively humiliating u-turn and promised to show the world his figures and have the OBR check them.
His arrogance hardly lasted a weekend, but he had to do it because no one trusts him.
That takes some doing, but Trussenomics did it in a weekend.
Quite some achievement.
PS The OBR now has the power to destroy the Chancellor, if they doubt his figures he is a dead man walking.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.