Who pays?
All of a sudden the new PM cares, she is apparently planning to cap energy prices.
The new PM also thinks re-distribution has gone too far, bad news for the poor, great for the rich and worrying; as the PM obviously has no idea of what has happened in the last 12 years.
That is why the new PM wants to slash NI contributions, to help the rich. The poor and retired don’t pay NI. There is also another £20 billion a year for defence.
The really worrying thing here is that this will all have to be paid for and it shows that Liz Truss is a real believer in “trickle down economics”.
Since trickle down economics is just not true the money won’t come from higher growth.
Even the news that this government is “unashamedly” going for growth is also worrying. What do they think every other government does, goes for recessions? Is embarrassed about growth?
What it means is that this bunch believe that a slash and burn of workers rights, environmental regulations and safety rules will stimulate growth.
The poor will as a result of that and the tax cuts and the fuel crisis get very poor, very quickly. And they will have fewer ways of complaining, or negotiating better deals.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
I do find it rather remarkable that Keir Starmer appears to be supporting the energy price cap proposals of Liz Truss. He is thus to well to the right of Gordon Brown, and even of Paul Johnson of the IFS (never a notably left-wing think tank). A price cap will subsidise the fuel bills the very well off and the rich much more than the rest of us. It would surely be much better to introduce a system such an Germany with a much reduced price for low usage and market price for usage above that. This is much more likely to discourage waste. Is it time to comment on the rightward shift of Starmer, which is as remarkable as his refusal to say anything at all about the ill-effects of Brexit?
Whenever I read about "a slash and burn of workers rights, environmental regulations and safety rules", I think of Grenfell.