RE: Wasn't great today28 Aug 2025 16:31
I see what you are saying 67sam. The thing is, she cant exactly come out with an interview stating what she really thinks of her budget. So i dont read into these interviews much. I only look at the context in which the budget was created in.
I still do believe she knows what she is doing is wrong, and that she is not a fundamental socialist. But its not really in her control to make it right. It was her who wanted the wefare cuts and wanted to push ahead with them. Being a chancellor you are in a position of immense power, but is also a very reactive position in government. She is certainly no Gordon Brown, a fiscally astute and very intelligent man who knew what he was doing as chancellor (but terrible leader), but he had Tony Blair who was a very good leader and held the party together well. Then again, Maggie wrung out and thrashed socialism in politics throughout the 80s and into the early 90s, so blair was fortunate enough to inherit her legacy of not having such a big issue to deal with with regards to rebelling socialist backbenchers, and he always kept them in check. Blair and brown together, with blair as leader and brown running things in the background were an absolute unit, a formidable political duo!
Fastworward to these days, and socialism has come back with a vengance and is rife! So put yourself in the shoes of her. You have kier starmer as your leader, who has no idea who he is himself, flipflops on every decision and is simply not a natural leader or galvaniser like blair was and has no control over his party. You have a huge rebelling socialist backbench faction that threatens rebellion with every utter of the word wefare cut. You have the bond market breathing down your neck just waiting for you to admit defeat, break your own fiscal rules so they can send the yields soaring. So she is facing a war on all fronts with nobody helping. I do get the feeling she wants to put in place sensible policies, but the leader of the day and politics of the present labour government simply dont allow this, no matter who the chancellor was.
In this respect, i feel for her. Starmer must step up and take on these rebelling backbenchers who veto every welfare cut. They cannot tax the country to death and expect the economy to grow. The french are even beginning to understand this, and are beginning to take on the socialists in government to push through desperately needed cuts by threatening with the IMF bogeyman. One day, starmer must do the same here. And thay day of reckoning will be soon.
Currently, everytime you hear of a new policy, you start to panic and think how the government are going to rob you. How can anyone plan anything long term in such a hostile environment?
Now, Angela Rayner is a different matter. She is vile in my opinion. A hypocrite of the highest order, a disgustingly jealous champagne socialist if there ever was one. Except a bottle of lambrini as opposed to champagne is more her style