Mess gives feel that the UK has hit ‘rock bottom’
Ever since Brexit, we have all watched despairingly as the UK deteriorates in practically every respect.
We have watched Tory corruption, sleaze and incompetence trash the reputation of our democracy.
We have watched the government pursue destructive policies, from leaving the EU single market, to the Rwanda Scheme, to the scrapping of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
With each passing crisis, we continually surmise that this must be rock bottom. Yet, here we are.
In less than a month, Liz Truss managed to crash the pound, send interest rates soaring and cause economic turmoil on an unprecedented scale.
The situation was so bad that the Bank of England was forced to make huge interventions, and the IMF felt so concerned as to publicly call for the chancellor to reconsider his plans.
And now, just 24 hours after she and the chancellor went public to vehemently defend the abolition of the top rate tax, they have made what must be the most humiliating policy U-turn that I can remember in my time as an MP.
It is particularly humiliating for those who immediately called on the First Minister to replicate the tax cuts or face a mass exodus of Scottish top-earners.
While it is correct to abandon this disgraceful policy, it is clear that the damage has been done.
The UK government has lost credibility with the markets and, more importantly, the people, with all of the polls now painting a devastating picture for the Tories at the next election.
The cabinet will now seek to brush these past few weeks of pandemonium under the rug, even patting themselves on the back for “listening to the people”.
But this ignores the fact that the top rate tax cut was just a small slice of a rotten pie.
The UK government is still planning to borrow tens of billions of pounds and reduce welfare spending in order to fund tax cuts that will benefit the rich the most.
The markets are still deeply unsettled, and families across the country are still facing an extremely challenging winter.
In the chancellor’s mini-budget statement, he hailed a“new era”for the UK; a promise he is living up to in all the wrong ways.
No matter the catchphrase – whether it’s “strong and stable”, “levelling up”or a“new era” – the truth is that the Conservatives’priority will always be to appease the rich; the very people least affected by the current cost of living crisis.
There has never been a greater disparity between the attitudes of the people of Scotland and the policies being inflicted upon us by Westminster.
Equally, there has never been such certainty that our incredible country could do so much more without being shackled to this mess.