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by alkonaut 1363 days ago
Isn’t the simple option to simply reverse policies and do whatever returns confidence? No debt funded tax cuts, reduce excessive energy subsidies and so on?

Sure it might be disastrous for Truss, or Government, or The Conservative party. But for the UK as a whole it must be the reasonable way out?
3 comments
rcarr 1363 days ago
This is what any previous government would have done despite the embarrassment. However, in the same way our previous PM idolised Churchill, our current one idolises Thatcher who was famous for her “this lady’s not for turning” speech. This means that Liz Truss (our current PM) is highly unlikely to reverse course because in her head she’s having her “Thatcher moment” and must stay true to course in the face of any and all naysayers. This is despite the two situations being wildly different. Rather than admit any fault, the government are now trying to gaslight the entire country into believing that the currency crisis wasn’t caused by their announcement last week but by the energy crisis and covid. The whole thing is an absolute train wreck.
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penguin_booze 1363 days ago
> reverse policies

Have you ever seen authority figures backing off? When questioned or face backlash, they only double down. In fact, that's what happened - the official word is "this is the right way", and "the government is not responsible for market movements", "it sends the wrong message to tax windfall profits", "The poor can't pay bills? That's fine, we'll cut tax for the rich - that'll fix it".

#KamiKwasi, as Twitter called it, will continue.

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hunglee2 1363 days ago
this is probably what is going to happen - actually the least worst option. However, such a reversal will not fully restore confidence as any U-turn will not come at political cost to Truss / Kwarteng but also to UK Gov / Conservative party leadership as a whole - it would be admitting that they don't know what they are doing. There will be an economic price for that also
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alkonaut 1363 days ago
I hope they recognize that’s what’s what will happen eventually, and change course sooner rather than later.
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