The peacocks are back!
The first day in the life of Miz Liz as PM went ‘according to script’, a script she and her team have developed during the last weeks of her campaign, says the Speccie in their email newsletter. That includes her first PMQ. I couldn’t force myself to watch it: the sun was shining, it was lovely outside and the garden needed a bit of tidying up.
The various parliamentary sketch writers scribbling about yon PMQ were careful not to rain on Truss’ parade. The DT has taken a leaf out of the DM’s book, providing us with a summary headline so we don’t need to read the whole thing:
“Amid thigh-slapping, raucous Tory cheers, Truss’s first PMQs was assured and refreshingly direct – The new Prime Minister even left Keir Starmer flummoxed – and Angela Rayner looking like she’d swallowed a wasp” (paywalled link)
In other words, we’re back to the Theatre of Peacocks that is the HoC. Truss announced one thing she’ll do today: freeze energy prices. This is the top subject in this morning’s print editions (link). We’ll have to wait for the details to be ‘unveiled’ later today. The DM, as always, manages to squeeze a full article into their headline:
“Brits must NEVER face rocketing energy bills again, Liz Truss to pledge as she unveils energy revolution that will will freeze bills at £2,500, launch a new dash for North Sea gas, and restart fracking” (link)
What a beautiful example of ‘jam tomorrow’! These are Truss’ plans, they’re not reality, and if there’s one thing we ought to have learned it’s that there is indeed many a slip twixt cup and lip, as our grannies told us, when it relates to government plans.
I find it very interesting that we’re told to be happy with a ‘price freeze’ at £2,500pa for our household energy bills. It looks generous compared with the projected rise to £3,500 or £6,000 for next year. It is however still double of what we paid a year ago. The DT has some details of what Truss will say (my emphasis):
“Britons must never again be forced to pay exorbitant energy bills, Liz Truss will declare on Thursday as she promises more North Sea drilling and ditches the fracking ban. Annual energy bills will be frozen at around £2,500 for the average household both this winter and next, and green levies will be scrapped. Businesses will get protection from energy price rises in a pandemic-style government intervention that could end up costing more than £150 billion.” (paywalled link)
While it’s good that the green surcharges will be scrapped – I believe it when I see it – and while it’s good that there will be fracking, I note that Net Zero hasn’t been mentioned and that apparently VAT on energy bills will remain. Well, somehow those ‘pandemic-style interventions’ of £150bn must be paid for, mustn’t they.
Moreover, there’s no mention of nuclear energy. Shouldn’t investing in more nuclear power stations be a main point in making the UK energy-self sufficient, or is this a step too far for the turquoise Tories? Unsurprisingly, Truss’ ‘ministers’ (anonymous as always) are already in nudge-mode. The Times reports that:
“Ministers are drawing up plans for a public information campaign to encourage people to reduce energy use this winter amid fears that a price freeze will deter them from doing so. There is concern within government that an intervention by Liz Truss to tackle the sharp rise in energy costs could increase the risk of blackouts if it means that households and businesses do not reduce consumption.” (link, paywalled)
We’ve been here before, haven’t we! The covid years have taught us that rising infection rates were our fault for not complying with lockdown and mask-up rules. So expect a campaign akin to the fabulous ‘protect the sacred cow’ one, telling us plebs that “we” must save the economy by shivering in our homes, that blackouts will be our fault because we’re deplorable energy profligates.
This shows prettily that the Westminster denizens live on a different planet. People on average incomes won’t be able to be profligate anyway, not when energy bills are double that of a year ago and inflation is now over 10%..
That’s the first fly in the ointment. There’s another one. The FT reports in their leading article this morning that the £ has fallen to its weakest level since 1985 after the announcement of Truss’ energy plans
“The pound sank as low as $1.1406, according to data from Bloomberg, lower than the aftermath of the Brexit vote of 2016 and exceeding the depths of March 2020 when global markets convulsed in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Sterling has fallen 15 per cent against the dollar this year.” (link, paywalled)
That is not exactly encouraging, given the already existing inflation because any imports will become more expensive. There’s more, with a warning from the BoE:
“The package will be funded by government borrowing, adding to demand in the economy at a time when inflation is above 10 per cent; […] Huw Pill, BoE chief economist, made it clear the bank would have to raise interest rates in light of higher medium-term inflationary pressure from the government’s actions, but he would not be drawn on how far rates needed to rise.” (link, paywalled)
This ‘freeze energy bills’ plan looks like a pretty gift to the nation – don’t get me wrong, it is welcome and needed – but why do our MSM not say that this is pure populism? It’s a solution akin to squeezing one end of a balloon to make it look small while at the same time the other end becomes larger. Thus expect more inflation while mortgages will rise. There’s simply no breathing space for us ordinary peasants to become profligate.
However, in advance of the expected ‘nudges’ coming from Truss’ No 10, the DT today has already two articles for their Audi Avenue readers. One (paywalled link) describes six proposals for how to ‘save energy’ when cooking. The first is to get an Air Fryer … whereupon I stopped reading. Check out how much they cost. Audi Avenue denizens might be able to afford them, not so a family on median income.
The other article is utterly disgusting and only practical for urbanites armed with smartphones and lots of time on their hands to drive around. The headline says it all:
“I fed my family on other people’s leftovers for a week – here’s how it went: Using various food-sharing apps, Lucy Denyer tried living off unwanted produce salvaged from cafes, shops and other households” (paywalled link)
This thing is accompanied by the photo of a posh, dressed-up mum and three kids chomping away. So the ‘solution’ is for working women to drive around, using costly fuel and smartphone apps needing electricity to be charged! If a posh mum can do it and survive, so can we plebs! Just walking to a local grocery store doesn’t cut it any longer …
I’ll finish with the link to the cartoon in today’s Times. That is a proper statement describing the Truss cabinet. And they’ve already been given a ‘dress code’: no more sloppy Cummings outfits (paywalled link).
Blimey, aren’t we lucky to have this ‘new’ government! It’s what we all have been longing for, innit! Happy times ahead … not!
More meaningfull and respectful by far were the impromptu London cabbies, the clan chiefs and the unions, and countless flowers. Now it’s up to Charles and William with Princess and Consort and Anne and Sophie to work in their own ways.
Have you seen the size and pure ‘in your face ‘ sheer power of the establishment. All paid for by taxes. The numbers gathering every day and each day will come to haggle and connive, to look for opportunities, meet new friends seal new deals with your money and sweat. Charles and William are correct, it has to be pruned. But just look at the numbers. The beautifully dressed numbers of scavengers under, at, and around tables trying to get closer to whoever. Every time the cameras appear there’s another 700. plus the appalling GBNews something Stuart. scuttling around searching for new friends. We have to find a way of curtailing these hordes of opportunists without destroying the wonderfullness and majesty and its value.
TG Spokes……that’ll be Alastair Stewart I think. I do think with some of these journalists that they retire gracefully and put their feet up. What might have worked in the days of ITN in his case, doesn’t necessarily work now. He is not the worst one on GB News by any stretch of the imagination. Patrick Christies takes the biscuit in my opinion, and one boring pair at Breakfast Time have been replaced with another boring pair. Tedious is not the word. And as for the supposed commercial breaks where presenters advertise their own programmes, it is just dire beyond belief, and find myself just switching it off altogether.
This is a funny site! Everything any government does is somehow wrong. If nothing is done about the energy price rise, that is wrong, but if the price cap is lowered, that is wrong. If money comes from taxation, that is wrong, but if money comes from increasing debt, that is wrong. Yes, there has been gross and ignorant mismanagement in the past, but any attempt to dig us out of it is automatically wrong.
Before the new prime minister had even taken office, she was being back-stabbed (just like Donald Trump was); now she has started work, the back-stabbers are in full cry. Give her and the cabinet a chance; they may succeed, or they may fail, or some of each, but let history, not prophesy decide. Please.
opti- Dont judge us all like HarryFAgain!.
Having studied Economics, it is clear to me that one can come out with any ole ‘reasoned’ bullocks, and it never / does not, happen as predicted.
I think it is fairer to say that whatever is proposed is always wrong – see the press. For example:-
Tax goes up, disaster. Tax goes down, disaster. Do nothing, disaster.
Cap fuel, costs go up, disaster. Cap fuel cost goes down, disaster. Do nothing disaster.
Insert any subj you like, there is always someone who will say, yes, no, wont work.
As to politishuns, media trashes anyone to the right of Marx & Engles. ColinH routinely trashes anyone who is a party leader.
Just be thankfull Youcrane is not mentioned much!
Biscotte…….that’s a bit unfair. I have never trashed Nigel Farage as party leader of UKIP. In fact, I am always commenting on here that we need him back on the frontline of politics leading another party of the centre right. Yes, I am wholly guilty of referring to Boris Johnson as a dishevelled buffoon and unfit to lead to this country etc etc, because at the end of the day he was eventually turfed out of power for not treating the office of prime minister with the due seriousness that it deserved. It was obvious long ago that you were a closet Johnson fan, but that was your choice, and a choice to which you were entitled to. However, don’t expect others including me to adhere to the same loyalties as you. You may be an avid Conservative come what may, but many of us on here are not. I want a Conservative Party, Prime Minister and government to pursue conservative ideals and policies, not a left wing ideology that was foisted upon us whether we liked it or not.
The second Elizabethan age is coming to an end. Doctors, experienced at spotting the end, would not have summoned the family without good reason. Presumably, not long now.
Indeed. It’s sad, but her last official act, to accept yon new PM, shows that, as she did all her life, she put duty above everything else.
You couldnt have two people called Liz as a figurehead. And as the sands of time sweep on as promised by the dunderheaded cretins of combined Civil Services of us and EU, measuring the migrating herds of Albanians on their way to their promised winter feeding grounds of the silver grill and grand hotel of Bournemouth
Appropos “illegal” immigration, a large hotel in Cardiff has been closed for refurbishment with some staff sacked to turn it into an accommodation centre for migrants with menus already printed in several languages. They won’t reveal details for “security” reasons but there is speculation already. How bl* **y dare they.
Straford on Avon too: https://stratfordobserver.co.uk/news/first-asylum-seekers-arrive-at-stratford-hotel/ Only re-opened in the last year and fully refurbished before being closed this week .
Indeed Lisa. Illegal immigration has been weaponised against us, no doubt on instruction from Boris’ globalist masters. Let’s hope that Truss tells them to sod off.
Yes it is very sensible that the green surcharges are to be scrapped, fracking started and north sea oil encouraged to expand.
Actually the VAT on energy is a relatively small part of the problem.
It is almost as though ‘Liz’ has been talking to a guy in what is left of Ukip!
It is noticeable that nuclear energy was not mentioned. Perhaps that is because there genuinely are still details to be sorted.
Apparently the ‘Bill of Rights’ is to be dropped as, ‘Ministers look to by-pass Brussels intervention’.
Hopefully that is a good sign. The Bill of Rights looked to me like a lot of useless legalese waffle.
We need OUT of the E.C.H.R. as Nigel told us years ago.
But as I understand it, ‘New Labour’ introduced a ‘Bill of Rights’ so something should be done to put that right.
Repeal it ??
We certainly need nuclear as part of the solution but not with any Chinese involvement. Our own nuclear industry needs to be rebuilt.
Carbon Net Zero should NT be a policy of a UK Govt. that has the best interests of the Nation at its heart.
It is the monsrous child of the WEF that is determined to reduce us all to such depths of poverty that we can be easily CONTROLLED.
Treat Net Zero as a dream; something to which we can aspire in some distant future. To put a date on it is folly.
First. Look at the overall picture. If we are to manufacture ANYTHNG in the UK at a competitive price we need an INEXPENSIVE and RELIABLE source of power.
Second. Look at the alternatives available; Hydro, Tidal and Nuclear. Develop those alternative sources of energy. (NO. Not wind, solar and Unicorn farts They are intermittent) This should have started at least a decade ago.
“As host of Cop26 during your time as foreign secretary and now as prime
minister, you will have seen the truly global impact UK policymaking and our government can have,”… YES. Tear up the Paris Climate Accords and see how many will follow our example.
Richard M.
Bojo’s government certainly DID NOT have this country’s best interests at heart. I agree with you what he was working for.
I love your reference to ‘unicorn farts’.
I shall think of that every time I pass one myself !
Indeed Richard; we need all subservience and financial support for the various globalist organisations stopped. All are our enemy along with those in government who support them with our money.
Actually, the perfect place for Solar is rooftops. Why it hasn’t been incentivised ( Dreadful word ) can only be down to electricity boards or pure idleness. Or is there some other reason ? Also wind power does not have to be monstrous windmills. And I do not understand why A stone wall across a small bay with a turbine should be available from any decent garage mechanic; with permission from the owner of the foreshore ( Charles 3 ).
Half way up a mountain in Scotland My Uncle put a dam across a tiny burn with a small dynamo and gave us all ” the electric light ).. For free 6 months. Then the electricity Board found out , charged us for the electricity took over the little damn and threatened him with dire proceedings if he didn’t provide access.( !947 ish )
Also during the war My Mum bought a small dynamo for the lights on the bike . It consisted of a small approx 25 cc motor riding on a cylinder which in turn rolled on the front tyre with a tiny teacup size petrol tank on top of it all. Her ration being 1 gal per month. In Wales, mum was the teacher in charge of thirty kids who for a long time had to be visited daily and finally signed off to good homes but still had to be visited but less often.
The Welsh mums were lovely considering kids from Birmingham. After the war I never ever heard a word of complaint from anyone .
While I’m at it wartime Wales . In a farming area every third car had a big bag on the roof to run the car off farmers gas they collected from refuse somehow.
PS. They were far cleverer in those days.
I have been told that that is not clear. So :–
A 25 cc petrol engine driving and resting on the front bicycle wheel via a raising and dropping mechanism. A light and small dynamo were mounted on top of the motor ( Battery ?. At age 7 I was not allowed too close to an important work tool. Anyway, torches were common. But the motor was magical )
In this video, Neil McCoy-Ward discusses why Truss’s ethnic minority cabinet will be a disaster and the unfortunate effect of capping energy prices.
“This Is Absolutely INSANE!”
Labeled “The Coconut Cabinet”.
Shock and horror!
HarryFAgain- Labelled ”The Curry Cabinet”
Shock and awe!
Interesting article on the not-so-green energy:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-09-06-green-energy-not-the-answer-energy-crisis.html
With Brexiteers in the Foreign Office and Northern Ireland Office, it is possible, just possible, that this is more than mere theatre to influence negotiations with the EU. A Truss government may actually mean business in a way that Johnson never did which is not to say they won’t mishandle it. Northern Ireland is a litmus test for Brexit.
The other litmus test is how Suella Braverman handles the Home Office. It is a department that has resisted reform ever since John Reid declared it not fit for purpose all those years ago. Braverman will need the full support of cabinet.
There are three ways to restore public finances to health: austerity (i.e. cut spending and so debt), inflation (to devalue debt), and economic growth (to outpace debt). Truss has chosen growth. We have yet to see what measures are adopted, but the techniques of yesterday may not work today. Whatever measures are adopted they presuppose an economic theory, a subject always behind events. The only thing that never changes is the definition of an economist: someone who will tell you tomorrow why what they predicted yesterday did not happen today.
Growth ALWAYS has to be financed.. Roughly the same as at least the increase. Investment is a good sign, and is paid for by being attractive. So it looks as if she means growth..
Fabulous. But future governments will waste it on bribery and corruption and blind, stinking corruption. so that comes early, and So tomorrow sack all the regulators and start teaching the useless or spare officer or office coppers. This has to be planned early or at least indicated so that the corrupt can run away.
Just saying.
To forestall a blast from Colin. The whole set up needs the attention of clever people dedicated people. It needs a ‘proper’ job done.We probably need somebody from the middle ages ( Whenever that is/was.
We might do better to go back further t g s. Before the Norman Invasion, 1066!
TG Spokes…..ohhhhhhhhh, I see where you are coming from now, you mean your old mate Henry II who you met in one of your travels back in time in your Tardis a couple of years back, before Biscotte came along and took the time coordinates. I had hoped that Johnson could have spent some time in one of his castle’s dark and damp dungeon.
CH- TG is an engineer. He knows about these things.
By contrast, we all know you are a Starship Commander Second Class, Space Federation Reserve.
You must be rusty, as time is just one set of coords. Your navigation officer will explain it. You need to get those coords for the other seven dimensions before going into the past. But you knew that surely (not Shirley).
(BTW: you missed out the usual, buffoon, idiot, fool, dolt, worthless, dishevelled, waste of, and many others. Not a problem you repeat them so often, we shall just take them as read).
t g s. ‘Growth ALWAYS has to be financed’.
Yes you have ‘got the message’.
She certainly does seem to be a low tax, private enterprise, high growth person.
Let’s hope the vast, corrupt, bureaucratic, civil service, ‘machine’ and other traitors do not overwhelm her!
Biscotte…….I haven’t used those adjectives for some time, since you last reprimanded me. Now that you know who has gone, those adjectives will no longer be used again, well not in his case at least. We have turned a new leaf, and everyone deserves a chance to put things right without being constantly criticised whether it be on here, in a newspaper column which I have never used, or indeed elsewhere. Anyway, on a lighter side do you think TGS has a degree in Trans Dimensional Engineering?
CH- Dunno, you have to ask him yourself. If I were put on the spot, I’d say String Theory Used to prove Fermat’s last theorum a few years back.
Just remember – thinking is the best way to travel (!). What a lyric, eh?
Good grief
In other news the generation ‘zers’ want to live in a country lead by a strong leader presumably one of those ‘fascists’ they are always banging on about. Looks like it may well get their wish with the new No.10 edict to wear ‘smart formal clothes ‘ . What a hoot , this then is the same generation ( along with their parents ) that in the last ten years shunned school uniform and discipline introduced by ‘strong’ Head Teachers much to the derision of the media and ‘influencers’. You never know this may spread to uniformed members of the emergency services and local government officials who these
days mostly look as if they have been working in the garden on the odd occasions the actually appear in public.
Still no mention of the never ending, relentless, cross-channel invasion. Every day of delay results in our population being increased by hundreds, or even thousands, at a time of economic crisis for the indigenous population. No mention also of the idiotic virtue signalling Net-Zero policy …. very worrying.
Seconded wholeheartedly.
Indeed Ken; those issues will never be dealt with unless/until Truss gives the various globalist organisations two fingers and stops supporting them with our money.
Ken P. It was the E.C.H.R. that scuppered the last effort to ‘transport’ the illegal immigrants.
Why should she say anything about B.J.’s idiotic Net Zero policy?
No point in upsetting some of the idiots sitting behind her in ‘The Chamber’, who maybe supported net zero!!
Ken P. Amongst those idiots sitting behind her in ‘The Chamber’ is unfortunately, my own CON MP.
Today I was disturbed by a telephone call which I eventually tracked down as resulting from Robert Largan contacting the county council about an email I sent him many months ago. An email which he had obviously totally misunderstood.
Since then he has circulated one of his usual ‘look what a good hardworking MP I am’ emails. Reading between the lines, it is pretty clear that he is one of the idiots sitting behind her who STILL supports BJ’s net zero fixation.
“Net Zero” is completely unavoidable.
The sooner you get that into your head the better.
Any gas we find is only a temporary fix. (No-one yet knows if we have any worthwhile gas reserves.)
Harryagain………….er, yes we have. I think Liz Truss/Liz O’Leary should authorise a pipeline right up to the front door of your home, through the door and into your living room and up to the rocking chair where you wile away the hours, where an extension could be fitted right up to your mouth. Lots of hot air there ready to be exploited. Come on get that contract signed, you know it makes sense, it will be good for you and the country. Oh, wait a minute expelled hot air also contains also contains carbon dioxide does not, maybe not such a good idea after all.
I am not sure that I agree HA. Anyway why 1990. I smell bureaucracy..
I would take them more seriously, except this could be far more easily controlled. Governments do not need to make laws. Governments can give SIMPLE advice. And people would follow it willingly. Slow and easy. Not bullying.
Why are they doing this, this craphanded way, a way that is hopeless and asking for disobedience. I see the hands of our Civil Service. There is no wisdom in it. It stinks of set up to fail.
So I take no notice. They’ve cried wolf too often I refuse to be farmed.
The government doesn’t have any money. They are just borrowing and giving us our own money we’ll have to pay back later.(And our descendants). Buying votes (they hope).
Much of this price hike is a result of past failed government energy policy and pandering to half witted public opinion.
Any remedial action will take years to implement and to show any benefit.
And when are we ditching all links to EUSSR courts/laws? Not a lot about that! Migrants NEVER benefit the existing population apart from a few of the “elite”.
As usual Harold, what few gems of sense are in your comments, are buried under nonsense.