Dogma

This is what Dogma means according to Google

a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.

This is what dogma means to a Conservative chancellor

“Throwing yourself like a lemming off a cliff so you can be a “good soldier” in a stupid woman’s war”

Kwasi Kwateng is an idiot. But not only for the reason you are thinking.

He’s an idiot because his boss promised a “mini budget” within a week of taking power and if the Queen didn’t die it would have been a week. She also specifically said tax cuts in order to get elected. He was given an impossible task and it was his job to either say “no, I need more time” “There’s an autumn statement in November and I am the 3rd Chancellor THIS YEAR and I would like to know if I will be sticking around before making life changing/market altering decisions”or better still “No, that’s stupid, don’t involve me” instead he chose to be the poster boy for the dangers of political ideology.

The scenario is this. I have a memory like an elephant, especially for when the government is messing up.

In 2010 the Conservative party won a general election with a Liberal Democrat crutch. It was the first election since the 2008-2009 crash where we bailed out the banks at vast expense. Therefore we entered a decade of “austerity” which was widely accepted as necessary in order to balance the books. We were told that it would end in 2023-24 before the next general election. That was assuming a “trend rate of growth” of 2% a year which we did have until… Brexit. Which means it will take even longer to “fix” public finances after the crash of 2008/2009. Thank you Bankers.

Then we voted in 2016 for Brexit and that was a vastly expensive exercise in a more divisive way. The barriers to trade and global isolation reduced our trend rate of growth from 2% to 1.4% which has wiped billions off all our future without anyone being able to do anything about it, without anyone actually doing anything other than the vote. The cost is billions per year. What it means is we will never be as great as we were before the vote. We’ll grow slower then everyone else and so have a standards of living and wealth gap which we won’t fully notice for a good decade or two… long after all the liars who promised “sunlit uplands” have all left power and can’t be charged with treason.

Then Covid hit. We had to bail out the entire country. Think Furlough. Think £400 billion. There was also 12 billion that Rishi Sunak promised in the beginning of the pandemic, his actual first budget in March 2020was a 12 billion package which was considered generous at the time. Why? Because he too had just come into office. Sajid Javid was chancellor until 7 weeks before the pandemic, he resigned because Boris Johnson, then prime minister asked him to sack a member of his own staff, which Sajid disagreed with. Told you I have a sharp memory. Then think the NHS and all the billions they promised there. The nightingale hospitals we couldn’t use and we knew it from before they were built… why? Because we don’t have enough doctors or nurses. Medical staff of any description were asked to come out of retirement.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.K. has given various aid packages and defence packages which we haven’t heard a penny of costings for because the Ukrainian war is hugely popular.

This is several paragraphs worth of saying “the U.K. is broke.” We have no money. We all know it, we all accepted it. Have done for years. Anyone can tell you we are broke. So why, when it was a conservative chancellor that gave us the 45p tax bracket, would you choose when we are brokest to give a tax cut that only applies for people earning over £150,000?

A colleague put it succinctly. “I’m tired of the Conservatives saying if we give more money to rich people they will give it back to us”

This basically sums up my whole view on the matter. There is a time and a place for expansionary fiscal policy (trying to grow the economy further) it isn’t when you don’t have any money. It’s like buying a Ferrari with your last pound rather than a home. You can sleep in your car. But it’s more sensible to sleep in a house.

It’s also the fact that it failed to help the poor. Nadim Zahawi’s budget that gave everyone £400 off bills and had a package of up to £1,500 of support for the poorest was simply forgotten. That was targeted help.  But because it didn’t follow the dogma of “tax cuts” it’s been deemed insufficient. It’s hugely expensive and greatly appreciated because it’s cheap to administer and means people such as myself who never get help…get help. Oh yeah and Rishi Sunak gave us £150 off our council tax bills this year. Everyone hates council tax but it’s still a tax cut. But because it’s not income tax it’s apparently not good enough. That’s why dogma is so dangerous. Why is the billions spent not enough? Why is it always income tax that needs to be reduced? What about VAT? It’s another regressive tax and Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling famously reduced VAT during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Which was mean to be a “Brexit bonus” except we were able to do it while in the EU. Don’t lie Boris, I will always catch you.

I don’t believe I need to belabour the point. The markets crashed. The Pound fell to historic lows against the Dollar and the Bank of England had to buy £65 Billion of debt. The IMF, the international debt collectors… were called to the scene and put out a statement. It was a whole mess. Why? Wrong place, wrong time, wrong thing.

He should know better. As I said. I shy away from political parties. I consider dogma dangerous and this is exactly why. Why did they not have measures to ensure the over 65’s can heat their homes. Or that the unemployed can?

Should “being poor” be on someone’s death certificate in one of the richest countries in the world? Just because we “must” cut taxes? Sweetie, I’m not for that lifestyle. Take your L and take a bow. I know all politicians are self interested and would sell the whole country down the river given half the chance, but this time he even upset his rich friends.

I want you to remember something about the word “Dogma” the first 3 letters are the word “dog”

So if you act like a little bitch don’t come crying to me.

Grace and Courage

Annetta Mother-Smith