The political vacuum left by Boris Johnson and the lack of clear candidates on who should replace him as Prime Minister has led to a contest where the Conservative Parliamentary Party has whittled down a long list of potential contenders to two. Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor and Liz Truss, the acting Foreign Secretary. After an initial feeling of happiness after the news of Johnson;s resignation my fear is that his replacement could be just as bad.
So far they have both tried to adopt the style and themes of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady whose sweeping right-wing policies remain popular among Conservative voters. Her target audience is the roughly 160,000 members of the Conservative Party who will choose the next leader. For these voters, many of whom are older and very right-wing, Thatcher remains a revered figure, second only to Winston Churchill in the pantheon of Tory grandees. The contest has revealed the sad reality that such a few amount of people could decide our next Prime minister,making a mockery of what our democracy is supposed to stand for.
Truss has undergone a complete political reinvention to become the favorite to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party and UK Prime Minister., the former Remain supporter is now a Brexiter with the zeal of a convert.after the vote went the other way She is also a political survivor as the longest continuously serving member of the cabinet, having worked under three prime ministers. She’s also gone from yelling slogans as a child against Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s Conservative government and leading Oxford University’s Liberal Democrat society to become the darling of the Tory Party right. “My parents were left-wing activists, and I’ve been on a political journey ever since,” Truss said in an ITV debate of Tory leadership.
Her politics are now Reaganite in flavour, with a foreign policy world view in which Britain stands alongside America against Russia and China, unsupported by its wimpish European neighbours. References to the cold war and “freedom” pepper her comments on international affairs.
Truss ,has appealed to the right wing of her party through her so called libertarianism, trumpeting the value of free markets, backing low taxation and repeatedly railing against the “nanny state” interfering in the lives of ordinary Britons. Her politics are Reaganite in flavour, with a foreign policy world view in which Britain stands alongside America against Russia and China, unsupported by its wimpish European neighbours.References to the cold war and “freedom” pepper her comments on international affairs.
Truss's campaign has been boosted by her proposals on tax
which amount to reversing the hike in national insurance contributions
for all taxpayers and cancelling a planned increase in corporation tax,
all paid for, it would seem, by re-profiling repayments on Covid related
debt.
She’s won admirers among ardent Brexiteers by challenging the EU over the Brexit deal struck by Johnson’s own government, introducing a bill overriding the bulk of its provisions on Northern Ireland and is believed to show a willingness to break parts of the Good Friday Agreement in order to rectify issues with the protocol, a move that could risk a resuming of violence,
Even while protesting loyalty to Johnson, the foreign secretary has done little to disguise her ambitions to claim the top job, schmoozing with colleagues in social events known as “fizz with Liz” and running a carefully-curated instagram feed that rivaled the social media operation run by Sunak’s team.
Sunak’s foreign policy beliefs are less pronounced. He rose to high office on a sharp trajectory. Barely three years ago, he was a junior minister discussing edicts to local councils about boycotts of Israel. Unlike Truss, Sunak was an early and firm supporter of Brexit – a fact that ought to be his strongest appeal to Conservative members. But his reputation as a tax-raising chancellor has dented his popularity among the electorate.
Whilst
Sunak’s ethno-religious background is significantly different than
previous contenders for PM, Sunak’s educational and class background is
very much similar. In his youth, Sunak attended Winchester boarding
school, one of the highest performing fee-paying schools in Britain and
subsequently attended Oxford University where he read Politics
Philosophy and Economics. Sunak’s privileged background has in large
part fuelled a public perception of Sunak as an elitist.
Sunak’s
net worth is estimated to be approximately $887 million and in the context of corruption and a regime built on one law for the rich
and one for the poor, Sunak has been damaged by his wife’s “non-dom”
status, and a recently surfaced video where Sunak in his youth
claims to have no working-class friends has cemented Sunak’s privileged
and out-of-touch image.
In
connection to Sunak’s vast wealth has been a recent scandal pertaining
to media the revelations that Sunak’s wife, the daughter of an Indian,
billionaire and business magnate, Narayana Murthy, who despite living in
the UK has a non-domiciled tax status in the UK, meaning her tax
contributions are vastly lower.
Let's not forget they both were not only first-hand witnesses but also active participants in all the errors and failings of the Johnson government from which they are now so keen to distance themselves whilst continuing to praise the author. They both claim to have known better all along, and have both had months to think about the policies they were going to present as part of their campaigns in order to sound coherent and credible.
Yes they have plenty of promises, but no commitment to delivering policies that are desperately needed
to cope with the current cost of living crisis and the rising poverty we are facing. With
either of them in charge the current crisis will only get worse.What is singularly absent in the plans of both aspirants is a proposal to help struggling households.
6.3 million households are currently in fuel poverty, by the time one of these candidates takes residence in Downing Street, fuel bills will be set to rise to a whopping 8.5 million ny thee end of the year, The
Bank of England have hiked interest rates again from 1.25% ti 1.75% , the biggest rise in 27 years as it battles to curb rising prices of energy, food and other commodities.The continuing war in Ukraine is unlikely to offer respite to volatile
markets or reduce fuel costs for motorists and households.In this
unremittingly grim story, the story of struggling Britain in 2022.
Both
Sunak and Truss appear to have little to say except pander to the
demands of their rank and file for tax cuts now. Both of course at the same time further capitalist economic policies which are proving
incapable of stopping Britain and the global economy entering recession, feverishly offering more cash to the rich, without being
drawn into much detail about how the poor will foot the bill. Sunak said
he wants to slash taxes by 20 percent by the end of the decade. He is
promising to cut income tax to 16p, which would put some £6 billion less
into the public purse.
It’s a move targeted at buttering up the rich. But it will come as little comfort as cost of living crisis continues to bite and a cold winter looms over millions of people.
With more Tory misrule, unless we get rid of them,we will forever be poisoned and imprisoned by their policies, that are infected
with fear, nationalism and hate, delivering more austerity and dollops
of neoliberalism, while lacing us with propoganda their party's preferred pill to
medicate and keep the nation in a docile state.
In recent months, the most controversial policy utilized by the government has been Priti Patel's inhumane Rwanda policy, revealing the Conservatives politics of cruelty that will see asylum seekers being deported to the country in a draconian effort to
end the boat crossings of refugees fleeing crisis and danger, a right guarantee under international law.
The
policy has been endorsed by both candidates publicly however, Truss has
discussed the importance of expanding the policy to deter immigrants.
She has proposed the possibility of expanding deportations to Turkey,
which already holds the largest refugee population in the world.
The
existing Rwanda policy is already controversial within the public
sphere, since not only does it send vulnerable asylum seekers to a
country with recent human rights abuses, but the scheme is expected to
cost the public taxpayer millions and millions without any clear certainty that
the policy will curb the flow of migrants across the channel as only a
small minority of asylum seekers will face deportation.
As energy prices soar sky
high. and we are barely able to survive I predict them continuing to destroy our society, whoever wins, they are committed to austerity, racism and accelerating
climate chaos. Both want to undermine workers’ rights and make it harder
to protest.
If the Tories retain their grip on power I can only foresee this nasty party, getting nastier and nastier, that will effect the lives of so many ordinary people. A future of no hope,only despair that will see them not letting us retire until we are 75. Strikes made illegal, trade unions being banned. Scottish and Welsh assemblies dissolved. Judges to become purely political appointments. Chain gangs to replace community service. Workhouses for the feckless, undeserving poor. Refugees offered to countries as cheap Labour.The return of capital and corporal punishment. People forced to sing the National anthem after films and the the return of the bloody Black and white minstrels, as they tighten their authoritarian ad regressive grip.
But a real alternative can be built to all this , and we can at least be energised by the strike of the RMT workers which has huge support among the public. There will also be industrial action of workers in BT. Postal workers and nurses will be balloted for strike action. There is a real need for coordinated action on the cost of living crisis and a mass movement that can ensure it is not just
Johnson that is removed from power, but the Tories as a whole. .
