Tory Infighting Will Make The Recession To Come Very Much Worse

13th August 2022

Richard Murphy sets out the serious problems we will all face as the government sits on its hands until the leadership contest is over.
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The Tory leadership campaign grinds on. The offers from both candidates continue to make no sense. The coming crisis of government in the face of a looming economic meltdown is obvious, except to Truss and Sunak. What to think? A thread....

One thing that is very clear from the Tory leadership campaign is that Sunak and Truss both hold most people in this country in contempt. The tax cuts both offer are aimed at providing big increases in the post-tax incomes of the wealthiest in our societies, and for large companies in the case of Liz Truss.

Neither has any plan to really help the poorest with the crisis to come. Truss tried, even, to rule out further direct help for those in greatest need, although she might have changed her mind on that now.

Sunak took pride in telling people in Tunbridge Wells that he had initiated the changes in policy that have reallocated support spending from poor, urban areas to richer, rural towns and communities, like his own constituency.

Truss has now confirmed she wants nothing to do with a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies that are exploiting war to extract tens of billions from UK households, who are being driven into poverty as a result.

Why won't she tax those companies? Because, she says, profit is not a dirty word. She apparently thinks this even when it is earned by those exploiting the vulnerable.

It's easy to get a very clear impression of where the Tories are from these claims. Once they excused their policies of greed by claiming there was a ‘trickle down economy' where wealth from the rich eventually benefited everyone. But they are not there any more.

Now the Tories are blatantly a party of ‘flood up economics', where their aim is to reallocate wealth upwards in society. The pretence of inclusivity has gone. They know the only thing tax cuts for the rich do is increase the wealth of the wealthy, and they are doing them anyway.

Read the full blog post HERE