Why trickle down economics doesn't work

[Arantor]

Well, we don’t have to put up with Trussonomics now as she’s resigned at only 45 days in the job. World beating, new best ever figure.

 

[Tiffany]

What happens now, since Truss resigned? How or who replaces Truss?

 

[Retro]

Only 44 days Arantor, even better!

Alas, it looks like Johnson is gonna stand again. Before he went, reports were saying that he knew she'd be so awful that he'd be back. I'll bet he wins it, too. This would be terrible.

 

[Arantor]

I think even he is aware that Truss‘s time is a bit too short for him to “repent for his mistakes” or whatever line he’ll use to sell it to the Tory party faithful.

Meanwhile, Gove and Hunt aren‘t in for the Game of Thrones, leaving the likely front runners as Sunak, Mordaunt, Johnson (maybe, ideally he wants the party members involved for that to be a thing), Braverman, Badenoch, Javid, Shapps and Wallace.

A bunch of fail-upwards candidates if ever I saw any.

 

[Arantor]

Breaking: viable candidates have to get 100 nominations from their MP peers.

There are 357 currently, so a maximum of 3 candidates that could go to a ballot of any kind. This means if Boris wants a shot, he needs to convince at least approaching a third of his fellow Tory MPs, who I don’t think will be too keen on it.

Meanwhile I’m *very* interested in what happens if there aren’t 100 nominations for a candidate. I think it’s going to be very interesting over the weekend based on who can convince others to back them.

 

[Retro]

I find it odd that Hunt doesn't want to go for it, given how he competed for the position previously.

Also, did you know that Truss is now gonna get £115 grand a year for life for having been PM, even for such a short time? You can see the motivation to do it with a reward like this. You just can't lose. Truly failing upwards if ever I saw it. It's grotesque having to give these people this taxpayer money, regardless of how good they were and a downright travesty for the really crap ones like Johnson and Truss.

 

[Tiffany]

Wow, Truss doesn't even have to work, if she doesn't want too, with that little nugget of a payment every year, just for 45 days of work.

 

[Arantor]

I find it odd that Hunt doesn't want to go for it, given how he competed for the position previously.

Not really; in the previous competition he came eighth out of eight - and that's from the current MPs. The only reason he was tolerated as chancellor is because he has a functioning brain and isn't a hardcore neo-liberal/libertarian compared to Truss/Kwarteng. But he's not liked because he's the kind of MP that will remember to expense for 27p's worth of petrol but 'conveniently forget' that he owns several properties for the purposes of tax.

It's like... even though they're all at the trough, some are more at the trough than others.

I did know about the payment to ex-PMs for their service, but until the last few years, there was always a certain amount of honour, integrity and decency (not much, but at least a veneer of it) and no-one was that short in the role. The next shortest PM had 119 days and he died in the role - after that you're veering into the 'has been there a year plus' territory. If you've served the country in the top role for a year, I think some pension in thanks for your service isn't entirely unfair, because it's not an easy job. PM isn't exactly the most well paid job - plenty of MPs have better paid second jobs than the payment on top of MP salary for being PM is.

 

[Retro]

I'd forgotten that he was so unpopular for the position. That would explain it.

Sure it's a difficult job, but so are thousands of others that us regular people have to do and we get sod all at the end of it, especially when getting fired, like Truss did, so I don't agree with that. I'd rather someone like a doctor got it perhaps when they retired if this had to be handed to someone.

 

[Arantor]

I think it might be a nice touch for Labour to put that on their manifesto to do away with it.

 

[Retro]

I think it might be a nice touch for Labour to put that on their manifesto to do away with it.

If I could double Like that post I would!

 

[Retro]

This is more like it. Of course, from Truss's perspective, she'd be dumb to turn down an offer of lots of free money for life. I'd certainly take it and damn the morals.

Starmer joins calls for Truss to decline ex-PMs’ £115,000 annual grant

Outgoing PM urged to forgo allowance amid cost of living crisis and cuts to public services

www.theguardian.com

 

[Arantor]

I think there has been some slight misrepresentation about it and what it means - it’s not “here, have £115k”, but “you can spend up to £115k a year doing things in public office”.

May for example did not claim it all last year, I seem to remember a claim of £57k thrown around somewhere.

 

[Retro]

I see what you mean. Actually reading the article a bit more fully, ahem, I can see that it's like a giant pot of petty cash for conveniently claiming "expenses" on.

Of course, I'm sure that just about anything would qualify as an "expense"...

 

[Arantor]

Well, the theory is that if you’re staying in active politics post-PM, you’re probably not a front-bencher because it’s very normal for an outgoing PM to vacate to their own party and step down as a regular MP (Blair, Cameron), or step down upon becoming leader of the Opposition (Major for example), so the regular MP money might go away but you might still be doing things where the expenses are appropriate.

 

[Retro]

A tenner a week would have been more appropriate...

 

[Arantor]

How much is an iceberg lettuce these days?

 

[Tiffany]

We went shopping yesterday. One of the frozen meats we keep on hand occasionally are beef fajita's. The 8oz bag used to cost $7.00, now it costs $18.99. We were shocked. The cost of our monthly groceries is substantial now with the amount of inflation in the US. We are even saying "no" to the raised costs of some of our favorite items, because it's become so ridiculous. Baking more at home too.

This is going to literally kill people that can't afford the main staples of food. Very frustrated with the state of our economy.

 

[Retro]

Alas, it's about the same here, Tiffs. That price rise is extreme though. None of the food I've bought recently has gone up like that, but I wouldn't be surprised if some items have.

 

[Crims]

We went shopping yesterday. One of the frozen meats we keep on hand occasionally are beef fajita's. The 8oz bag used to cost $7.00, now it costs $18.99. We were shocked. The cost of our monthly groceries is substantial now with the amount of inflation in the US. We are even saying "no" to the raised costs of some of our favorite items, because it's become so ridiculous. Baking more at home too.

This is going to literally kill people that can't afford the main staples of food. Very frustrated with the state of our economy.

The US has an infamously more expensive rate of shopping versus other countries.