Truss about to collapse under the dead weight of British economy

Ensuring Socio-economic Justice

Crescent International

Rabi' al-Awwal 20, 1444 2022-10-16

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s shoulders are too fragile to carry the weight of a sagging British economy.

The pound sterling is sinking vis-à-vis the US dollar and may fall even lower against the greenback.

Truss, however, is the architect of her own misfortune.

Raw ambition blinded her to the reality that Britain is not only sick but on its deathbed.

Within a month of becoming prime minister, and after a gruelling leadership contest in which she scraped past Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin wonderkid of finance, reality has caught up with her.

Truss does not have the competence to turn the British economy around.

Being a female does not give her any advantage either.

Truss dumped her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng on October 14 even though he followed her advice on cutting taxes to revive the economy.

She essentially shifted blame for her policy to the ousted finance minister.

In his resignation letter, Kwarteng said Britain faces an “incredibly difficult” situation and “following the status quo was not an option”.

“As I have said many times in the past weeks, following the status quo was simply not an option,” he wrote.

“For too long this country has been dogged by low growth rates and high taxation – that must still change if this country is to succeed.”

While Britain has been sliding into economic oblivion, it has been hastened by the sanctions imposed on Russia.

Two of Britain’s leading newspapers, coming from the right and left—the Sunday Telegraph and the Guardian—gave similar prognosis for what ails Britain.

Sanctions against Russia have led to rising prices, especially fuel price.

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and the west imposed sanctions, the Guardian wrote: “The shockwaves from the Russian invasion of Ukraine will cut UK living standards by £2,500 per household, lead to more persistent inflationary pressure and slow the economy to a standstill next year, economists fear.”

Market confidence has crashed and with the pound sterling in free fall, the Bank of England has had to intervene to raise interest rates faster than planned.

This has caused a surge in mortgage rates, causing more pain for ordinary people.

The British economy is held hostage to the interests of international bankers and investment managers.

They insist on their interests being protected. They do not care what happens to the people.

Most people’s standard of living has fallen drastically.

It has been underway for decades but recent developments have hastened the fall.

There is talk of a palace coup to replace Truss with Rishi Sunak.

Will he be able to rescue Britain’s economy?

It seems highly unlikely.

There are deep structural problems in the British economy.

Discontent is bound to spill over into the streets and may even lead to violence.

A dark, cold winter awaits Britain (as indeed in much of Europe) that will be punctuated by strikes and chaos in major urban centres.

Welcome to Britain’s status as a third world country.

This is the price of following Uncle Sam who is prepared to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

The price for this folly has to be paid by the Europeans while the US sits safely across the pond!