....but sadly not in a good way. And they don't seem to realise or understand what their problem is. Lets look at two examples.
To avoid scutiny of their budget from the Office of Budget Responsibility they call last Fridays event a "Fiscal Event". And as concerns providing any actual detail to backup what is proposed, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng tells us we'll get a "medium-term fiscal" plan on November 23rd. Previously this had been promised for the new year.
At the heart of the problem is an attitude that "Rules don't apply to us". Once you've accepted that premise, then of course its OK to find any dodge to get round the OBR scrutiny rules. And the media's choice of language is hardly better. They have, at least, refused to use the weaselly "Fiscal Event" language, instead using the term "Mini-Budget", which is almost as bad. The one thing we can all agree on is that there was nothing mini about what was announced last Friday.
Daily spot rates against Sterling (Source Bank of England)
But the rules do apply to Truss and her government, and strangely, the fiannciers in the city of London are the body of people currently doing the most to get them to understand that. The market's reaction to the birth of Trussenomics - or maybe TrussKwasism - is to say something like "If all you've got is rhetoric with no credible detail then off course we're going to short the £, and anything else we can make money on". And its the lack of detail which is adding the uncertainty into the financial markets, from which the shorters are benefiting.
Or take the example of Prime Minister Liz Truss's Chief of Staff Mark Fullbrook, who was been paid by his own lobbying company. This 12 year old Conservative Government has become so used to lobbyists and big companies buying their way into positions of power, that they don't even understand why it might be viewed as a bit fishy. As any punter wanting to avoid been scammed will tell you, the golden rule to follow is "If its too good to be true, then it is" Maybe our government needs to relearn that rule. If a company wants to pay the salary of your Chief of Staff, then it is fairly obvious they're not doing it for the greater good. They're doing it to gain information, power and influence.
In a U turn on this issue a Downing Street spokeperson announced early on Tuesday that Mark Fullbrook will go on special advisor contract to end ‘ongoing speculation’. So thats all right then.
For 12 years the Conservative Party has run our government, and in that time they've continually demonstrated that they don't think the rules apply to themselves, that they can pretend its a level marketplace whilst awarding contracts paid for with our money to their mates, who then make super large profits on them, and that its perfectly OK for companies to buy their way into posiitons of power.
"We believe it is our duty to uphold Conservative values for future generations. With your help, we aim to guarantee that our children, and their children, can live in a Britain where:
Our individual freedoms and right to social justice are respected and upheld
Our right to free enterprise and industry is protected and encouraged
Our dignified institutions and traditions are safeguarded and carefully maintained"
Source: The Conservative foundation website
Until somebody in power in the Conservative Party starts to take the social justice, free enteprise and safeguarding our institutions words above seriously, then none of this is going to get any better. Perhaps Labour taking its biggest poll lead over the Conservatives for more than 20 years may prompt somebody into the right action.
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