Truss's government truly is the Boris continuity option ....

 ....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.

Do we #trust #politicians? - Maria Miller Poll

ComRes interviewed 1,015 British adults online on 9/4/14 on the subject of her resignation and then the data was weighted to be representative of all GB adults aged 18+. 

Here's the data, and here's my 10 headlines from it

1) In terms of her over-claiming expenses and her resignation statement 49% think its made no difference to how they trust politicians and 49% think its made them trust politicians less

2) 88% think she was right to resign and 82% think she should have resigned as soon as it emerged she overclaimed her expenses

3) 38% think her behaviour on expenses is typical of some but not most MPs and 38% think its typical of most MPs, but not all

4) 49% think the problems with MPs' expenses have remained about the same as when they first emerged in 2009

5) 32% think David Cameron handled the problems regarding Maria Miller's expenses very badly and 30% think quite badly

6) 30% think none of the party leaders would be best at dealing with MPs' expenses if they were Prime Minister and 23% don't know

7) 76% think David Cameron showed an error of judgement by saying “we should leave it there” after it emerged Maria Miller overclaimed her expenses

8) 71% think by initially offering his support to Maria Miller when it emerged she overclaimed her expenses, David Cameron showed he did not genuinely want to “clean up politics”

9) 61% don't think that overall, the current system of MPs' expenses is adequate

10) 72% think that the way people act in their private matters, such as with their expenses, bears a reflection on their ability to do their job as a Minister

#top10 summary from 2013 state of the nation #poll of #britain

british future commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a 2013 "state of the nation" poll

2515 online interviews using 24 questions with residents of Great Britain aged 16–75 with the fieldwork taking place 23rd – 27th November 2012

data is weighted to match the profile of the population, scores are out of 100

my top ten summary of the findings is below.

1) me and my family - looking ahead to next year - had the biggest net optimism score (+33 an increase of 27% on the same Q in 2011)

2) the city/town/village where I live - looking ahead to next year - had the biggest % increase in a net optimism score (a 500% increase from +2 in 2012 to +12 in 2013)

3) people's negativism reduced about: britain (by 50%), europe (27%), british economy (47%)

4) pride - 61% would rather be british and people are most proud of the NHS (45%), the armed forces (40%), Team GB (38%) and the royal family (36%) 

5) the most divisive issues are: tension between immigrants and those born in britain and between tax payers and benefit claimants

6) most important for being british - free speech, respect for the law, speaking english, treating men and women equally

7) more likely to get to the top in this country - if you've been to a private school and more so if you are a man

8) 72% agree that the NHS is a symbol of what is great about Britain and we must do everything we can to maintain it

9) 79% think if large companies and highly paid individuals  paid more tax in this country it would make britain's economy stronger in the future

10) wrong track and weaker - 46% think things are off on the wrong track in britain and 56% think that due to the recession britain will be weaker for years to come

full report is here

ht to e church blog who gives a big ht to BRIN