A FAIRLY interesting mini Budget, wasn’t it?
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has managed to infuriate half of the known universe.
If he’d delivered it nude, while rogering a goat, he could hardly have outraged more people.
The markets didn’t like the Budget one bit. The Pound dived quicker than Tom Daley.
Never mind — it will recover. And other currencies are also tanking against the dollar.
The International Monetary Fund didn’t like it either. That’s quite a good sign as they’ve never been known to be right about anything. It’s a pointless organisation.
The Labour Party screamed blue murder, as you might have expected.
They really hated Kwasi for cutting the top rate of tax from 45p to 40p.
Immoral and wicked, they kept shrieking.
They’ve clearly forgotten that the top rate of tax under the last Labour government was 40p, for all bar one solitary month of the party’s time in office. Now, put your toys back in your pram, there’s a dear.
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A bigger problem is the Bank of England. It pressed the panic button and bought up £65 billion of government debt.
If it hadn’t, it said pension funds might have collapsed.
Hmmm. It’s certainly true that the money markets aren’t keen on the mini Budget. And we’re probably due another interest rate rise.
But other than that, was it any good? And will it persuade people to vote Conservative again?
The early indications are not very cheering. Labour has romped into a 17-point lead in the opinion polls.
Basically, Kwasi’s gamble has less than two years before it pays off or the Tories are sunk.
I live in one of those famous Red Wall seats. And the people I speak to are not terribly pleased with Mr Kwarteng’s work.
Dogged by low wages
There’s no great objection to the notion of cutting taxes. Not even giving a huge tax cut to the very well-off.
Labour politicians may scream about how the rich are being favoured, but most voters are not quite so obsessively spiteful.
Yet nobody seems to think the mini Budget does very much to help THEM.
There was no real bonus for middle-income earners, for a start. And they are the people who CAN help to kick-start an economy and provide that much-needed spurt of growth.
Around here, pubs and restaurants are closing down because the rapidly rising costs mean they would have had to put their prices up by 40 per cent or more.
And because the north of England has been dogged by low wages for decades, people cannot afford price rises that high.
So they’ll stop eating out. Stop going down the pub. Stop buying from the shops.
That’s not a way to kick-start an economy, is it?
Nor did Kwasi offer much help to those at the bottom of the pile. A reduction in the base rate of tax to 19 pence in the pound won’t bring in very much money to the poorest among us.
Kwarteng should have taken more people out of the lowest tax bracket altogether.
And provided more help for those in the middle, who no longer have any disposable income.
If he doesn’t do this soon — and invest in the north of England’s industry and infrastructure — there will be precious few people voting for the Tories at the next election.
PayPal un-freezes speech
A WEEK or so ago, online payment company PayPal shut down the account of the excellent British organisation, the Free Speech Union.
Some witless airhead in PayPal’s offices decided they didn’t like the FSU, which offers support to people who have been persecuted for things they have said.
Cue an outcry by people as diverse as the comedian Jack Dee and the former footballer Matthew Le Tissier.
I’m delighted to report that PayPal has now backed down and the Free Speech Union has got its account back.
Just proves that sometimes it is worth standing up and making a fuss when one of these big tech firms does something deranged.
MP Huq is just yuck
IT was a good speech from Sir Keir Starmer at the Labour conference.
OK, there weren’t many jokes. But that’s because he’s not generally a barrel of laughs, is he?
There was, for once, a bit of passion in his delivery.
But then, off stage, we had the antics of the odious Rupa Huq.
The Labour MP described the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as being “superficially” black.
What Huq meant was that you can only be properly black if you sign up to Rupa’s victim charter.
If you’re successful and black and don’t believe left-wing gibberish you’re not really black at all.
Huq has rightly been suspended by the party and has apologised.
But it’s a reminder that while Starmer has done a fine job of making his party electable, it is still full to the brim with racists like Rupa Huq.
My cup ran dry
WHAT does Harry Maguire need to do to be dropped by England?
Bring a gun on to the pitch and shoot members of his own side?
But then you might ask what Gareth Southgate has to do to be sacked as manager.
England’s worst set of results since the early 1950s and the bloke is still at the helm.
I have never looked forward to a World Cup so little.
The venue, the England team, the manager, the prospect of a nil-nil draw against Iran in the first game – I think I might give it all a miss.
Oh please, don't turn 007 into an Octopussy
THE new James Bond is going to be more “sensitive” and in touch with his feminine side, apparently.
OK, fine. But then he’s not James Bond, is he? There’s no reason someone shouldn’t make a film about a nice, sensitive, caring secret agent who never misgenders his enemies. But it’s not James Bond.
It’s like making a film about Dracula and portraying him as a vegan. “No, no, I don’t want anything to do with your neck – but I did notice you’ve got a really nice lentil bake in the fridge. Do you mind if I have some?
A right result, Italy
CONGRATULATIONS to Giorgia Meloni on winning power in Italy.
If nothing else, she’s annoyed all the right people in the UK.
You can hear the BBC’s Europe Editor, Katya Adler, shrieking “fascist!” all the way from Rome.
Meloni is a long way from being fascist.
She’s just a mildly Eurosceptical Conservative – sort of Liz Truss except with better hair.
And she’s part of a surge of support for right-wing parties across the Continent.
It doesn’t matter how much the Left howls abuse, the backlash against failed liberal policies will continue, from Stockholm to Seville.
Black activists march against Biden
BLACK activists have been marching in Austin, Texas – to demonstrate AGAINST immigration.
They are demanding that President Biden must close the border with Mexico and build a wall.
They say Hispanic immigrants take black people’s jobs.
Oh, and they also want reparations for slavery.
In which case they had better file their claim forms first to the Ghanaian government, whose ancestors rounded them up and sold them.
Oh my days…
I SPENT yesterday with foam in my mouth snarling at neighbours – and then getting unaccountably scared if people came near me with water.
Yes, I was doing my bit for World Rabies Day.
I mean, how else are we supposed to commemorate it?
Yesterday was also the International Day for Universal Access to Information. WTF?
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Meanwhile, Monday was International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
So I bet we’re a whole lot safer now – except for the rabies.