I understand the old guard arent attending the Tory conference.
Disassociating themselves from the fallout .
Along with the ghastly Johnson bidding his time
It’s that bad.
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Liz Truss has refused to rule out real-terms benefit cuts to help pay for her government’s tax-cutting growth plan.
The PM’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, promised to increase benefits in line with inflation.
But asked whether she would maintain the commitment, Ms Truss told the BBC the government had to be “fiscally responsible” and bring debt down.
In May this year, then-chancellor Rishi Sunak said benefits would be uprated by this September’s Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation, which is currently 9.9%, subject to a review by the work and pensions secretary.
Mr Kwarteng has declined to commit to the policy, though the government has pledged to increase state pension contributions in line with inflation.
Failing to keep benefits in line with rising prices would leave some of the poorest households facing a real-terms cut in their incomes.
Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “The idea that the government can afford to give tax cuts to the wealthiest, but not uprate benefits in line with inflation, I think is grotesque.”
I agree with Rachel … 
Prime Minister Liz Truss has just been on LBC with Nick Ferrari. On the specific issue of benefit payments possibly not rising in line with inflation, Ferrari pressed the PM on why she could guarantee help for pensioners but not those on benefits.
In response, Truss said it was difficult for pensioners to “adjust their income” given they are retired, noting that people on benefits are in a “different position” when they can get work.
What sort of reasoning is that … 
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The sooner we have a GE and she is booted out the better.
She isn’t even amusing, she is beyond the pale.
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Its a right old pickle that the tory party have got themselves into - all by relying on the less than insightful membership of their own party. They can’t realistically bin their new PM. There are tory party rules preventing that for a year plus the stick they’d get from everyone if the country had to put up with another period of leadership voting. But few MPs actually wanted Truss before her mini-budget crapped on the economy and fewer will want her now.
So thanks to 80,000 tory party members who were so fooled by Truss (or so unlikely to vote for a non-white candidate) that now the whole party and the whole country are stuck with u-turn Liz. The economically and politically illiterate PM. Quite a pickle indeed.
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As you may recall, I’ve stated before that Truss’s role is to be the fall guy since the Tories know that their time is up and they will lose the next GE irrespective of who leads them into to it. They also didn’t want to waste a potentially useful/good future leader by putting them into a hopeless position now.
Hence why Truss and Sunak were in the final pair, with Truss being the most likely favourite for the reason you alluded to.
I suspect that the real surprise is just how terrible she turned out to be. With this in mind, there will be a fair few MPs in safe seats (or they assume will return to being safe after 4/5 years of a Labour Gov) who will actively get involved in damage limitation.
So I wouldn’t quite throw in the towel on the country not getting an early GE, IMHO. The sooner they get a 4/5 year sabbatical, the sooner they’ll be back in parliament may well be their thinking.
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I hope and suspect you are correct Dextrous. My fingers are well
and truly crossed.
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Tory conference: Liz Truss declines to say she trusts Kwasi Kwarteng
The prime minister was asked several times if she trusted Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng with future policy decisions, but seemingly avoided saying that she did.
“I work very, very closely with my chancellor,” Liz Truss said. The interviewer said viewers would note that Truss did not say she trusted her chancellor. (1)
She was touring a construction site in Selly Oak when she spoke to the media.
(1) Noted … 
Later:
Asked the same question on TalkTV just a short while ago, she said: “I do trust the chancellor, absolutely. The chancellor is a very close colleague of mine, we work very closely together.”
Well, as long as she’s sure … 
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Tomorrow is another day.
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Tomorrow is Trickle-Down Truss Day … the Big Speech - I doubt that we’ll hear anything new, unless LT has her core storage replaced overnight.
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Truss does identify herself as binary 
…code.
Big speech indeed. Under a bit of pressure though. I wonder if in desperation Truss will fall back on tried and trusted material. She might use her cheese speech from a couple of years ago. A sure fire winner, Liz.
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I see Kwasi was sweating heavily when he made his speech?
Sure fire sign summat is up ? 
“Everyone will benefit” from the economic growth produced by her tax-cutting plan, the PM will claim. Whenever there is change, there is disruption," she will tell her activists on Wednesday. Not everyone will be in favour. But everyone will benefit from the result - a growing economy and a better future."
A No 10 source said Ms Truss would aim to spell out her long-term vision in her address, and was planning to speak to Tory MPs in Parliament next week to listen to concerns and explain her plans.
Ms Truss will also say there has been too much focus on redistributing wealth within society, rather than on increasing the size of the economy.
“Instead, we need to grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice,” she will say. “That is why I am determined to take a new approach and break us out of this high-tax, low-growth cycle. We have huge talent across the country. We’re not making enough of it. To deliver this, we need to get Britain moving. We cannot have any more drift and delay at this vital time.”
it’s the same old, same old sound-bites from Trickle-Down Truss - if the rich get richer then “Everyone will benefit” … 
Of course, we haven’t seen a plan yet and we haven’t seen the estimate - so, how big the pie is expected to be and what the ingredients cost are still mysteries … 
Why hasn’t every country been adopting this policy ever since the dawn of man, if it works so well?
It was Reaganomics and thoroughly discredited decades ago.
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Truss never did get beyond the preface to the 50 economics ideas that changed the world book.
Truss is due to start speaking at around 11:00 BST - the speech is expected to be around 25 minutes long.
Trickle down seems to me like you work for a business with an already well paid chief exec. The business has had a bad year or two. No-one is getting a pay rise. No-one except the chief exec who is getting a big pay rise and a big bonus. “This is necessary” he says “as giving me a lot more money in these difficult times will benefit everyone in the business. I will work harder and better because I am getting paid more when the company is not doing well.” And of course everyone will support this decision. Not.
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Comes straight out of Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations (1776)
[Every individual] neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it … by directing [his] industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention … By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
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Since the Bank of England announced market operations to purchase gilts last Wednesday, Westminster politicos have been struggling to get their heads round the intricacies of gilt markets. It therefore comes as no surprise to Guido that Nick Robinson was forced into a correction today, after incorrectly repeating the widely tweeted claim that the Bank of England has spent “£65 billion to prop up the markets” :
The claim is somewhat misleading. The Bank of England pledged to buy gilts to the tune of a maximum of £5 billion a day, over two weeks, to assure markets. This means the maximum possible spend was £65 billion, though the actual number will be far smaller. In reality the bank has purchased around £3.66 billion so far, with yesterday’s purchases coming in at just £22 million. The smaller purchase signals the Bank is comfortable with the current state of gilt markets as its credible commitment appears to have paid off. Guido appreciates that the BBC this time took the effort to get the facts right…
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who should know better as an ex-Bank of England employee, repeated the same line: “The fact the Bank of England had to step in with a £65 billion bailout with taxpayers money is deeply shameful.” It is not a fact.
Firstly, the market operation will be nowhere near £65 billion. Secondly, it is not money from taxpayers, it is from Treasury reserves, with the purchases even having the potential to make a profit on resale.* So her “taxpayers’ money” claim is also incorrect. Robbo we can excuse, he only has a PPE degree from Oxford. The Shadow Chancellor, a trained economist, is deliberately and wilfully misrepresenting the facts for political advantage…
*A market source says that marked-to-market the Treasury is currently in profit on the trade.