New Right

We seem to be lurching from crisis to crisis. Many are homemade. Due to the national mourning for our beloved Queen, we had a useful period of quiet and national solidarity. Last week it came to an end, and the government came forward with programmes that favoured the rich, penalised the poor, and squeezed the middle class. Fairness has gone out of the window, and the markets are questioning the government's financial competence as the pound slid to its biggest low since 1977. This will lead to further increases in prices as everything bought from abroad will be more expensive.

One area worth focusing on is fracking as it illustrates the government's lack of competence, and more importantly trust. The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised no fracking unless it was shown to be safe. Our new Prime Minister during her leadership campaign promised no fracking without local consent. In effect this meant no fracking as local communities would not agree to it because of safety and environmental concerns. The new chancellor a couple of months ago stated that fracking would take at least 10 years to influence our gas supplies. So why frack when the same investment could deliver relatively immediate effects from renewable energy. Yet Rees-Mogg called those against fracking luddites and suggested that fracking will be delivered by taking planning decisions away from local government. Can we trust this Conservative government?

This Conservative government is trying to rebrand itself as a new government. It is very ideological in its approach and rejects pragmatic solutions in favour of extremist right wing ideas. Cutting taxes for the rich but increasing them for the poor is not only unfair but evidence suggests that it hampers growth and productivity. Look at the Germans or Scandinavian countries. Why can we not do better? Demand better.