I have, before, compared William Keegan to Nuggan:
First, let us be clear that it was not the recent collapse of confidence in the financial markets that threatened the Conservative party’s reputation for economic competence. That reputation was destroyed not by Truss and Kwarteng, but by the ill-judged decision to hold a referendum on our membership of the EU, and the calamitous consequences.
Sigh.
The Brexiters were not sovereign: the financial markets were.
Sigh again. Markets are always sovereign. As they should be of course. For markets are only the interaction of 7 billion people. It’s just folk doing what folk do. And the people are not only sovereign over what some baby kisser decides should happen, they should be so sovereign.
Failing to grasp that is an original sin of political economy.
I of course feel that the results, giving the finger to the foreigners, were wonderful. It would only have been a calamity if the Remainers had won.
Needless to say, I also feel that Truss losing the PMship was also a calamity. What the UK needs more than anything is lots and lots of fracking; right now!!
Who was in charge before Brexit? Unelected bureaucrats with no specific concern with UK who really hate the City of London? Who think they are above the market? DMMFL.
Best time to frack was 5 years ago. Next best time to frack is now.
Rhoda… Isn’t that the gist of the whole article?
Career “Civil Servants” know better than Politicians, and should be allowed to run the place and not be interfered with?
Grikath, I don’t follow links to the Graun, I let braver souls read the articles for me.
Why do they never explain why those civil servants or whoever often cock it all up and therefore should not be trusted to have charge of anything, much less an economy?
s/economy/weather/ See if it still makes sense.
A question I often ask as well. If the Sir Humphreys are such towering intellects, why isn’t Britain an enviably free and prosperous nation? Unless, of course, that’s not what they want. Erecting M. Guillotine’s excellent patent aristo decapitator on Parliament green would focus minds wonderfully.
The good point about the article is that is exposes Murphy’s policies as completely absurd as the w markets would send the pound south 25% on day one and 75% after a week.
For me the argument it seems to be that the EU can ‘buck the market’ which may explain why it has so many seemingly intractable problems and is in an almost zombie like state.
VP – it does surprise me that the EU and EU nations come out with ‘mini-budget’ levels of bad economic news on at least a weekly basis, yet the market remains unruffled.
MC,
They’re protecting their own. They’re all technocrats who’ve been to the same universities and have a revolving door to governments, international finance NGOs, banks and other assorted institutions that claim to govern our everyday lives for our own good. From Wiki:
That the Grauniad is still salty about BRExit is a gift that keeps on giving.
I note Lagarde has soared on Irish TV and said inflation appeared from nowhere…
《For markets are only the ~~interaction~~ manipulations of 7 billion people. It’s just folk doing what folk do.》
Lord Spudcup’s response would be to legislate to tell the market what to do, and imprison those who refused to comply.
Here’s the Lagarde clip: https://twitter.com/CapTweed/status/1586105893326065664