New Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt today essentially admitted that PM Liz Truss massively screwed up her mini-budget, as if his mere presence at Number 11 didn't admit the same thing in itself:
Truss stayed on the sidelines while Hunt — a political rival who was tapped on Friday for the top cabinet post — announced that the government would not slash taxes and instead may allow them to rise.
Truss left it to House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, another rival, to defend the government in Parliament, where both opposition lawmakers and some mutinous politicians from the ruling Conservative Party are calling on the prime minister to quit after just six weeks in office.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer pushed the refrain that Truss was “in office but not in power.”
Although there is no general election in sight, two polls published Monday showed Labour more than 30 points ahead of the Conservatives.
“Who voted for this?” signs have been popping up at protests and in opposition lawmakers’ social media feeds.
Well, 160,000 old, white, rich people voted for it, which may have made this crash-and-burn spectacle inevitable.
The Tories have nowhere to go but a general election at this point. I wonder how much they'll drag the country through a horrible winter before they finally admit that.