Best Of

We must stop being in hock only to the bond markets.

No one voted for the bond markets.

https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/2060784820058235342

Someone tell the fucking idiot that the electorate keeps voting for governments who spend far more than they raise in taxation, so we did vote to be in hock to the bond markets.

And the Greens promise more of the same.

No, they promise to do a lot more of it.

Not necessarily.

Were they to crash the economy, requiring an IMF rescue, we might be forced to retrench like Greece...

Right now the IMF are forecasting the UK fiscal position to improve from around the middle of the G7 pack to having the smallest deficit as a % of GDP in the next few years. We are the only major economy expected to significantly reduce our deficit in the years ahead.

At the moment.

Kemi is lowering standards, ferfuxake, what a terrible idea.

Builders as Tory MPs? I mean no wonder she keeps on getting mullered in elections.

Badenoch: I want teachers and builders to become Tory MPs

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/30/badenoch-want-teachers-builders-future-tory-mps/

'Future Tory candidate selection, she said, would focus on the five C’s – cleverness, charisma, communication skills, conviction and Conservatism.

“I will not allow people who do not share our beliefs to use the Conservative Party as a vehicle to further their personal ambitions,” she added.'

What is capital C Conservatism? People have very different ideas about that.

Thesedays around half the people who might be interested in Conservatism are more excited by Reform - never mind if they are conservative or Conservative.

Will they have to provide certification for cleverness, whatever that is as she palpapbly can't according to US sources

Will she have yo evidence she has any charisma, she has none.

Will they only communicate on Twitter like her?

Will they have the conviction to deny saying she wanted to go to war with US v Iran when she definitely did, or will you need a conviction for web hacking?

FFS

She makes Truss look like Theresa

Kemi is a software engineer and systems analyst not a lawyer or PPE or Humanities graduate so I suppose she wants some more practical people like her

FINALLY...Kemi brags about being an Engineer!

The word has connertations of the Golden Industrai era, a Golden technology age, hands dirty in oil.

But NO

"Kemi is a software engineer and systems analyst "

That is plain English (at the very low level of work experience she had is)...

"I'm sorry your Computer is not working please turn it off at the plg, count to 30 and see if it works, if it doesn't ring the IT Call Centre back and me or one of my 200 colleagues sat in this old warehouse will tell you to do the same again"

The Kemi-hate is strong with this one.

As is the misogyny.

Couldn’t it just be because she’s a Tory?

Kemi is lowering standards, ferfuxake, what a terrible idea.

Builders as Tory MPs? I mean no wonder she keeps on getting mullered in elections.

Badenoch: I want teachers and builders to become Tory MPs

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/30/badenoch-want-teachers-builders-future-tory-mps/

'Future Tory candidate selection, she said, would focus on the five C’s – cleverness, charisma, communication skills, conviction and Conservatism.

“I will not allow people who do not share our beliefs to use the Conservative Party as a vehicle to further their personal ambitions,” she added.'

What is capital C Conservatism? People have very different ideas about that.

Thesedays around half the people who might be interested in Conservatism are more excited by Reform - never mind if they are conservative or Conservative.

Will they have to provide certification for cleverness, whatever that is as she palpapbly can't according to US sources

Will she have yo evidence she has any charisma, she has none.

Will they only communicate on Twitter like her?

Will they have the conviction to deny saying she wanted to go to war with US v Iran when she definitely did, or will you need a conviction for web hacking?

FFS

She makes Truss look like Theresa

Kemi is a software engineer and systems analyst not a lawyer or PPE or Humanities graduate so I suppose she wants some more practical people like her

FINALLY...Kemi brags about being an Engineer!

The word has connertations of the Golden Industrai era, a Golden technology age, hands dirty in oil.

But NO

"Kemi is a software engineer and systems analyst "

That is plain English (at the very low level of work experience she had is)...

"I'm sorry your Computer is not working please turn it off at the plg, count to 30 and see if it works, if it doesn't ring the IT Call Centre back and me or one of my 200 colleagues sat in this old warehouse will tell you to do the same again"

The Kemi-hate is strong with this one.

As is the misogyny.

We must stop being in hock only to the bond markets.

No one voted for the bond markets.

https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/2060784820058235342

They pretty much did vote for them, when they voted in Governments who spent more than they took in tax.

Populism in a nutshell. It sounds an easy hit. Bond markets? Yeh, bastards. All evil. All billionaires. etc etc. We don't need them. F*ck 'em.

Back in planet reality, they are are just our creditors.

We borrow and we owe.

Increasingly thanks to the destruction of the Final Salary Pension system they are foreign.

But it doesn't matter how you dress it up and squeal and rage and shout and shout until you are sick that it is not fair, the country borrowed the money and the country owes the money.

We must stop being in hock only to the bond markets.

No one voted for the bond markets.

https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/2060784820058235342

They pretty much did vote for them, when they voted in Governments who spent more than they took in tax.

Indeed.

Consistently run a budget surplus and there's little the bond markets can or will do.

Yes.
Any ideas how to do that and be re elected?

Seriously?
Go in, day 1, do it. Take an axe to spending left right and centre. In particular, axe some whole programs, rather than trying to trim everything.

Welfare, pensions etc goes in the blender, comes out cheaper and less wide ranging.

Bin most of the MOD, sack all the procurement staff, buy standard kit wherever possible. It's apparent we've no meaningful capability left anyway, so why are we wasting all the cash?

Same time, bonfire of regulation, and get the entire tax code down to 4 sides of A4 at 11 point text. Simple, straightforward taxation. Tax consumption rather than employment as far as possible.

Explain that it's going to be painful, that the payoff won't be instant, but it will all be worth it.

Grit your teeth and get on with it for 4 years, hopefully without too many riots. With any luck, by then your deregulation and tax simplification will start to get the economy motoring, and your fiscal position is improving substantially. Use some of your accumulated savings to pay for tax cuts as you approach the GE.

Also - be straight and level with people about what you're doing and why. Avoid scandals, drop any misbehaving MPs instantly. Ensure no one has a just cause against you, other than a dislike of your actual policies.

Do all that, and you'll be hitting Starmer levels of popularity in years 2-3, but should bounce back magnificently as the payoff starts to occur.

Serious cuts to welfare are guaranteed to tank the economy because every penny of that gets spent on consumption. That coupled with a rapid shift to consumption taxes would cause a depression-level recession.

Wealth and property tax otoh would have little effect on consumption whilst providing an opportunity to cut the deficit and eventually reduce debt.

Level the playing field on income tax / NI so that earned income is not taxed at higher rates than investment/pension income.

Much data on the Loser here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/map-shows-states-where-trump-s-approval-rating-has-crashed-most/ar-AA24qgA7?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=fa870dbabe884f9be47aee9413538622&ei=12

Key Points
Net approval has declined in every state since Trump returned to office in January 2025.
The steepest drops are in Republican-leaning states, not just Democratic strongholds.
Several battlegrounds, including Florida, Ohio and Nevada, have shifted into net disapproval.
Early pro‑Trump advantages have narrowed sharply, even in his strongest states.
The political map still resembles the partisan divide, but with weaker margins across the board.

It is not obvious -- at least to me -- how he can stop, or even slow, the decline in his support.