It’s no secret that we’ve been in the grip of a government of far-right zealots. What gets less public attention, though that might now be starting to change, is that current Conservative ministers and the policies they espouse are themselves in the grip of extreme-right, excessively influential lobbyists who pose as ‘think tanks’.
These think tanks have undisclosed funds and undeclared funders behind them that allow them to wield undue influence on government while acting on behalf of a small number of extremely rich people. As the Conservative Party foists ever more right-wing leaders and ministers on us, the influence and the policies of the government and far-right think tanks becomes ever more closely aligned. Under Liz Truss they moved physically into the heart of government. They are advisers and cheer leaders for an ideology to which Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were already well disposed to.
The sole ambition of these shadowy institutions is to influence policy and legislation for the benefit of the financial interests they serve. The best outcome now for the country would be for the entire cabinet and their think tank advisers to be removed from No 10 once and for all.
The unholy alignment of think tank ideology and Trussonomics
Several of the most right-wing think tanks are based at 55 Tufton Street, handily placed for trips to and from Downing Street. They claim to offer objective analysis based on respectable academic or market research, but in fact they have a single mission: to insert market fundamentalist ideology into every aspect of government thinking.
In essence, the think tanks want to engineer policy in favour of exceedingly rich, mostly right-wing individuals or hedge funds. Many would welcome the demise of core institutions of the state, such as the NHS, so they can sweep in and replace them with organisations geared to private profit in which they can invest. So close is the relationship between Tufton Street and the current government, that several think tank staff seamlessly transferred to No 10 as advisers to Truss and her ministers as soon as she was appointed prime minister.
The names of think tanks mimic independent or quasi-academic bodies that might carry out objective research. Examples are the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, the Centre for Policy Studies, and the Policy Exchange. Led by Donkeys’ latest video, just released, expands on the subject of how think tank ideology has seeped into the thinking of this Tory cabinet.
Hedge fund interests and wealthy individuals
The ultimate beneficiaries of this unholy alliance between government and think tanks are large hedge fund interests and wealthy individuals. Tory politicians have for years been groomed with a steady and relentless drip of ideology, fed to them by economic extremists who look to turn the UK not so much into ‘Singapore on Thames’ but ‘The country that lost its soul’.
They’ve been waiting patiently for the moment their grand plan for the UK could be realised by a government weaned on its doctrines. Truss’s government was the perfect host for their parasitic ambitions. They advocate simplistic and already discredited political policies. The best-known example, trickledown economics, has failed wherever it has been tried. But Truss was primed by the think tanks to take the UK down their self-serving path, although ruinous for the country.
Brexit is a key element of think tank ideology. We have abandoned our significant influence within the EU on the back of a false promise that we’d ‘get back control’. Instead we’ve become a puppet regime to oligarchs, hedge funds and rich economic bullies, substantially from the far right in the US, who see the UK not in terms of a ‘special relationship’, but as an unmissable financial opportunity.
Truss’s legitimacy as PM was dubious, her legacy is catastrophic
It’s worth repeating: Truss was made PM by a small number of Tory party members. She claimed legitimacy on the back of an inherited parliamentary majority from a general election held nearly three years ago, a mandate based on policies totally different from her own.
The consequences are evident: the pound has slumped, future interest rates have soared, and with them mortgage repayments. Growth forecasts are dire and predicted inflation has climbed to punishing levels. The Bank of England has had to intervene to shore up the economy and protect pension funds from collapse. All in day’s work for the ideologues. The consequences of her ideology were glibly justified in advance by Truss as ‘necessary disruption’, as if the suffering of millions of citizens lends it some virtue.
Respected economists have debunked ‘trickle down theory’ ever since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan first peddled it in the 1980s.
Truss risked capsizing the economy and she took pension funds to the point of collapse. In all other walks of life, Truss would have lost her job instantly for such gross irresponsibility.
Every U-turn reveals further government incompetence and deception
Armed forces minister James Heappey’s admission that “no one in the cabinet realised the mini-budget was flawed” shows the Tories have lost all credibility for economic competence. Previously, the story from government was that Truss and Kwarteng didn’t tell the cabinet the details of the mini-budget. Now we’re told the cabinet knew about it but collectively failed to recognise that what they were approving was going to be disastrous.
Heappey sought absolution in his disclosure that not one voice of dissent was raised around the cabinet table to the mini-budget proposal. This doesn’t absolve them but suggests that those sitting around the cabinet table are steeped in the Truss economic ideology and cannot judge when circumstances make that ideology reckless. It shows the cabinet has insufficient expertise or independent thought to bring checks and balances to their decision making.
Truss held her ideological position until beyond the point where serious damage was caused and then reversed course blaming anyone but herself for her predicament. She was also devoid of judgement when it came to what the electorate, political circumstances, or the natural environment calls for. Having her at the helm was like having the captain of the Titanic Mk II operating under the conviction that sailing into icebergs will do us all good. Kwarteng as her first mate shared that belief. Together they sent us on a collision course with reality.
Another non-apology won’t wash
The electorate, opposition MPs and many Tory MPs, loudly rejected what Truss offered. It is ironic that the great god ‘the markets’, at whose temple Truss appears to worship, has aligned its judgement with the assessments of the majority of voters. The markets steamrollered the ideology Truss and Kwarteng adopted, and with that the notion that the country’s short or long-term problems are addressed by policies proposed by Truss.
There is another reality. Judging by the support in the polls for putting the Labour Party in office – currently 30% ahead of the Conservatives – the electorate will not stomach another two years of austerity, never mind another decade. With austerity as their central policy, the Tories are destined to lurch from one political crisis to another.
Trying to gain credit for a quick apology has become the go-to device for incompetents. It’s like a murderer seeking to get off the rap because they turned themselves in quickly. Suggesting, as Truss did, that the problem was “moving too far too fast for the markets” implies that irrational external forces obstructed a perfectly viable decision. She gave no apology for the blatant folly of the policy she tried to impose. It seems fundamentalists can never apologise for being fundamentally wrong.
A tipping point has been reached
It is breathtakingly insulting for the Tories to go on thinking they can replace one incompetent prime minister after another, by-pass the electorate, and expect the country to find that acceptable.
The supposed party of pragmatism and competence has presided over the damage caused by Brexit (no – Brexit benefits for the country won’t come from purist, free market, low tax policies), the unnecessary deaths of people during the pandemic (no – Johnson didn’t get all the big calls right), Johnson’s serial lying and trashing of our values and reputation internationally (yes – that does matters), the economy wrecking ineptitude of Truss, and a total reversal of the policies on which she stood for office.
The Tory myth-making machine cannot be allowed to continue. They are a busted flush, out of touch, out of ideas, out of time, beyond the pale. If they had an ounce of shame or a shred of decency, then when Truss makes her final visit to King Charles III to formally tender her resignation, they should allow the voters a general election. The country is being treated with disdain. We cannot afford any more of the Tories’ shambolic, discredited ideological rule over our lives or the country’s future. A general election is essential.
