By Denis Sheehan MIH, Publisher, H&C News: Populism’s promise of sunlit uplands comes at the cost of the economy.
Populism promised a lot, the ability to divert £350 million a week to the NHS served as meagre hors d’oeuvre’s to a main course of sunlit uplands. Today’s economy does not resemble any sunlit upland, and £350 million a week was never diverted to the NHS.
So, how on earth have we got to this point?
The beginning of 2022 saw criminal investigations open into illegal parties at No 10 and associated government offices. In late January 2022, twelve ‘gatherings’ came under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, including at least three attended by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister.
The police then issued 126 fixed penalty fine notices to 83 individuals within government whom the police found had committed offences under the Covid-19 regulations they themselves created. Regulations imposed on the UK electorate through daily TV broadcasts. The offenders included Prime Minister Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson, and Rishi Sunak, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, all admitted guilt through paying the fines.
Denials of any wrongdoings however continued unabated, with numerous members of the cabinet and countless Conservative MPs supporting the deceit and lies of their shameless leader.
As new scandals emerged through the early and mid-months of 2022 with a frequency that almost defied cataloguing, defending them became more and more preposterous, unless you were Nadine Dorries or Jacob Rees-Mogg.
In early July 2022, 62 of the United Kingdom’s 179 government ministers, parliamentary private secretaries, trade envoys, and party chairmen resigned from their positions, culminating in Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation on 7 July. Bringing an acrimonious end to nearly three years of political mayhem.
Since that day, government has moved all efforts from the defence of the indefensible to championing their favoured candidate in the race to replace the worst Prime Minister this country has ever had to endure.
At the same time the shenanigans above were transpiring, the economy collapsed.
Inflation is rampant and rising – sterling’s value against the dollar has plummeted – The total trade deficit, removing the effect of inflation, widened by £4.8 billion to £21.4 billion in the three months to April 2022 – interest rate increases this year have pushed borrowing costs to the highest level since 2009.
Dealing with the economic consequences from the political turmoil caused by Johnson and his partners in populism will now be left to one of the two principal co-architects of the whole debacle.
Hospitality, like all business sectors has been bereft of any meaningful policy from government to date in 2022.
Any politicians prepared to do an honest day’s work please step forward.
