How the British left shot itself in the foot
Plus: Giorgia Meloni’s new cabinet is business as usual
Dear all,
The billionaire and former chancellor Rishi Sunak will be the UK’s next prime minister. He’s risen out of the Truss-Kwarteng chaos promising “stability” and the courage to make the “hard choices” — technospeak for budget cuts and austerity. The tragedy is that this is not only taken for granted by everyone; it’s seen as necessary by most people. That’s because the media has been pushing for weeks a simplistic narrative that would have us believe that the disastrous fate of the Truss government, the shortest in British history, is purely a result of her attempt to push through a “fiscally irresponsible” tax-cutting free-market agenda that spooked financial markets, “crashed the economy”, and ultimately forced her to admit defeat and back down. The corollary to this narrative is clear: governments can only get away with policies that are “approved” by financial markets; whoever defies this rule will get crushed. As I explain in my latest article, the events of the past weeks tell a different story: as bad as their political project might have been, Truss and Kwarteng were punished for challenging the orthodox austerity narrative and defying the British technocratic establishment — first and foremost the Bank of England — not “the markets”. Which is where’s little to rejoice in their defeat, insofar as it has led to a restoration of economic orthodoxy and technocratic rule, symbolised by Rishi Sunak, “the man the markets trust”. Labour and the British left will regret supporting this regressive narrative: even if they win the next election, it’ll be the markets and technocratic establishment calling the shots. Not because they’re omnipotent, but because Labour has helped convince everyone that they are.
I’ve also written a short piece about the recently-formed Giorgia Meloni government in Italy. Meloni has assembled a pro-establishment — pro-EU and pro-NATO —government through and through in the hope that will guarantee her some political and financial stability. But going along with EU austerity and continuing the anti-Russian sanctions will almost inevitably mean growing social and economic instability. Like those that came before, Meloni will soon be confronted with the impossibility of democratically governing a country under the euro.
Best regards,
Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomasfazi