When the strong help the weak, it makes us all stronger

Former PM Gordon Brown’s budget analysis sums up Liz Truss’s government plans perfectly. Wouldn’t it be good to be governed by grown-ups again?

Instagram/UK Parliament

“After the right turn, the U-turn. But Kwasi Kwarteng’s panicked climbdown still leaves £43bn in tax cuts. Growth won’t pay for them so spending cuts worse than austerity will – an amount equivalent to closing every English school.

“The U-turn isn’t a change in strategy. Let’s not forget:
✅ £19bn corporation tax cuts
✅ Doubling tax-free giveaways on share options
✅ £2bn for employees who declare themselves self-employed
✅ £1bn tax cut on dividends
✅ Bankers’ bonus free-for-all
✅ No new windfall tax

“By rejecting a new windfall tax, the Chancellor is effectively handing billions to oil and gas tycoons. Meanwhile, the typical family on Universal Credit face losses of up to £2,000 a year if, as seems possible, the government links benefits to earnings, not prices.

“With the UK facing a one-dollar pound, £3tn in debt and a million more unemployed, we have a government that destroys accountability, sacks trusted public servants, and lights fires precisely when and where they should be putting them out.

“It’s all there in Britannia Unchained, co-authored by Liz Truss and Kwarteng: the pound can collapse, borrowing and mortgages can soar, pensioners can freeze, kids can go hungry, as long as the economy is ripe for venture capitalists freed from regulation and, ideally, tax.

“But even venture capitalists know they don’t get rich on their own. Public investment – in education, infrastructure, skills, and health – is vital to create growth.

“It’s time this government remembered that age-old truth: when the strong help the weak, it makes us all stronger.”

▫ Gordon Brown, Former UK Prime Minister, now UN Envoy for Global Education and WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing.

GOING FURTHER:

— AUTHOR —

▫ PMP News reporting.

Sources

• Text: This piece was first published as a Twitter thread and turned into an article on 4 October 2022 with the purpose of reaching a larger audience. It has been minorly edited and corrected. | The author of the tweets writes in a personal capacity.
• Cover: Flickr/Number 10. - PM Liz Truss at the United Nations General Assembly. | 21 September 2022. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)