The long election campaign continues amid strikes and the growing threat of ‘financial cataclysm’ for many British families
Some 160,000 Conservative Party members, mostly men over the age of 55, living in England’s prosperous south, are casting their votes to elect Boris Johnson’s replacement. And, also for the most part, they want it to be Liz Truss, the current Foreign Secretary.
Truss has changed parties and ideas in his life, and in this campaign he has also changed plans. He said for example that he would introduce a regional salary system for civil servants and the next day he ruled out doing such a thing. The system would reduce the salaries of thousands of police officers or teachers in low-income areas. The plan, according to his clarification, had been misunderstood.
This weekend he is explaining why he said there is anti-Semitism among officials, then gifting the public with a classic stereotype about Jews. They are, according to the favorite to be British leader, likely to create businesses and keep their families together. And she will be thinking what she can do to mitigate the biggest problem that she will have, if she is head of government, on September 6.
The United Kingdom is facing, like other European countries, the consequences of rising prices, with high inflation figures particularly affected by the vertiginous rise in the cost of energy. The increase in fuel prices has had a strong impact on transport and distribution companies, but gas and electricity is on a different scale.
The energy market regulator, Ofgem, sets a maximum price every six months. The year began with a cost of 1,510 euros for a home with average energy consumption. And, according to the forecast of the Cornwall Insight consultancy, which has a track record that gives it credibility, it will have increased by the spring of 2023 to 5,237 euros per year.
Much of the south of England has declared a drought, so household energy consumption is not high, but British consumption and saving guru Martin Lewis, who has enormous influence through his website of the Internet and its television programs, has warned that the country is headed for a rebellion if the Government does not avoid the “financial cataclysm”.
One in twelve civil servants have used or use food banks and many fall just below the threshold that would entitle them to wage subsidies. In secondary schools, in a neighborhood two kilometers from the financial City, teachers raise money and distribute food or diapers to the families of their students. The choice between basic needs is already pathetic, and it will get worse.
Blinded
Lewis and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown have asked the two Conservative candidates to meet to provide a response to the alarm situation. Until now, the discussion between them has been about whether direct aid should be given, even if it is insufficient, as Rishi Sunka already decided when he was Minister of Finance, or taxes should be reduced, as Truss wants.
As Labor has calculated that the benefit of these reductions for those most in need would be one pound a week, it is very possible that the favorite will now present some complementary idea. Meanwhile, Claer Barrett, a columnist for the ‘Financial Times’, has urged readers not to need the 475 euros that the Government will give to all domestic energy consumers who donate them to charities overwhelmed by need.
Unionized workers protest. Railroad employees are going on strike which is disrupting many people’s daily lives and travel plans. The Royal College of Nursing has called a vote of its members to decide whether, for the first time in history, nurses go on strike. The public health service is overwhelmed, with long waits for ambulances and hospitals with ratios of one health professional for every 14 patients.
Boris Johnson’s government was not distinguished by its diligence – it has left 16 public consultations unanswered, to which the interested parties contributed with their writings – but the heat, Johnson’s idle interim role and the long electoral procedure of the Conservatives, repeating Truss and Sunak’s appearances and debates have created a sense of vacuum of government at a delicate moment.
Into that void, John Oxley, a corporate strategist and political commentator, jumped on Friday. In an article published by the conservative weekly ‘The Spectator’, he states that “there are solutions to the housing crisis, the stagnant economy, public order or public health, but the Conservative Party has stopped looking for them, seduced by the cycle of 24 hour news, polls and Twitter scammers.
“Neither candidate offers much hope,” the conservative commentator concludes. “Sunak would run the country like a venture capital project, cutting as much spending as he can without caring about the consequences, and Truss would run it like a village party, with endless enthusiasm and playing old hits.”
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