My message to the Tories...stop being idiots now!

BOTCHED: Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss failed to explain their approach adequately

- Bernard Ingham

NEVER in all my born days have I known such a confounded political mess. We are now to acquire yet another government within six weeks of the last, without an electoral mandate. It will be scarcely credible if spendthrift Boris Johnson has a second coming, for him to claim he will revert to his successful 2019 manifesto.

The world and our debts have moved on. In any case it is doubtful whether the Tories know what they stand for any more after performing more U-turns than a rattlesnake in a hurry.

It is all the more frustrating that it is a collective own goal.

The Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng emphasis on promoting growth through lower taxes was endorsed by an economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher.

But the whole thing was botched by a collective failure to pave the way with an explanation of how they would secure it while reducing our massive debts. These have been swollen not merely by the £400billion Covid bill but by possibly up to £100billion of new spending to relieve the worst off.

For the Tory Parliamentary Party in a blind panic it was altogether too much to discover tax cuts for the “rich” in a cost-of-living crisis and no inkling of how and when the nation would again be living within its means.

Why did they not clear this up during this summer’s interminable leadership election campaign?