Truss is preaching the discredited and toxic gospel of neoliberalism

Soon, the focus will return, and the collapse of many people's economic prospects will dominate once more. As winter approaches, it will become clear that our politics is spectacularly lacking in answers.

- George Monbiot

Why? Because the doctrine destroying our condition of life is the doctrine Liz Truss has promised to extend to new extremes. She is fanatically devoted to an ideology misleadingly called Thatcherism or Reaganism (as if they invented it), but more accurately described as neoliberalism.

This doctrine insists that politics submits to "the market", which means, when translated, that democracy must submit to the power of money. Any impediment to the accumulation of wealth - such as public ownership, regulation, unions and protest - should be torn down.

For 40 years or so, neoliberalism in the UK has been unchallengeable. For the Conservatives, the dogma cannot be shaken by mere evidence of harm. For Labour, it sets boundaries that cannot be crossed, for fear of punishment by the billionaire press.

Neoliberalism promised it would generate growth, and that its benefits would trickle from the rich to the poor, enhancing everyone's conditions of life. But growth has been slower during the neoliberal era than during the years before Thatcher, Reagan and others came to power. And it has been overwhelmingly captured by the very rich - neoliberalism is the pump that shifts wealth from the poor to the rich.