Just one chance

Fairly new PM, Liz Truss, had all summer along with her choice of Chancellor on how to deal with the cost of living crisis once she was declared Leader of the Conservative Party.

And then was gifted 12 extra days to fine tune the plan during the period of national mourning.

What they came up with was tax cuts for the (mostly) rich, with the richest pay much less tax.

And then uncosted borrowing on top of that to pay for fuel price freezes.

There are, remember, supposedly free marketeers.

Only their beloved free markets took a very dim view to these plans.

So, the free marketeers had to double down on the actual free markets, that economists, traders, bankers, etc, did not understand the brilliance of the plan.

The uncosted plan.

Because by insisting it wasn't a budget, no finacial impact assessment was needed. I don't know about you, but that sounds very familiar.

Some kind of assessment is due in the middle of November.

The (free) markets waited for the Bank of England to say and do something.

The BoE said they would do something, at some point.

The pound plunged, but recovered a little. It's still about $1.07, but the Guilts increaded in interest 4x, making medium and long term Government borrowing much more expensive, and those downgradings by Moody and others won't have helped either.

And that interest rise will be passed onto mortgage holders very soon, with someone with a £250,000 mortgage expecting to pay an extra £800 or so a month. On top of increased cost of living.

And because the pound is worth less dollars now, energy, priced in dollars, will be even more expensive, and all good will increase in prive, fuelling inflation, making the cost of living even higher.

Truss had one chance to show she was serious about Government.

She blew it.

The markets are not impressed, so her scope for policies are now much reduced, also having support in the PCP slump.

All in three weeks.

And though the chaos yesterday, neither she or her Chancellor spoke, she wasn't seen, and he refused to engage wih reporters on the street.