Times are desk-erate
Not since the Suez Crisis has a British PM been so comprehensively humiliated.
Liz Truss was forced to watch in silence yesterday as Jeremy Hunt dismantled her reckless economic policies. The Prime Minister’s credibility has fallen so low that at one point a Cabinet minister was obliged to deny she had taken to hiding under a desk.
The humbling of Ms Truss would be pitiful were it not for the damage she has inflicted. However painful yesterday was for the PM it is nothing compared to the pain households face because of her incompetence.
The cost of clearing up the economic damage she has caused is higher housing costs, a weaker economy and further cuts to public services. Mr Hunt will be held to his word that his priority is to protect the most vulnerable. That must mean increasing pensions and benefits in line with inflation.
The Chancellor should also realise that it is impossible to deliver confidence and security while Ms Truss remains Prime Minister. The Tories have called time on her economic experiment. Now they must call time on her.
More pay, now
Britain’s workers need a pay rise. That’s the simple message from Frances O’Grady as the TUC meets in Brighton today.
She’s right. The country is suffering from the longest squeeze on real wages since Napoleonic times. Workers’ pay is still below 2008 levels at a time when inflation is soaring and food and fuel costs are rising.
This is why so many employees are voting for industrial action. The Government’s response is not to help them, but to threaten even tougher anti-strike laws.
Fairness is an alien concept to the Tories.
A real Rod star
For one Ukrainian family Sir Rod Stewart is not just a rock star but a real rock.
The music legend has found them a home in the UK and paid their housing costs.
His kindness is something we should make a song and dance about.
