With the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor, we have now had four different Chancellors in a matter of a few months. What will overseas investors who dominate the markets make of this?
It will surely not instil confidence in the stability of the UK and its financial management. Liz Truss has not helped by apparently backing tax cuts and then now back-tracking on those commitments. Corporation tax will now rise as originally planned making the UK a less attractive place to invest. The Truss “high growth” strategy is floundering.
The gilt market is gyrating as the Bank of England planned to halt further QE and then changed its mind to stabilise the market while the FCA has allowed pension funds to pursue risky investment strategies which led them into panic selling of property funds and other assets.
Let us hope Mr Hunt can halt this merry-go-round. But what future is there for Ms Truss as Prime Minister? Not a long one in my view. She has not demonstrated confident leadership and her public statements have been quite dire. In a few months I think she will be gone.
I have decided to join the Conservative Party so I might get some say in who will lead the Party in future. I have supported the Party in the past – for example I helped Boris Johnson become Mayor of London although that turned out to be a questionable decision after London became the cycling capital of the world and the road network was severely damaged. But I never joined as a Member.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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