We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

And yet, Truss is far from alone in lacking political audacity, in seeming to prefer the small bureaucratic task of managing public life rather than overhauling it. In this, she’s fairly typical of today’s managerial elites. Also, Truss’s political clarity seemed to improve during the leadership contest. She even became a little more daring in what she said – for instance, by bristling against Net Zero policies. No, this doesn’t prove she’s the leader we need, but it is a reminder that politicians often find themselves, and their cojones, in the heat of battle. Will the pressures of the crisis similarly bring out Truss’s slightly edgier side? We should hope so.

Brendan O’Neill

6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Mr Ed

    I have seen indications of Ms Truss having a plan for a sweeping energy price cap covering retail and industrial, wholesale markets, capping the price that can be paid for gas, with a figure of £100,000,000,000 floated to be ‘borrowed’ to pay for it. Anything along these lines is pure insanity, it will decrease supply and encourage consumption, as well as accelerate a Sterling crisis (further increasing gas prices in Sterling terms) and national bankruptcy.

    How about abolishing VAT on domestic fuel (reducing the price by 1/21th), fracking and digging up some coal?

    And permitting disproportionate force to be used on eco-terrorists in self-defence, not limited to proximate risk?

  • Patrick

    I think a cap is pure shite if it is set too low and therefore involves no amount of demand destruction at all. BUT… what if a cap is set at a level which will hurt but not cripple? That’d save collapse now and still drive demand down. I don’t think anyone this winter is going to say ‘well that’s all over now – let’s crank up the heating’ are they?

  • Paul Marks

    It is very difficult to roll back the state – even Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan only did so to a limited extent (and the bureaucracy was a lot less powerful and partisan then than it is now).

    Mr Ed makes a point which is really about the bizarre monetary and financial system that now exists in all Western countries (even Switzerland since the 1990s when the final link between money and a physical commodity was broken).

    The modern view is that government spending (and “Woke” Corporate spending – although it is hard to tell the difference these days) can be totally unlimited – as “money” can (and should) be simply lights on the computer screens of governments and banks.

    Perhaps that is so – in which case a wonderful New Age for the Western World is upon us, where governments and “Woke” Corporations need not worry about work and real production – as they can spend as much “money” as they like on anything they wish (even sponsoring “Drag Queen” events for little boys in once conservative American towns – which the leading international banks are doing).

    However, if the theory is not correct – then things will turn very ugly in the Western world, including in the United Kingdom.

  • Steven R

    I like to think the Powers That be, be they governmental, corporate, media, banking, or what have you, are kept up at night knowing the system they have been building for a century is ultimately doomed to failure, and when it does all come crashing down that they and theirs are going to end up hanging from streetlights.

    Clearly, I like to delude myself.

  • Bobby b

    Is O’Neil decrying that Truss would be more of a representative than a ruler? Seems off . . .

  • Paul Marks

    Steven R – they, the international establishment, know the present system is going to fail.

    But they do not intend to return to sanity – certainly not. They would mock the very idea that Western nations could return to the sort of economic realities that, for example, existed in the United States as late as 1912.

    The international establishment want what J.M. Keynes and co wanted in the 1940s – an international (world) fiat currency, and international policies (world “governance”). This is the agenda of the World Economic Forum and the United Nations (Agenda 2030, Sustainable Development Goals).

    Humans (who they do NOT consider to be beings – they deny moral agency, free will, see the Israeli philosopher who is the pet of Dr Schwab) are to have every aspect of their lives controlled (in “smart cities” – which they will have no practical way to leave) by government and the “pet” corporations.

    Will their new system work? No, it will be a total disaster – and will lead to societal collapse.

    But they, the international establishment, are now totally committed to this line of policy.