It's The Economy, Stupid...

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No matter what anyone might offer as an excuse for the situation, the economy is struggling, and badly. The reasons for this are complex and historical; not simply Covid and Brexit related: they're just the accelerants in the bonfire that's been smouldering away for decades - mostly under the watch of, and at the behest of successive Tory-led governments, no argument - and which has now decided to team up with climate chaos - again of our own doing - to throw us a perfect shit-storm of economic woe.

Always hands-off in principle, the Tories normally sail through on a rising tide of temporarily-induced prosperity (for some), usually by flogging off to the private sector either what was hitherto publicly-owned, or in more recent times, giving back to the private sector that which the British public have bailed out without consultation after the private sector have buggered up what should have been a perfectly good business: think banks here, people. Long supply chains, low profit margins and poor wages just stoke the fires: it's not new, folks.

And now the buggers want to further tax the least well off in society rather than bother themselves with irritating their mates with the niceties of actually participating in society rather than sucking the very lifeblood out of it. And sorry, any remaining Thatcherites out there - there is such a thing as society - we are all vital components of the whole: the economy rests on the movement of money, not the hoarding of it by a very few. Scrooge McDucks of this world take heed: there will be pitch-fork equipped mobs after your blood if you're not very careful.

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