The scale of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s task to fix the British economy while convincing his own voters is vertiginous and could be beyond reach, given the muted reaction to his speech at the Conservative Party conference on Monday.
While the markets might have modestly corrected following the turmoil induced by his mini-budget, it is evident that the British chancellor faces a mountainous task in convincing core Conservatives, as the not-quite packed main theatre at the party's annual conference in Birmingham failed to ignite with applause.
The tone was set when Prime Minister Liz Truss entered the auditorium to restrained clapping with at least three quarters remaining seated. It was a raw comment on the poor light in which the government is viewed by its own party, let alone the wider electorate.
Mr Kwarteng’s announcement 11 days earlier of dishing out bountiful tax cuts without them being funded or thought through has been a disastrous start for the post-Boris Johnson administration. One outcome has been some homeowners — who are largely Conservative voters — having their monthly mortgage payments double in the past week.
To some extent the government’s about face on restoring the highest tax bracket to 45 per cent back from 40 per cent had removed some of the toxicity of the highest earners getting the biggest reward.
“What a day,” Mr Kwarteng opened after striding on to stage to a noticeably sedate audience.
“Turbulence — I get it,” he later quipped. There was polite laughter but also glances at phones that showed after a week of plunging prices, there was at least some stability in the FSTE 100 and the pound.
Mr Kwarteng had no option other than to be undaunted by the lukewarm welcome, knowing that failure to turn the economy around in the next few months will cause Conservative support to plummet.
“To grow the economy, we need to do things differently,” he stated without irony.
“We will get Britain moving,” he insisted, repeating the Conservative’s rather insipid slogan.
He made great play of his grand announcements in cutting income tax, corporation tax and national insurance but the applause remained muted.
The front row of Cabinet ministers, including Ms Truss, tried to clap furiously but the humiliation began to tell as few of the 1,000 or so supporters behind followed suit.
But they did come alive when he mentioned the European Union. EU laws had been “holding the country back”, said Mr Kwarteng while promising to “break down the barriers”. The red meat to the party of Brexiteers was duly accepted, but it was a fleeting moment of rapture.
The question is, how credible are the new government’s promises? The great tax giveaway would lead to 2.5 per cent growth in gross domestic product, he insisted.
“We’ve done it before and we will do it again,” Mr Kwarteng said. “Wow!” cried a lone heckler in disbelief.
The unfunded tax cuts — which rely substantially on massive borrowing — are a huge risk, something that business leaders in the audience fully understood.
“This is all very un-Conservative,” one muttered audibly.
Two businessmen who are long-time Conservative supporters spoke to The National before Mr Kwarteng's speech about what they wanted to hear.
“We want to hear a clear path to fiscal prudence,” one said. “They need to plan the growth properly. You can’t just turn on the taps and expect it to flow.”
His friend nodded in agreement, understanding that the impact on the party’s core reputation was based on responsible economics.
“Once you have lost trust, it’s a lot harder to win it back,” he lamented.
As the speech came to an end, the lukewarm applause returned.
“It was very short on detail,” said the first businessmen. “But reducing the corporation tax will help, so those things actually are really good.”
His friend agreed while also bemoaning the lack of detail.
“I thought that we were going to get more substance although I think he did reasonably well,” he said. “But he’s got 100 days to get the detail through and you could tell by the lack of applause that he didn’t fully convince. It’s now just a question of ‘wait and see’”.
Ms Truss will hope that her own MPs and party give her the time to prove her economic gamble rests on solid foundations. If not, her party faces electoral demise, potentially for many years.
She will hope, too, that there will be a good deal more alacrity in supporters jumping to their feet when she makes her speech on Wednesday morning. If she can electrify her audience, then her government may well start the long climb out of the foothills of economic descent.
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include:
- Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
- Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
- Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
From exhibitions to the battlefield
In 2016, the Shaded Dome was awarded with the 'De Vernufteling' people's choice award, an annual prize by the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers and the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers for the most innovative project by a Dutch engineering firm.
It was assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to modify the Shaded Dome to make it suitable for ballistic protection. Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the companies which designed the dome, is an independent international engineering and project management consultancy, leading the way in sustainable development and innovation.
It is driving positive change through innovation and technology, helping use resources more efficiently.
It aims to minimise the impact on the environment by leading by example in its projects in sustainable development and innovation, to become part of the solution to a more sustainable society now and into the future.
Company profile
Name: One Good Thing
Founders: Bridgett Lau and Micheal Cooke
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Tips for entertaining with ease
· Set the table the night before. It’s a small job but it will make you feel more organised once done.
· As the host, your mood sets the tone. If people arrive to find you red-faced and harried, they’re not going to relax until you do. Take a deep breath and try to exude calm energy.
· Guests tend to turn up thirsty. Fill a big jug with iced water and lemon or lime slices and encourage people to help themselves.
· Have some background music on to help create a bit of ambience and fill any initial lulls in conversations.
· The meal certainly doesn’t need to be ready the moment your guests step through the door, but if there’s a nibble or two that can be passed around it will ward off hunger pangs and buy you a bit more time in the kitchen.
· You absolutely don’t have to make every element of the brunch from scratch. Take inspiration from our ideas for ready-made extras and by all means pick up a store-bought dessert.
