Bye Bye Boris

[Borg Refinery]

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng reportedly met with hedge fund managers for a champagne reception just hours after his mini-Budget.

The financiers are said to have egged on Mr Kwarteng to go further with his ambitious tax cutting plans – sparking fears that those present could have made money from the resulting crash in the value of the pound.

Following his mini-Budget on Friday, Mr Kwarteng said there was “more to come” in a Sunday interview. This hint at more cuts spooked the markets and likely contributed to the fall in the value of the pound when Asia trading opened on Monday.

Two hedge fund bosses have told associates that the chancellor was a “useful idiot”, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

One source said that guests at the drinks reception, which took place on the evening of 23 September, told Mr Kwarteng to “double down” on his radical tax cutting plans.

Liz Truss should use the party conference to distract from a policy retreat
In all my years reporting on opinion polls, I’ve never seen anything like this
In all my years reporting on opinion polls, I’ve never seen anything like this

Truss’s approval rating plummets following mini-budget turmoil
“He was high on adrenaline. His big thing was: ‘Look, we’re not going to do stuff incrementally. We really believe in this stuff and that’s what we’re going to do,” one source told the paper.

Calling for an investigation, the Liberal Democrats’ Sarah Olney said: “While struggling homeowners saw their mortgage bills spiral, it seems the chancellor was sipping champagne with hedge fund managers profiting from the falling pound.

The party’s Treasury spokeswoman added: “How out of touch can you get? We need an official inquiry into this now.”

However, a source close to the chancellor refuted any suggestions that financiers had any privileged knowledge from being at the party.

They said the claim was “total nonsense”.

“The government’s ambitions on lowering the tax burden are hardly a state secret,” the source added. “The growth plan published on Friday included a commitment to review our tax code to make it simpler, better for families and more pro-growth.”

<p>Businessmen were reportedly ‘egging [Kwarteng] to go further’ after mini-Budget </p>
Businessmen were reportedly ‘egging [Kwarteng] to go further’ after mini-Budget

(REUTERS)
One person familiar with the meeting told The Sun that the businessmen “were full of praise for his Budget and then egging him to go further”.

They added: “I mean, Jesus.”

It has previously been reported that Mr Kwarteng dined privately with a hedge fund investor and his former boss, Crispin Odey, during the leadership contest.

Mr Odey told the Financial Times this week that his bets against UK government bonds were the “gifts that keep on giving”.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Kwarteng admitted his mini-Budget had been done “at very high speed”, but said he was “100 per cent convinced that this was the right plan”.

The chancellor appeared to concede he was not good at “reading” market reaction. “It’s very difficult to actually anticipate how markets react to anything and if politicians were really good at reading markets, I suggest they probably would be market traders,” he said.

Liz Truss ‘could be gone by Christmas’ unless she backs down to ‘livid’ Tory MPs
Mr Kwarteng added: “One of the things that really ruined my sleep is the markets. That sort of thing is trying.

“I’ve had difficult times reacting to what’s happening but you know, I am very confident that this is the right thing to do and I am a really, really great believer in Britain.”

Mr Kwarteng has been contacted for comment.

The same Kwasi Kwarteng who didn't care if the sterling crashed (after Brexit).

The same Brexit hedge fund folks (Crispin Odious) who were involved in the 'Brexit Big Short'.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1574310113749483520

Meet Crispin Odey who hired Kwasi Kwarteng to work for him, donated £900,000 to pro Brexit campaigns then made £Millions by #ShortingThePound when Brexit crashed $GBP. Coincidentally he made even more when Kwarteng destroyed #PoundSterling on Friday.

 

[Borg Refinery]

Would be nice to have a leader with the better qualities of Corbyn but without the bad stuff; and with the qualities of someone like John Smith, someone like that must exist somewhere in or adjacent to the party.

 

[sear]

M #18
Maybe things wouldn't be so complicated if you hadn't chosen to be born in a foreign country.

#18, #19, & #20
I can't make sense of it. Were things this bad 40 years ago, and I was just too wet behind the ears to recognize it? Or has the world simply gone stark raving mad ?! It's so bad, it's not even plausible.

Thanks m #18. That's the clearest concise snapshot I could have hoped for. Problem is, it's more than enough to convince me it's time for me to brush up on my ostrich defense technique. Where's my shovel?

 

[Borg Refinery]

Members of Boris Johnson’s staff are alleged to have had sex at a Downing Street party on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.


Two couples were seen getting “intimate” by several witnesses at a raucous party which continued past 4am, according to The Times – with one couple seen going into an office “with the lights off”.


Another of couples was seen “feeling each other up” in a No 10 kitchen before retreating into an office room, the newspaper said. They came out of the dark room “flustered”.


The incidents occurred on the evening of Prince Philip’s funeral, which the Queen was forced to attend on her own.


Strict lockdown rules were in place at the time which limited social gatherings.


The latest claims have emerged as the former prime minister came under pressure over a joke he allegedly made about a 13 November 2020 leaving do being “the most unsocially distanced party” in the UK. [..]

The same Boris who said 'let the bodies pile high' during COVID - who said 'fuck business' after Brexit; who said 'fuck the families' of 7/7; the man who said that money spent on historical child abuse investigations was money 'spaffed up the wall'; the man who made ugly anti-semitic remarks in his own book (etc).

The new Tory Party has a leader who insults homeless people when they ask questions of him:

I read the other day that the very poorest in this country get a marginal tax rate of 80% in what is fast becoming the unfairest country in the western world and proudly so; the Tories are proud of inequality and unfairness and see it as a virtue and a way of strengthening people. That is what we are dealing with. They are actually proud of their bad record.

It's catastrophic.