The best and most delusional coverage of Britain’s near economic collapse

“Kwasi Kwarteng’s budget is a moment in history that will radically transform Britain”, columnist Allister Heath wrote quiveringly in the UK’s Daily Telegraph on September 23. If that sounds startlingly prophetic, reserve your judgment until you get to the end of the first paragraph:

This was the best budget I have ever heard a British chancellor deliver, by a massive margin. The tax cuts were so huge and bold, the language so extraordinary, that at times, listening to Kwasi Kwarteng, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, that I hadn’t been transported to a distant land that actually believed in the economics of Milton Friedman and FA Hayek.

Less than a week later, the £45 billion tax cuts — which, in a real twist, primarily benefit the country’s highest earners — have sent shock waves through financial markets, the value of the British pound is plummeting off a cliff, and the Bank of England has had to intervene to restore some stability. This hasn’t stopped a certain section of the British press from defending UK Prime Minister Liz Truss with the same intensity and enthusiasm that Truss displays for pork markets.

Heath has stuck to his guns, arguing on Wednesday that Truss must “hold her nerve as the world tips into a calamitous recession”:

The PM must hold her nerve. Her vision is exactly right for managing the transition to a post-Brexit economy built on a sustainable expansion, rather than debt-fuelled mirages.

And The Daily Express, which gave the call (a mere three weeks ago) to “Put faith in Truss to deliver for Britain”…

… is now reporting on Truss promising “no U-turn from ‘the right plan'”.

And finally, a piece so daft it becomes kind of brilliant — Conservative peer Daniel Hannan (also known as Lord Hannan of Kingsclere because Britain is a parody of itself) argues it’s not the tax cuts causing these economic catastrophes, it’s the mere hypothetical possibility that someone other than Truss might be in charge some day. Obviously:

… what we have seen since Friday is partly a market adjustment to the increased probability that [Labour leader] Sir Keir Starmer will win in 2024 or 2025 — leading to higher taxes, higher spending, and a weaker economy.