Liz Truss Makes a Pig’s Ear of the British Economy －トラス首相は英国経済を豚の耳に変える－

The early 19^th century French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, once described the British as a nation of small shopkeepers.  He didn’t mean it as a compliment.  He meant that the British were unphilosophical, unexciting and uncultured, and as conservative as a small scale butcher or baker. 

In a way he was right.  Most countries have experienced revolutions or radical political swings in the modern era.  France swung from Louis XVI to Robespierre.  Germany swung from the avant-garde era of Weimar to Hitler’s Reich.  Meanwhile, Britain avoided revolution or wild political and cultural swings, and just quietly got on with business. 

At least we were quietly and very conservatively getting on with business until Brexit.  That was a pretty significant and radical political change, which seems to have given politicians a taste for sudden leaps into the unknown.  It is as if Britain’s political philosophy had changed from, “Keep calm and carry on,” to “Move fast and break stuff.” 

Our new prime minister, Liz Truss, is certainly keen to move fast and break stuff.  She made radical tax cuts so quickly that she didn’t let independent economists forecast the effects of her changes, which caused serious doubt.  And she seems to have broken the confidence of the international financial community in Britain’s medium term future.  She has cut taxes for everyone, especially the super-rich.  And she is paying for these tax cuts with a huge increase in borrowing.  Clearly this cannot continue for very long.  So the financial markets are no longer willing to buy British debt, or give Britain cheap loans. 

Liz Truss’s plan is to grow the economy so quickly that the massive tax cuts will pay for themselves.  To follow Napoleon’s analogy of a nation of small shopkeepers, Britain’s economy before Liz Truss was like a butcher’s business.  We were selling pork and bacon to the world at a steady price, but the business was growing only slowly.  Liz Truss wanted faster growth, so she shot half of the pigs and replaced them with new, genetically modified pigs with tiny bodies and enormous ears.  She is gambling that the rest of the world can be persuaded to eat the new, pure British product for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Pig’s ear and chips, anyone?