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The calculation must surely be that releasing the OBR report would have a *worse* effect on the pound & the markets than continuing with the secrecy & obfuscation. When you look at what the secrecy & obfuscation did to the pound & the markets last week, this truly beggars belief.
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I confess I sometimes questioned my conviction that secretly-funded Tufton Street lobby groups masquerading as ‘think tanks’ were dangerous & disgusting. Mostly, I think, because so many people I respect treated them as trusted contributors. There’s no joy in being proved right.
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I see now why they came after me & my modest little radio show with big shot lawyers & an obvious determination to silence questioning & criticism: they rightly thought they were on the brink of getting into power & making the worship of unaccountable wealth government policy.
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@mrjamesob
I think we’re in one of those historically, constitutionally *and* politically significant periods where Parliament must act to protect the population from government. The problem is that the population’s depending on politicians who waved through Boris Johnson’s myriad offences.
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I’m trying to retreat from my recent & uncharacteristic sweariness on Twitter but, goodness gracious me, it’s hard sometimes… twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrun…
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@mrjamesob
What’s happening now isn’t an aberration, it’s a culmination.
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@mrjamesob
Apparently, Marie-Antoinette never actually said that thing about cake. Jake Berry, by contrast… twitter.com/lisaocarroll/s…
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@mrjamesob
Remarkably, there is no catastrophe of Liz Truss’s creation that cannot be made worse by Liz Truss talking about it.
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@mrjamesob
Brexit hard man wilts... twitter.com/lisaocarroll/s…
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@mrjamesob
This is very classy. twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant…
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@mrjamesob
Director of yet another secretly-funded ‘think tank’ says what? twitter.com/thetimes/statu…
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@mrjamesob
You turn if you want to…
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As with Johnson, they queue up to defend the indefensible then feel a little bit more of their soul slip away when the policy is abandoned anyway.
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An hour is a long time in politics…
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It’s politics built on belief. It has been since 2016. It will always fall apart when it encounters reality. The only question is how quickly.
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@mrjamesob
Is there a precedent for a party conference hearing a speech that so completely contradicts the party line in that morning’s newspapers?
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Not just the front page, either. Pages 6-10 in early editions insist the tax cut for the rich must stay & condemn its critics, with the likes of Iain Duncan Smith queueing up to attack Michael Gove... twitter.com/davidyelland/s…
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@mrjamesob
Despite the u-turn, I think this is going to have a very long tail. There's a lot of industrial action on the horizon & every time they argue that public sector pay rises are unaffordable, the comeback will surely be that they could afford tax cuts for the rich.
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There's a slim but real chance that this u-turn will turn out to be worse for Truss & Kwarteng than sticking with the ridiculous policy. twitter.com/DavidPBMaddox/…
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That’s twice today Rees-Mogg has quoted from Macbeth. Both times he’s advertised his ignorance of what the quotation actually conveys. A florin says he’s got them both from his dictionary of quotations & doesn’t know the actual play from his elbow. twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/…
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He’s absolutely furious about his own status, isn’t he? Derided & abandoned by his former allies, despised by everybody else & all too aware that his place in the history books will be as a deeply dishonest architect of national disaster. You could almost feel sorry for the man. twitter.com/Dominic2306/st…
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One of the most enduring legacies of Brexit is the licence it gave to imbeciles to spout gibberish without consequence. twitter.com/AdamBienkov/st…
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@mrjamesob
Fair play. twitter.com/nadinebh_/stat…
@mrjamesob
LBC Radio show: lbc.co.uk Full Disclosure Podcast: shorturl.at/tyC37 Mystery Hour Game: mysteryhour.co.uk Not even a proper DJ.