Opinion: Truss is Hunt(ing) for stability…

I want to deliver a low tax, high wage, high growth economy. It’s what I was elected by my party to do. That mission remains” – Prime Minister Liz Truss (14.10.2022)

Today the Prime Minister sacked her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt. If you think things will be smoother from now on. Well, I hate to tell you, but things are not getting turned around that quickly.

This U-Turn doesn’t change the financial forecasts or the distress that the financial markets has had of late. We are hearing talks of low tax and “growth” from the Prime Minister. That means Truss isn’t over the biscotti “mini-budget” that broke the financial markets … which has destroyed the gilt and the mortgage market.

Now Chancellor Hunt has to change things, but just reading here statement from the Press Conference today. She seems fixed to continue where Kwarteng left off.

Just read here:

We owe it to the next generation to improve our economic performance to deliver higher wages, new jobs and better public services, and to ease the burden of debt. I have acted decisively today because my priority is ensuring our country’s economic stability. As Prime Minister, I will always act in the national interest. This is always my first consideration. I want to be honest, this is difficult. But we will get through this storm. And we will deliver the strong and sustained growth that can transform the prosperity of our country for generations to come” (Truss, 14.10.2022).

Truss can say all the words she wants, but they are meaningless when there is no sincere action. The financial markets needs stability and well rounded choices of policy. The latest moves has created more hectic mess, which is adding costs on the citizens and their lives. It isn’t like the Prime Minister and her previous Chancellor has done due diligence.

Prime Minister Truss really needs to re-consider her ways. The sacking now of Kwarteng seems more like hackwork. Only done to appease, but her Press Conference only shows her true intentions. The “mini-budget” is in her mind and spirit. Why else speak of “lower taxes”?

When you are firing someone over the tax-cuts for the wealthy and big-businesses. That is the reason for the distress and issues in the first place. It is clear that Truss haven’t learned anything or seen the ramifications of the recent actions.

You would think the actions of Bank of England was the warning sign that got the duo to act sooner. However, they just thought it was within it’s right and not a red flag. That’s why Truss should have done more and been more concerned. Nevertheless, that wasn’t her vibe and this is why she has waited this long…

Hunt has a mountain to climb to fix the mortgages, gilts, pensions and the building confidence in the Pound Stirling. The cost of living crisis is just growing and Truss own government haven’t made this any better.

Crikey… I wouldn’t like to be in Hunt’s shoes right now. No matter where he steps there will be crocodiles or pirates to capture him. There is very few steps that can keep on land and in safety. However, if he continues to raise the sails and try to go fast. We will most likely see further damage to the economy. Peace.

Opinion: Kwateng was forced to fall on the sword…

On the 6th September 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng MP was appointed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and he only lasted until the 14th October 2022. He only lasted 1 month and 8 days or 38 days. While his predecessor Nadhim Zahawi MP lasted only 63 days from July to September 2022. So, in the recent time it’s not an office to hold onto.

What is striking is how horrific the policies, the tax-management and the whole fiscal policy has been in this short of time. Kwarteng has been able to destroy all confidence in certain markets. His sort of financial instruments and planned efforts to create “growth” only have caused more harm. There is a certain uncertainty and instability of his efforts. In such a manner that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had to come out with a stern warning, which haven’t been common in regard to the Chancellor or His Majesties Government in London.

Kwarteng MP has been able to destroy the confidence in the gilt market, mortgage market and devalue the pound. He only needed a month to do all of this. That’s because of the fancy biscotti’s served to hedge-fund managers and the richest elite. The promises of lenient taxes… and other favours for the ones who has vast pockets. While he had to scrap, dismantle and create more austerity measures for the poorest in the nation. That was the plan of creating “growth” and was the solution, which he had signalled out.

The Prime Minister Truss has sacked him after only 38 days in the office. Nevertheless, she is not without a fault here. She stood by him and trusted his judgment. They both have defended and been vocal for it. It isn’t like Kwarteng was alone doing this. Yes, maybe he held some factors and didn’t have huge conference on every matter. However, Kwarteng was supported and ignited by Truss. If not.. she wouldn’t have spoken like she did at the Conservative Party Conference on the 5th October 2022.

It is only a mere week ago and not ancient news. Though the Bank of England has come in to save the financial markets. That is only necessary, because of the faulty and lack of trust in the process. The lack of confidence and the general of feeling won’t be anything better soon. It isn’t like the Prime Minister will create a better atmosphere or change the narrative in a significant way. Her ways isn’t like that and the inept cronyism of the Tories are self-deprecating right now.

Kwarteng is a victim of his own actions. No one should feel sorry for the man. Neither should anybody feel sorrow for the headache and issues internally for the Tories either. It is all self created and the citizens are paying the price. The Tories are accepting the higher prices, the costs of living is spiralling out and the “mini-budget” is the latest biscotti that caused havoc.

Truss will not give way or change in away possible. That’s not happening… Kwarteng MP was forced to jump on the sword, but he did it all to himself. It’s not like he couldn’t have changed sooner and only seen after the first weekend after the revelation. He could have smelled the fire and know there was trouble. However, Kwarteng decided to be bold and he lost everything doing so. Peace.

United Kingdom: Kwasi Kwarteng MP resignation letter to Prime Minister Liz Truss (14.10.2022)

Nigeria: Debt Management Office – Clarification by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on Bloomberg’s Report on Alleged Debt Restructuring (13.10.2022)

Malawi: Ministry of Agriculture – Mwk30 Billion Fertilizer Money Missing Allegation (13.10.2022)

Kenya: The National Treasury & Planning – Kenya’s Financial Position is Sound and Robust (13.10.2022)

Opinion: PM Truss isn’t oozing confidence

What our Budget has delivered is security for families for the next two winters. It has made sure we will see higher economic growth, lower inflation and more opportunities. The way we are going to get our country growing is through more jobs, more growth and more opportunities, not through higher taxes, higher spending and his friends in the unions stopping hard-working people getting to work” – Prime Minister Liz Truss (12.10.2022).

Today’s Prime Minister Questions in the House of Commons has truly exposed Prime Minister Liz Truss. If your reading the Hansard alone… you know things aren’t going smooth. Prime Minister Truss wasn’t answering questions with credibility. The short amount of time her reign has been and this PMQ only proves how inept she is.

This is really striking as she was taking over for the corrupt and incompetent Boris Johnson. It should be easy to be better and start to deliver campaign promises of 2019. However, Liz Truss cannot do that and only can go rogue.

It is clear that Keir Stramer and Ian Blackford is exposing her lack of responsibility. They must be giddy that she’s the current PM. Truss is answering Blackford about lack of building nuclear power plants, when Blackford was raising the bar about rising prices on mortgages. That just shows how inept she is and thinks she can bamboozle everyone.

The Prime Minister should reconsider the “mini-budget” or the biscotti, but she doesn’t seem concerned about the consequences in the gilt market. Neither the rising mortgages or the costs of living in general. People are getting saved by a thread by the energy prices, but destroyed by inflation and rising mortgages prices. If not they companies or funds securing their pensions are crashing. So, the PM should have had some cleverness and ability to answer for her choices.

The PM is still instead saying stuff like this: “We in the Conservative party understand who pays our wages—it is the people who get up every day to go to work and the businesses that are set up. Those are the people driving our economy and we will be unashamedly pro-growth, pro-business and pro-opportunity” (Truss, 12.10.2022).

She isn’t helping herself or her cause. If she is afraid of internal squabble or dagger in the 1922 Committee. The PM hasn’t been her long and she’s not creating any sort of stability. Neither is there any promise in her words. This is burning down the shop and hoping nobody is noticing the dumpster-fire. That’s how she’s acting and it’s not a good look…

This PMQ was brutal. I have seen plenty and read lots of Hansards over the years. This was just a waste and Truss seems out of order.

It doesn’t help with this final quote either: “I think the last thing we need is a general election” (Truss, 12.10.2022).

Nothing gives her an edge and neither is there any promise. It is just utterly disgraceful. As the PM she should stand up and be responsible. Instead, she is trying to overshadow her own actions and what her chancellor has done. It has all backfired… and Truss cannot even stand tall and face the music.

Truss just wants the dance, but don’t know what to do when the music stops. Peace.

A look into Mzee’s 60th Independence Speech [a story about coffee and the pipeline]

For the 35th time or the 36th time that President Yoweri Tibuhurwa Kaguta Museveni has addressed the nation in the Independence Day. This year its the 60th year since Uganda got independent from the United Kingdom. That day should have been held with fanfare and celebration across the Republic. However, the most vital and important place to be was at Kololo in Kampala. Where Museveni together with foreign dignitaries was at a bash. Which lasted and lasted.

President Museveni knows how to hold lectures and long one too. So, I will only take a few paragraphs here and there. That’s the ones that stood out to me. Because there is a lot of flesh and bone in a two hour speech and nobody with a sane mind wants to fact-check that on a whim. Therefore, I am only looking at snippets and addressing them as I see fit.

Like this one: “These achievements, have been in spite of the stiff opposition we have been facing from the parasites and their foreign backers, such as the Monitor Newspaper. To take an example, this paper, on the 22nd of May, 2022,it said that: “Coffee deal stinks; but key culprit will not be punished”. In other words, Museveni is committing a crime by trying to add value to the Ugandan Coffee” (Museveni, 09.10.2022).

By saying this we know his the Hawk Limited, which wasn’t addressed in the Parliament report. As the Government of Uganda and Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited has made agreements, which is practically creating a coffee-bean monopoly to a company that isn’t really built yet. Neither is the coffee factory built or ready for the levels of production either. That’s why this whole deals stinks and could easily destroy the agricultural output with the marginalized agreements, which isn’t benefiting the free-market or the spirit of producing it either. This is not an incentive or an adjustment anyone asked for, but a problem and bottleneck, which the President himself has created.

While on the subject. This paragraph is just amazing:

After that, I engaged the Nestle group in Davos. They made it clear that they already had their factory for coffee processing in the UK and would not build a new one. Hence, we had to remain as Raw-Material producers, getting only 5% of the value of the coffee we grow. They, moreover, try to muddy the water by claiming that “blending” of the different coffees can only take place in Europe etc. We told them that Uganda had all the varieties and the blending would be done here. That has been the war, I have been involved in until I got the Vinci Company to help me. You heard how some of the MPs were talking in that war. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, had built a coffee processing factory in Bukoba, in Tanzania, near the border of Uganda. When I heard of that, I linked our people with that effort. They were producing an end product known as “Star Coffee”. Unknown to me, the officials of Uganda, allowed that effort to die out or get stunted. What blindness and betrayal this is!!” (Museveni, 09.10.2022).

It is interesting that Museveni mentions Nestle, which is only this year opening up a Coffee Processing Plant in Mexico. So, this means that Museveni is lying about the fact or that’s so long ago that the Nestle company has changed their perspective. Nevertheless, I don’t believe Coffee can only be processed in Europe. That is deliberately false and a lie. Just to malign Europe and direct his displeasure with Europeans in general. In this regard, there are already coffee processing plants in Uganda. Just to mention one other, which has been operating since 2015 is in Bushenyi district and run by APCU Union. This plant alone is sufficiently supporting 6,000 small-coffee growers in the Bushenyi district. So, the UVCC agreement with the monopoly is dismantling and destroying for instance that processing plant, which is already in operation since 2015. It just shows how his not interested in other visions than his own. His actually betraying the ones that already has started and is operating, which was also described earlier this in a Parliamentary Report. A report that the President don’t mention or even cares to assess. It’s his way or the highway…

On another note, he speaks of the petroleum pipeline:

Recently, there was yet another manifestation of Imperialistic arrogance and hegemonism by elements in the European Union Parliament whereby they decreed from Brussels that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline should not be constructed, until those arrogant actors permit us to do so. Parasitic elements from that part of the World, have been causing problems for Africa and the World for the last 500 years” (Museveni, 09.10.2022).

It is really astonishing the ways that he puts this. That’s why you know this is “his oil” and he feels tampered with. He isn’t describing or explaining the grievances of the EU Parliament Motion. Only describing them the worst way possible and putting them in sinister political context. Instead, of trying to defend with proper arguments for the continuation of it. While again maligning his detractors with language that isn’t fitting for a grown man of his stature, but we know that is common practice from him.

Well, enough for this piece, will write one more about his speech. Since it was over 30 pages and there was one more tale that needs to be addressed. It’s coming on the page as soon as it is finished. Peace.

Opinion: Truss isn’t appealing to the masses…

I’m ready to take the hard choices, you can trust me to do what it takes. The status quo is not an option” – Prime Minister Liz Truss (05.10.2022).

Today’s speech was a massive rant. The new Prime Minister Liz Truss clearly have a lot of weight on her shoulders and cannot contain her frustration. Nevertheless, this wasn’t a confidence boost or a speech for the ages. Instead, this will go down as an abysmal attack on the opposition and the ones who don’t see the world as she does.

Prime Minister Truss is in a peculiar position. She is inheriting 12 years of Tory government reign. The PM should be solid and granted to steam ahead with her majority. However, the recent “mini-budget” and “growth plan” has differed and practically destroyed that. It isn’t anything in sight of hope or better conditions. Instead, people should be worried what else she can do or reckless behaviour her cabinet can do in the future. Because, it is obvious that nothing is set or isn’t an option for further destruction.

Her speech wasn’t made with intension of unification or solidarity. No, it was boosting her own ego and position. That’s what it was all about. This was to galvanize the few that believes in her and her cause. She is changing everything, but has no hold in the 2019 manifesto or within the realms of her own party. That’s the gist of it all…

Prime Minister Truss is out of bound and withering away. She isn’t building up confidence or trust. The living wage crisis, energy crisis, the failing of the NHS and the prolonged agony of austerity measures aren’t making things better. In coordination with the damage of the “mini-budget” which is still felt by the way. It isn’t like it all went away and the financial markets are up and running. No, this has already hurt and will continue to be painful for many.

Her end is just fatiguing really: “We must stay the course. We are the only party with a clear plan to get Britain moving. We are the only party with the determination to deliver. Together we can unleash the full potential of our great country. That is how we will build a new Britain for a new era” (Truss, 05.10.2022).

It is just pointless sloganeering and not doing anything. Just like her promise to cut all “EU Red Tape” which is really amazing if it was true. Since her party is bound the Withdrawal Agreement and the stipulations in it. The Tories has signed off an agreement and has to honour that one. Therefore, there is certain aspects the Tories has to uphold and businesses, if they want to trade with the EU they just have to comply with. It can be different rules in the UK, but if they want to enter the Single Market of the EU. The UK businesses has to comply and follow the rules to get in. Therefore, I have hard time believing this. Just like UK citizens has to apply for VISA and be non-EU member at customs now. There is more hurdles and this wishy-washy words will not do anyone any good…

PM Truss continues where Boris left off. She is doing no good. She is really showing her incompetence. Her team isn’t helping her either. She speaks of taking Britain forward, forward to where exactly?

She has already taken one hard choice and that broke the camels back. That made the Bank of England reignite the markets and using funds to buy gilts. The pensions has been in jeopardy and the mortgage industry as well. While the people still has costly energy to pay for. It isn’t like Truss is coming with any sort of commendable solutions.

Alas, she will just be there and promise a better tomorrow. While not having anything to offer. Peace.

Opinion: Kwarteng’s change of heart…

What I am looking at is the growth plan and delivering what is a radical plan to drive growth in this country, to reduce taxes, to put more money that people earn in their pockets” (…) “No, we talked together, I said this is what I was minded to do and we decided together, we were in agreement that we wouldn’t proceed with the abolition of the rate” (…) “We can always have a debate about when we could’ve made the decision, but the important thing is we’ve made the decision and we can now move forward with making the push for the growth plan” – Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on BBC Breakfast (03.10.2022).

The Biscotti Mini-Budget launch of tax-cuts for the wealthy and the richest of the Kingdom has backfired. This has been seen with how it has destroyed the confidence in the Pound Stirling and the trouble it caused on the gilt market or in the mortgages market.

It doesn’t help that after the effect it, the Chancellor says: “We get it”. Well, the self-destruction and the losses are already been seen over the last few days. The Bank of England had to come in and salvage the gilt market. Because, the Chancellor and Prime Minister Liz Truss clearly didn’t get what they were doing.

The BDO United Kingdom analyst even wrote this about the Chancellor: “Kwasi Kwarteng is a strong ally of Truss’, and is broadly aligned with her stated economic policies, including on windfall taxes, raising income tax thresholds and reductions in Capital Gains Tax. As Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng will be taking on a Treasury under immense pressure, with Truss’ proposed sweeping tax cuts leaving large holes in the public finances. Historically he has been a proponent of low taxation and free markets, but when confronted with the growing calls for direct government intervention to support businesses and households through the current energy crisis, these leanings will be put to the test” (John Hickman – ‘What to expect from the new Prime Minister – Liz Truss’ 01.10.2022).

These words are the most true as they can be today. The Chancellor and Prime Minister did test the market, but that already has a huge cost. The implications of holding on and trying to give tax-cuts to the riches. Could either end up in a quick rebellion in the Tories party itself. The Tories MP could easily have sent enough letters to the 1922 Committee and end Truss reign quickly. That’s why they are backtracking now…

The policies are what these two actually believe in. Truss and Kwarteng did really think it was legit and was reasonable to do all of it. That’s why they held on and pushed the “growth plan” which was a short-trip to recession and a faster downturn. There are already ramifications for several of home-owners and companies holding on to the pensions. This will linger on and will not be settled by the change today.

The Tories are really at a cross-roads, because they will push for austerity, but also more perks for the wealthy. While the Tories will take away benefits and ensure less deficit in the budgets ahead. The Tories can act like this was one off, but we know it easily could come more like this.

Kwarteng and Truss has just showed what they are willing to do and risk. They risked the financial market, the mortgage industry and people’s pensions, just so the wealthy could get more in their pockets.

No one can trust these two, neither have confidence in their decisions or choices. Because, they just trying to cover the richest people and give them leeway, while the poor have to struggle even more. Peace.