Who is influencing this government? -and who is funding that influence?

55 Tufton Street, SW1: The most influential address you’ve never heard of.

It’s home to pro-Brexit groups and climate change sceptics. But just how much power over this government is wielded by the tenants of 55 Tufton Street?

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/55-tufton-street-sw1-taxpayers-alliance/

Just reading that Tufton Street are aiming for getting rid of the NHS as soon as November.

It all rings true, we may well see some “pruning” of what is available on the NHS in November, Kwarteng has got to find many billions fast to have any credibility

Influence of the "Think tanks" at 55 Tufton Street on government policy-

Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute, told The Independent that “This zealous ideological clique are trying to imprint their extreme agenda on government policy. It’s clear they enjoy preferential access to some parts of government and, considering their small size, they are having a disproportionate impact... [which] is undermining the democratic process”.

September 2020 the Extinction Rebellion group Writers Rebel demonstrated outside of the building to protest the influence that the lobby groups and think tanks have on government policy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Tufton_Street#:~:text=The%20TaxPayers'%20Alliance%20is%20a,55%2C000%20supporters%20by%20September%202010.

This malign influence on the Conservative Party has been going on for many years, with the help of the right wing press, particularly The Daily Mail.

Gosh you are beginning to sound like American Conspiracy theorists. 25 Tufton Street has been known and influentiaal for years, nothing secret or unknown about it.

M0nica

Gosh you are beginning to sound like American Conspiracy theorists. 25 Tufton Street has been known and influentiaal for years, nothing secret or unknown about it.

That may well be but what about 55 Tufton Street as per the opening post

What is secret and unknown about the various "think tanks" operating from 55 Tufton Street is who is funding them.

If you know the answer to thatM0nica please tell us.

This is totally deliberate. It's no good anyone kidding themselves that the far-right are not out to get what they have always intended. This will include the end of NHS treatment free at the point of need and the entry of a Germany-like Statutory Health Care system topped up by private payments from those who can afford it.

Life, as we know it is probably over for many poorer pensioners. Survival may not be possible. Younger people may be able to work their way out of it but many of the work protections will disappear. There will be a new and larger tranche of the desperately poor.

DaisyAnne

This is totally deliberate. It's no good anyone kidding themselves that the far-right are not out to get what they have always intended. This will include the end of NHS treatment free at the point of need and the entry of a Germany-like Statutory Health Care system topped up by private payments from those who can afford it.

Life, as we know it is probably over for many poorer pensioners. Survival may not be possible. Younger people may be able to work their way out of it but many of the work protections will disappear. There will be a new and larger tranche of the desperately poor.

That's assuming that all tory MPs will go along with it. The government might face a sizable rebellion from its own MPs.

This mess is going to be really hard to get out of, cutting public spending won't do it, despite what some commentators are saying. That would make the country so poor that any growth would be impossible.

We need a new, calm government to restore confidence and to invest in growth. I suspect that state investment in real projects is far more likely to reassure the markets than are horrific gambles with measures that have consistently failed in the past. Measures which 'might' attract investment.

Goodness, a government spending spree would attract business from far and wide to share in the largess. Because, don't forget, every single item a government purchases, every single service that it uses, is provided by private enterprises. And every single state employee on wages below the top managerial levels spends their money into the domestic economy. Voila! Most comes back to the treasury via taxation and helps to pay off the overdraft at the BoE

(I can dream, can't I?)

Thank you for that ray of hope Maizie. I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face. The future looks so bleak. I don't care for me so much, but I do care for my family.

I do think Starmer would be able to start bringing this country back again to what the majority once believed in, but we would still have to go through very difficult times. Some of us would be very old by the time it was turned around. It's not just after the recent attack on the population but 12 years of it.

Sadly, so many who lives have been improved by the changes after the war are the ones who begrudge a better life for others.

It’s hard to believe it’s happening It crossed my mind tonight that this country is like an abused person who has been so badly treated for so long they don’t expect anything better. I never thought I’d be terrified of growing old in this country and I never thought I’d question whether it was right to bring children into the world.

MayBee70

It’s hard to believe it’s happening It crossed my mind tonight that this country is like an abused person who has been so badly treated for so long they don’t expect anything better. I never thought I’d be terrified of growing old in this country and I never thought I’d question whether it was right to bring children into the world.

Neil Kinnock was right...

I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old.

... he knew.

Read Britannia Unchained authored by Kwasi Kwarteng, Pritti Patel, Dominic Raab - it's all there.

In the mad rush to get Brexit done, did any Tory voter who "lent" their vote stop to think about the ideology of the party they were giving it to?

The warning signs were all there - the comments (on record) made by Johnson, Rees-Mogg, etc about the working class, the contempt in which they hold us.

"I couldn't vote for Corbyn" cried the Left. Yes, how evil - he wanted a better society for the many, not the few... the bastard.

"Labour will bankrupt the country" they said. Hollow laugh from me as I watched the £ tumble after Truss' / Kwarteng's bonanza spooked the markets.

God, I'm so angry right now.

The neo-liberals now in power fuelled by the dark money think tanks based in Tufton Street have shown starkly that when let lose on the economy it goes entirely wrong.

It crashes. Neo-liberalism has finally be shown up for what it is - a failed economic experiment.

Thatcher tried it to a lesser degree and it was accepted back in the 80s that it simply doesn’t work, if you want any form of decent society.
All it brings is misery to the workers - remember 3 million unemployed, riots and strikes. High streets empty and shops boarded up, whole swathes of industry buckling under the pressure. The north of England has never fully recovered.

But at the other end we had the “loads of money culture” with champagne popping and hedonistic bankers beginning to work their way to what eventually would bring the world to its knees when their illegal activities crashed the very banks that provided them with their out of control lifestyles.

That is what Kwarteng is trying to emulate, that is what our country faces, but this time on speed.

Well it seems that the world economy won’t stand for it and he is being warned.

The question is - will he listen?

And remember the experiment began 6 long years ago with the Brexit failure, which has been the run up to what we have now.

When ever did a little failure stop these fanatics?

if you want any form of decent society

Ay, there’s the rub! Many people couldn't care less about a decent society.

growstuff

*if you want any form of decent society*

Ay, there’s the rub! Many people couldn't care less about a decent society.

Indeed- but it will come back and bite them - and hard.

Because a society which is not fair and not decent, creates unrest, insecurity, crime, violence.

I often thought this when visiting South Africa. Would you want to live a life of luxury, nice villa, servants, swimming pool, private schools, behind electric fences and signs that read 'armed response, trespassers will be shot'? And where you can't go anywhere otherwise than by car with gun safe body work and windows.

No, me neither.

So even if they don't care about a decent society- self preservation should make them re-think- for their own sake.

I care about society.
I care very much about my family.
I want my country to do well.
However I’ve not got tears streaming down my face nor do I feel Armageddon is just around the corner!

This is the second day of radio silence from ministers - do they have nothing to say?

Who talked about Armageddon? (although Putin might bring it much much closer - but this is not what we are taling about in this thread).

Trickling down insecurity, fear and violence takes time, but is much much faster than trickling down economics!

We visited South Africa many times - and considered moving there. We would have a fabulous house with all the trimmings and luxury. But no, we do not want to live behind electric fences.

If education, social welfare, NHS, salaries and rights continue to be eroded, and prices going up- civil unrest will follow. There is NO doubt about that. How long? Just depends how fast the above takes places. Elastics can be pulled and pulled, and pulled some more- but at some point, it will break and return with massive force, aka violence. History tells us this, and has done again, andf again. But do we learn?

However I’ve not got tears streaming down my face nor do I feel Armageddon is just around the corner!

Of course not, Ug. The tears would never get past the blinkers...

Urmstongran

I care about society.
I care very much about my family.
I want my country to do well.
However I’ve not got tears streaming down my face nor do I feel Armageddon is just around the corner!

Meloni's speech:

woman
mother
Christian

Meloni can try and hide behind those goodie labels, it won't work. Most dictators and fascists have always 'loved their family'.

Such hyperbole on here from all the usual suspects. ?

You are welcome. As Maisie said 'just keep the blinkers on'.

Urmstongran

Such hyperbole on here from all the usual suspects. ?

Or
Such strongly held and heart-felt opinions from well informed, caring people.

I do not know why you find that funny Urmstongran.