• 619 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 619 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 621 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 1,021 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 1,026 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 1,028 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 1,031 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 1,031 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 1,032 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 1,034 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 1,034 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 1,038 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 1,038 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 1,039 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 1,041 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 1,042 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 1,045 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 1,046 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 1,046 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 1,048 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Trade In Counterfeit Goods Hits Half A Trillion Dollars

Trade In Counterfeit Goods Hits Half A Trillion Dollars

The counterfeit market has breached…

Tesla Struggles To Compete In European Market

Tesla Struggles To Compete In European Market

Tesla continues to catch the…

What's Behind The Global EV Sales Slowdown?

What's Behind The Global EV Sales Slowdown?

An economic slowdown in many…

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

Political Chaos in UK as Pension Minister Resigns with Verbal Blast at Cameron, Osborne

The Brexit debate stew bubbled over the top this weekend with the surprise resignation of UK's eurosceptic pension minister, Iain Duncan Smith.

Smith's resignation was carefully timed to bring the maximum amount of pain to prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne.

Smith's Resignation Letter blasted Cameron and Osborne for forcing him to balance pension cuts on the backs of the poor, sparing the wealthy.


Resignation Excerpt

"You are aware that I believe the cuts would have been even fairer to younger families and people of working age is we had been willing to reduce some of the benefits given to better-off pensioners ... The latest changes to benefits to the disabled and the context in which they have been made are a compromise too far. I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet fiscal self imposed restraints ... It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign," said Smith.


Political Chaos

The Financial Times reports UK Minister Duncan Smith's Departure Sows Political Chaos.

When Iain Duncan Smith quit as Britain's pensions minister on Friday, it was perhaps the most explosive resignation in the country's politics for more than 25 years.

His exit, marked by his brutal criticism of the Conservative party's leadership, not only weakened the government but cast a spotlight on what some members fear is a looming civil war within the ruling party ahead of the UK's momentous June 23 referendum on the country's EU membership.

Writing for the Financial Times, Bruce Anderson, a political commentator, described Mr Duncan Smith's departure as not just a resignation but a suicide bombing.

Mr Duncan Smith's resignation letter accused Mr Osborne, who prides himself as a political strategist adept at winning the centre ground, of indifference to the plight of the poor and putting politics before the good of the country.

On Sunday he added that the Budget, which originally contained cuts to disability benefits even as it cut capital gains tax, was "deeply unfair".

Mr Duncan Smith's attack may have been all the more effective because he hails from the party's right. One Tory minister said: "Osborne is dead in the water even without the Budget."

It may now be even more difficult for the chancellor to attempt further radical welfare cuts, leaving a £4bn hole in his budget as he attempts to balance the books by 2020 in line with his promise to provide a fiscal surplus by that date.


Broken Social Contract

This outpouring of rage is yet another example of the "Broken Social Contract"

Anger at the establishment explains the Donald Trump phenomenon, Marine LePen in France, Beppe Grillo in Italy, and Merkel's Dramatic Setback at Hands of AfD in German Regional Elections.

Is this the year the lid blows off the simmering social pot in multiple countries simultaneously?

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment