There’s a theory that people whose forenames and surnames start with the same letter are destined for success.
So, Michael McIntyre, Farrah Fawcett, Robert Redford and Marilyn Monroe. (And, if you don’t like that last one because it wasn’t her real name, then have Maurice Micklewhite instead – AKA Michael Caine.)
Only some sort of alphabetical alchemy can explain how Kwasi Kwarteng came to be chancellor. Sure, he sounds plausible. When he delivered his mini-budget last week, he was reassuringly sure of himself and his approach. Trouble is, the markets paid attention to what Kwarteng was saying, rather than how he said it. Fiscal event begat fiasco.
The market reaction seems slightly unfair on two counts.
Firstly, Kwarteng uncapped bankers bonuses and slashed tax for the rich – he’s given them the green light to make as much cash as they can and, still, the wide boys of high finance shied away, reacting like every toddler on their first encounter with a department store Santa.
He wants to give you a goodie, but the weirdness and terror of the unfamiliar overrides the prospect of reward – reluctance, screaming, tantrum ensues. (Kris Kringle is another with an alliterative name who’s done all right for himself.)
Also, when we talk about “the markets” getting spooked by the crackpot approach of the Truss administration, what we mean is just a number of spivs in the City who earn a living making complicated gambles. The same chancers who crashed the economy 15 years ago and walked away unscathed, by the way.
It would be reasonable to ask why they hold such sway, but the Conservatives can’t really play that game, given David Cameron’s Tories bounced the nation into a coalition government in quick smart time back in 2010, under the pretence that delay would lead to “the markets” dumping on the UK. Either you set store by the markets’ verdict, or you don’t.
Opportunity knocks for Rachel Reeves
Kwarteng will get another set piece speech at the Tory conference next week. It seems reasonable to tremble at what further injury he’ll inflict with that intervention.
But, as Kwasi Kwarteng attacks the economy, so opportunity knocks for another with matching initials – Rachel Reeves.
The shadow chancellor has sounded like someone with a sniff of victory this week. Keir Starmer has been accused – often unfairly – of missing open goals in taking on the Tories.
Reeves has been presented with a clear target and seems determined to get voters’ attention with a bullseye. For example, earmarking the reintroduced top rate of tax to fund new NHS staff is morally, managerially and politically good. The NHS carried us through the dark days of the pandemic and ought to be rewarded and nurtured. The City caused the dark days of the credit crunch and is getting rewarded by Kwarteng.
Reeves went on the airwaves on Monday morning, ahead of her conference speech emphasising her experience as an economist at the Bank of England.
A sort of Stars In Their Eyes Gordon Brown?
Both Kwarteng and Reeves have City experience on their CV but, while the former was concerned with growing profits for his corporate masters, the latter was in Threadneedle Street plotting growth for all. Which is why Reeves is obviously a better candidate for chancellor.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal event looks like a bold opening gambit, but does anyone believe it’s backed up by the skills key to winning
She’s served her apprenticeship in opposition and it has served her well. In 2015, the polls had Ed Miliband winning and Reeves set to be his business secretary. She’d only been an MP for five years and wasn’t ready. Now, she has a healthy hunger for power.
It’s easy to characterise her as a sort of Stars In Their Eyes Gordon Brown on that basis – prudent, sensible, borderline desperate to get into Number 11. But there’s more to her than that. Look closely and she resembles synergy of all Labour’s previous winners.
She has the election winning focus of Tony Blair. The low key manner of Clement Attlee. The practical vision and political organisation of Harold Wilson.
There’s even a bit of Ed Miliband geekery about her, but, while his thing was doing Rubik’s cubes, her obsession is chess – one associated with awkward 1980s kids, the other with galaxy brains. Of course, the reputation of chess has been upended a bit recently with the story of the player allegedly cheating via electronic messages to his back passage, but even that seems apposite just now.
Champion Magnus Carlsen made one move then walked away from the table because he didn’t fancy taking on his opponent properly. Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal event looks like a bold opening gambit, but does anyone believe it’s backed up by the skills key to winning at chess – intelligence, strategy, experience?
Reeves has the entire board before her now. If anyone knows how to make a winning move from here, it’s her.
James Millar is a political commentator, author and a former Westminster correspondent for The Sunday Post
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