Those folk in here saying we've serious problems and need serious people to solve them are missing the point.
All the candidates for PM are neoliberals, every one of them banging on about supply side economics.....
Supply-side economics is an economic theory that postulates tax cuts for the wealthy result in increased savings and investment capacity for them that trickle down to the overall economy. It believes in the primacy of the market so the state must be shrunk, ideally to a size comparable to that which existed before the First World War, when the state concerned itself with defence and law and order and very little else.
Deregulation and privatisation are the order of the day.
Neoliberals see competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. Neoliberalism redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.
Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty. Tax and regulation should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
We internalise and reproduce this creed. The rich persuade themselves that they acquired their wealth through merit, ignoring the advantages – such as education, inheritance and class – that may have helped to secure it. The poor begin to blame themselves for their failures, even when they can do little to change their circumstances.
Never mind structural unemployment: if you don’t have a job it’s because you are unenterprising. Never mind the impossible costs of housing: if your credit card is maxed out, you’re feckless and improvident. Never mind that your children no longer have a school playing field: if they get fat, it’s your fault. In a world governed by competition, those who fall behind become defined and self-defined as losers.
Given that the Tory Party is in the grip of this ideology, it matters little who becomes Prime Minister.
Sunak is considered too left wing because his zealotry to this creed is "questionable", that would be laughable if it weren't so tragic, he's neoliberal to the core.
Right now all of us are mere bystanders. The personality, competence, sincerity, integrity of the runners and riders in this leadership contest matter little as they're all disciples of the same dogma.
When Tory grotesques like LIz Truss bang on about exploiting the advantages of Brexit, what they really mean is the advantages of unfettered neoliberalism.