Britain | Playing with fire

Britain’s government is yet to deal with a mess of its own making

Investors in its bonds are still far from satisfied

BRITAIN’S PRIME MINISTER came to office promising to fight “Treasury orthodoxy” and the department’s “abacus economics”. Yet barely a month later, financial markets are teaching Liz Truss and her government a lesson about the importance of sums adding up. Ever since September 23rd, when Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced the biggest tax cuts in half a century with no hint of how he would pay for them, the markets have been in varying states of turmoil.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Playing with fire”

The world China wants

From the October 15th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

This illustration depicts Keith Starmer and Rachel Reeves set against a background of UK, US, and Chinese flag elements.

The slow death of a Labour buzzword

And what that says about Britain’s place in the world

Adele performs on stage.

Adele is taking a break from music. Can anybody replace her?

Probably not


Women's Rights supporters protest outside the 'What Is A Woman' trial at the Supreme Court.

Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is

At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be


Can potholes fuel populism?

A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK

Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks? 

How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party