Toxic Plants

Liz Truss, ex-Prime Minister of UK For anyone who has not been following the horror show of British politics in the last few weeks, here is a brief summary: Liz Truss was elected Prime Minister on 6 September 2022 following the resignation of her predecessor. She appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as her Chancellor, who announced a “mini-budget” on 23 September. This contained £45 billion in unfunded tax cuts including the abolition of the 45% higher rate of income tax and the scrapping of the limit on bankers' bonuses – both unpopular measures which were widely seen as benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor. Following the mini-budget, the financial markets tanked, interest rates rose, sterling fell to its lowest ever level against the US dollar and turmoil in government bond prices led the Bank of England to launch an emergency bond buying programme. This caused house mortgage lenders to withdraw over 40% of their products, with other products repriced upwards. The package was crit...