The cost of Johnsonomics

The political damage that Boris Johnson has inflicted on the Tory party, the government and the governance of the UK is huge.

But on top of all that, the damage he has done to the economy is both massive and continuing. His departing statement was full of all kinds of pathetic posturing, but the worst of it – to my economically tuned antennae – was his boast that he is going to keep lobbing hand grenades at the government over the future direction of the economy.

For a start he is still wittering on, and saying things like, “We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit”. Well, all I can say is: you tried Boris, or you pretended to try, and you were a complete failure.

He negotiated a terrible deal and we are stuck with it. That is bad enough but he then threatened to tear it up, meaning no one else would trust him. He gave New Zealand and Australia everything they wanted and more because he is an egotistical lightweight who didn’t even bother to master his brief and he spent years looking for Brexit benefits and failing to find any.

The problem with cakeism is that it is built on lies and eventually the lies show through.

Now having run the country down to such a degree that the NHS is collapsing, more defence cuts are on the way, the economy is anaemic and the tax take the highest since the 1940s, Boris is calling for tax cuts. “We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up.”

Despite the fact that he put the taxes up in the first place, where he now thinks the money for tax cuts is coming from it is impossible to say. Even a pre-election gimmick, which we all expect Jeremy Hunt to come up with, will do nothing to reverse the long running trend. Growth is pathetic, productivity terrible, living standards collapsing and as a result we need a higher tax take to bring in enough money for the government.

A certain Liz Truss tried to cut taxes permanently for the rich, with no plan to fund the cuts and no sign that they would do anything for growth – the markets slaughtered her. Yes, let’s try that again. It just needed more confidence and boosterism.

The former PM then goes on to ask, “Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US?” Well, it is because when Barack Obama said we would be at the back of the queue he was telling the truth. There is no chance of getting one now or in the near future. The US has no interest in one, doesn’t care what we want and is not going to waste one single cent of political capital trying to negotiate one.

The final bit is the best: “Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives?” asks the former PM who was in charge of housing policy for years and who failed to provide enough homes and who had a department of Brexit Opportunities that failed to find any opportunities.

It beggars belief that this clown, having cost us 4% of GDP and more because of Brexit and having presided over the economy until late last year, thinks anyone will listen to him.

The terrifying bit is some people might actually believe him.