Let’s see some energy policy action

At His Majesty’s Treasury, it’s all looking a bit like Year Zero in revolutionary Cambodia. Kwasi Kwarteng’s first act was to sack the respected but ‘orthodox’ permanent secretary Sir Tom Scholar. Now the FT reports the Chancellor ordering underlings to focus ‘entirely on growth’, presumably at the expense of financial discipline. I’m picturing a locked basement of fearful officials labouring under Kwarteng’s lash to translate his forthcoming ‘fiscal event’ – tax cuts on top of massive spending to cap energy bills and unlimited borrowing to pay for it – into the sort of Whitehall language that might make it sound reasonable.

Meanwhile, businesses large and small remain completely in the dark as to the detail and value of the government’s promised six-month energy-subsidy scheme. History will one day judge whether the Truss-Kwarteng economic revolution changed Britain for the better, or simply fizzled out. But in the short term, all that matters is efficient execution of measures to avert fuel and food poverty, widespread civil unrest and a tsunami of bankruptcies this winter.