Thread by @doctorow

The #UK #polycrisis, summarized by @cstross:

antipope.org/charlie/blog-s…

* EU (including UK) in worst drought in 500 years

* UK potato, onion, and carrot crops expected to fail (potato production down 50%)

* BoJo is still PM but AWOL on holiday, refused to turn control over to Deputy PM Raab

* Mass ministerial resignations, leaving key ministries with no leadership

* Citi predicts 18.6% inflation by Jan (Bank of England predicts 13%)

* Sterling at 10-year low, and falling

* SMEs folding fast as energy contracts shoot up 400%-1000%

* Care homes publicly concerned that they won't be able to provide heating

* Forecasts of rolling, unscheduled, protracted blackouts this winter

* UK backup plan is to import electricity from France/Belgium/Netherlands, who are all having energy crises and halting exports

* Brexit has shrunk UK economy 6% and rising

* Brexit deregulation led to mass sewage dumping in every UK river and coast, UK waters no longer safe to swim in

* Shortage of chemicals to treat sewage because of Brexit import red-tape
l

* Cops in staffing shortage - armed shock troops normally reserved for public emergencies now responding to routine callouts (e.g. heart attacks)

* Inflation not being met with pay rises - except for execs, with average FTSE100 exec pay up 39% to £3.4M

* Waves of strikes: Edinburgh rubbish collectors, the entire criminal bar, dock workers, London transit

* Average criminal case now taking 708 days to come to court

* Liz Truss's plan? Ban public strikes, cut new renewable rollouts, and refuse to re-nationalise energy

* 1/3 of country can't pay routine bills

* Inflation is wiping out pensions and savings

* This is a Tory mess - they've governed for 43 years, modulo the Tory-lite Blair years and the Tory-led coalition

Stross: "[Tories are] completely out of new ideas, but the next leader of the nation is intent on recycling the same tired nostrums indefinitely, using an astroturfed culture war on wokery as cover...

"...rather than trying to address the deep structural problems of a state that has been hollowed out and looted for half a lifetime, so that there is no resilience left in our institutions.

"This is the sort of crisis that brings down nations."