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Chaos theory states that everything is connected. It’s nicely illustrated by the poetic idea, developed by American meteorologist Edward Lorenz, that a distant butterfly flapping its wings

in Brazil could set off a tornado in Texas. Economic theory and weather forecasting are not dissimilar. Each aims to predict how, by the accretion of small things, stability can tip into

instability and order into disorder. No country on earth is immune to the movement of global winds or, for that matter, global capital. Political sovereignty does not equal economic

impunity. We learnt that the hard way in 2008 when the housing bubble burst in obscure American communities unleashing the perfect storm across the globe. Now the era of cheap money is over.

Like a high pressure system giving way to a low, it has been forecast for some time. Did Truss and Kwarteng not notice? Or did they, like the hapless BBC weatherman Michael Fish in 1987,

think the Great Storm would miss us? To state the bleeding obvious, the British economy is tied through a myriad connections to the rest of the world. Nearly 30% of government gilts are held

outside the UK. The City of London is a major hub around which the world turns. Britain may no longer be the economic powerhouse it once was. But when we sneeze others can still catch cold.

The government is now in full retreat. Kwarteng has been sacked after a public earwigging from the IMF’s formidable Kristalina Georgieva. The mini-budget is unravelling. Britain has its

fourth Chancellor in four months – Jeremy Hunt, a one-nation Remainer. The Prime Minister’s self-preservation instincts have kicked in as she faces the real possibility of being replaced

just weeks after she took office. The markets were not impressed. But they have held off as they wait to see how much more of the mini-budget and its £43bn of unfunded tax cuts will be

ditched and what happens next. UK PLC now has a health warning attached to it. Investors want a higher return if they’re going to lend money to the UK by buying government bonds. Britain,

once prized for its stability and good sense, has become the serial motoring offender hit by soaring premiums. Only Italy among G7 nations has a higher yield on 10-year Treasury bonds. It’s

not over. In the merciless world of the capital markets once a nation is detached from the pack it is more exposed to predators. Interest rates will inevitably edge higher as inflation in

Britain and around the world rises. Huw Pill, the Bank of England’s Chief economist, warns of a ‘significant’ rate rise in November. Mortgage rates are soaring. House builders report a slump

in off-plan sales. Voters offered tax cuts and help with their energy bills are being clobbered by steep rate rises. Andrew Bailey, Governor of BoE, is not entirely blameless. He was slow

off the mark as inflation loomed. A major economy whose prosperity relies on stability is in dire peril when its central bank and its government are pulling in different directions. But one

has to wonder if his uncharacteristically loose talk of pulling the plug on the bank’s emergency bond-buying rescue package was calculated to force a U-turn from the government. In which

case it worked like a dream. There’s something amateurish almost student-like in how the government has handled things. Like many politicians both Truss and Kwarteng were formed

intellectually in the hot house of Oxford’s dreaming spires. In his brilliant, short book Chums Simon Kuper, describes how these ‘vessels of ambition’ were groomed to believe that they were

born to rule. Unsurprisingly since their predecessors once ruled a quarter of the planet. Eleven of the 15 post-war British Prime Ministers went to Oxford. The Oxford Union, where they cut

their political teeth, was a crucible of wit and rhetorical skills. Ideas were prized over competence or evidence. There was, says Kuper, also an Oxford alumnus, a certain ‘ unseriousness’

about undergraduates like Truss, Boris Johnson and David Cameron. Politics was a game at Oxford. For some it still is. The mini-budget with its pie-in-the-sky economics feels like an

extension of that game. Truss did not consult her cabinet. She didn’t think to run the numbers past the Office of Budget Responsibility. She and Kwarteng just winged it. The privileged path

that this very narrow pool of talent takes from an early age immunises them from hardship. This is also the first generation of politicians not to have known the perils of war or the

comradeship of the trenches. You can afford to be unserious if you’re well off. You know you’ll manage when the storm makes landfall. Kuper quotes Anthony Manning, former master of Balliol,

Johnson’s old college: “ We had been privileged to be given the task of bringing up the nation’s political elite. But what had we done for Boris? Had we taught him truthfulness? No. Had we

taught him wisdom? No. What had we taught: only to make witty and brilliant speeches?” Tory MPs are actively canvassing the idea of ditching Truss in favour of someone – anyone – who might

salvage the Tory party’s reputation for economic competence as well as its political future. Many talk of feeling politically homeless. Truss was not elected by the country. She was backed

by fewer than a third of the parliamentary party. It’s hard to see her surviving now. The choice now is between defeat at the next election and oblivion. The parallels between Truss and

Jeremy Corbyn are too obvious to spell out. A recent FT editorial said that Truss was presiding less on a Britannia Unchained (a reference to her book co-authored with Kwarteng) more on

Britannia unhinged. This is not a moment to gloat. Britain is caught in a gathering storm of rising inflation, war in Europe, an energy crisis and a looming recession. But it is time for a

change. After nearly 14 years in power the Tories are exhausted and hopelessly split. They no longer know what they stand for. It’s time for a general election – in the country’s interest if

not in theirs. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than

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