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Special: Does Britain need a chainsaw revolution?
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Javier Milei’s Argentina has drawn the admiration of many British conservatives. But what would a “British Milei” really look like — and would the civil service, Parliament, or the public ever let one govern? That question animated a lively CapX panel at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, chaired by Joseph Dinnage, with Jack Rankin MP, Annunziata Rees-Mogg of Popular Conservatives, Tom Clougherty of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Tom Harwood of GB News. The discussion drew heavily on Argentina’s libertarian experiment under President Javier Milei — his slash-and-burn of ministries, his rapid deficit elimination, and his flair for political theatre. Could such radicalism take root in Westminster’s rule-bound soil?
The panel’s admiration was tempered by realism. Clougherty praised Milei’s fiscal discipline — cutting Argentina’s deficit from 5% of GDP to zero in a month — but warned that “chainsaws don’t travel well.” Rees-Mogg highlighted Milei’s “depth of conviction,” arguing Britain’s leaders have lost the courage to act decisively. Rankin cautioned that “the Overton window hasn’t yet moved on the economy,” though he expects a coming fiscal reckoning to force honesty about debt, welfare, and spending. Harwood, meanwhile, drew parallels with Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-budget: “Markets thought we’d gone loopy,” he said, underscoring that radicalism without credibility is ruinous.
Where Argentina acted from crisis, Britain’s crisis is one of confidence. The conversation returned again and again to communication — how to marry tough economics with moral clarity. “We need to explain the why,” Rees-Mogg insisted. The lesson from Buenos Aires, it seems, isn’t to imitate Milei’s chainsaw, but his conviction: to tell the truth early, show belief in reform, and build consent before crisis forces the issue.
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