“HAVE you thought of considering your position, Chancellor?” asked Nick Robinson on the Today programme. “No,” came the reply with premeditated decisiveness. Kwasi Kwarteng expected the question and was prepped to put his answer beyond doubt.

The Tory Conference scenery might be crashing down around him. He had just established his place as biggest laughing-stock as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the history of the office. But Kwarteng was adamant. He is going nowhere of his own volition.

That answer summed up the arrogance of the man and the shambles he has done so much to create. There was no penitence, no apology, no recognition of the damage he has done, and of course no prospect of an honourable course of action. All these are for the little people.

Beyond the political hubris, the critical point is that there are real consequences which will flow from Kwarteng’s recklessness. The country will be paying for years on both an individual and collective basis. Playing fast and loose with the most basic rules of responsible government is not a victimless crime.

Nor is there any indication of wider reassessment. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have been forced into retreat over the grotesque provocation of cutting the top rate of tax while millions are living in fear of penury – not because that is morally wrong but because it is unsaleable even to many Tory MPs.

Michael Gove deserves credit for sticking the knife in with such elegance and unmistakeable intent. He is a class act. But like every other Tory MP, he will now face the same test on a regular basis. We know that getting rid of the top tax rate was beyond the pale but what else will they be prepared to nod through, now it is clear that a veto exists?

Lifting the equally symbolic cap on bankers’ bonuses is still there. Ditto the sinister threat to the value of benefits to pay for the champagne spree. And I doubt if Kwarteng’s cronies will be donating vast ill-gotten gains of the past fortnight to their local food banks. The priorities and values of the Truss Government have not changed one iota.

Neither have the economics. As Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the 45p rate abolition was the “smallest measure” in Kwarteng’s Budget. “To the extent that what we saw a couple of weeks ago was leading to fiscal unsustainability, it still is. Nothing really has changed.” And Kwarteng’s still at the helm.

Later in the morning, he was presumably prevailed upon by courtiers to affect a more humble tone and acknowledge that the champagne reception for the fattest of cats on the day he was doling out money to them was “a mistake”. Well, big deal. As always with these people, the mistake was to get caught rather than the deed itself.

The energy relief package is used as an alibi but it is worth recalling that Truss said stupid things about that too during her campaign. There were to be “no more hand-outs”. That didn’t last long but intervention was forced by sheer political necessity. At the same time, a windfall tax on the huge “Ukraine dividends” for generators and traders remain taboo in the Truss-Kwarteng playbook.

Prime Minister Truss looks ridiculous because she is ridiculous; an imposter in high office who has been found out within the minimum passage of time. I wrote here a couple of weeks ago about a decent Tory MP who told me the prospect of Liz Truss running the country "terrifies me". That was from one who knew her. Now it can terrify us all.

It beggars belief that even the Tory membership could conceive of Truss as an answer to prayers for the second coming of Mrs Thatcher. The economic nonsense she spouted during the leadership campaign gave due notice of what was about to ensue. It also became apparent that her empty-headed self-certainty was matched by a mean streak of vindictiveness.

Any semi-sensible Tory MP who failed to subscribe to her half-baked theories was excluded from office. The top Treasury civil servants were sacked. The Office of Budget Responsibility was by-passed for reasons which are inherent in its title. It was an exercise in the kind of triumphalism that builds up trouble for the future. In Truss’s case, the future was a fortnight away.

The Tories are now divided between those beholden to Truss while most of the rest never wanted her in the first place. I guess the number who actually believe in her as a credible Prime Minister could be counted on fingers without troubling the toes. They must now all await the next debacle in the certainty that it is coming.

Kwarteng went along with whatever was necessary to get himself the Chancellor gig. The top rate wheeze may even have been his personal embellishment, as Truss now claims. But the inescapable conclusion from the past two weeks is that both are unfit for office and the sooner the Tories act upon that reality, the better.

Both Truss and Kwarteng have been part of Tory cabinets for years. They bear responsibility for what happened previously – which they now seek to disown – as well as what is going on now. There has been no change of government; only a rearrangement of a mediocre and discredited crew.

And let us not forget Jacob Rees-Mogg. In the midst of all this, he brings in his business crony as a Lord and minister. Here too is a face of entitlement and disdain for public opinion that sums up this latest manifestation of the Tory Party. It is back to being the Exceptionally Nasty Party – and also the extremely incompetent one.

The only way a change of government and values will come is through a General Election and only Labour can deliver that outcome. That is the inescapable reality and not a day between now and then should be wasted while pursuing that goal.

Read more by Brian Wilson:

The value of pensions and savings is eroding before our eyes

A 25-year journey to improve the state of Scotland’s schools

Do I believe Truss will gerrymander indyref vote? No, but it would be a disaster if she did