In Britain, a tale of two leaders is emerging. Facing a choice between Liz Truss – somebody who incited Russia – or Rishi Sunak, the richest person in the House of Commons. Truss has tweeted that she was ready to “hit the ground” from day one - a tweet which was later clarified as her desire to “hit the ground running”. It would be more comedic, if the former wasn’t so likely.
Tory members, who will vote on the next leader by September, seem to prefer Truss. And while it seems counterintuitive to endorse a continuation of Boris Johnson or somebody who responds to an accusation of endorsing fairytale economics, Tory members are doing… exactly that. In fact, for Truss, it’s more about replicating Margaret Thatcher.
Source: https://www.thesentral.my
Some say it’s all one big, bad joke. But who is this person who has a sizeable chance of becoming Britain’s next prime minister? You might know Truss for her party conference speech a few years back. In a speech in which she repeatedly paused for applause that never came, she praised apples as being part of British identity since they first fell on Isaac Newton’s head. She claimed that the UK imports two-thirds of its cheese as “a disgrace”. Staying on the cheese theme, that same year, Truss achieved a ‘groundbreaking’ post-Brexit deal to sell cheese to Japan – a country where 73% of the people are lactose intolerant.
Truss prefers to avoid scrutiny and typically leans into her self-constructed mythology about her past. She does everything to ignore her past as a member of the Liberal Democrats, where she advocated for abolishing the monarchy. So, the Queen may not be her fan.
Truss’ rise to power has been based entirely on reinvention. Posing as a staunch Brexiteer and part of the ‘Britannia Unchained’ group, a group of Tory MPs who wrote a book denouncing British workers as the “worst idlers in the world”, Truss is popular with the base of the Tory party. In 2016, however, Truss described how she voted Remain to safeguard her daughters’ futures and argued against a country “where they are hampered from growing a business because of extortionate call costs and barriers to trade”.
Her rise to power rivals that of Sunak. Combining the job of foreign secretary with being minister for women and equalities, Truss has previously been shown to have the highest satisfaction ratings among party members for her love of capitalism, appeal to grassroots and her reputation as a staunch loyalist.
As much as she tries to distance herself from her rival, Truss too likes to splash other people’s cash, spending £500,000 of taxpayers’ money on private flights in three months this year. This is according to the Mirror.
At the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in March, Truss’ statements as foreign secretary were said to be behind Russia’s announcement to put their nuclear forces on ‘high alert’. In a leadership debate in mid-July, when asked how to respond to Russia, Truss said: “I would go there and call Putin out”. Yes Liz, you go! After all, this is somebody who literally once said: “I don’t think anyone would describe me as diplomatic”.
Truss’ enthusiastic passion for accidentally selling arms to war criminals is something to behold. Under her stint as international trade secretary in 2019, Truss claimed she “inadvertently” sold weapons to Saudi Arabia not once or twice, but thrice, in a clear breach of a court order banning the sale of weapons to the country. Over the last five years, the leading arms maker, BAE systems, sold £15bn-worth of arms to the Gulf’s kingdom, killing thousands of civilians in Yemen.
And as a minister who also appoints members to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s board, Truss’ record of both human rights and foreign policy is concerning. After resuming arms sales to Saudi Arabia in July 2020, days later, seven children and two women were killed in a Saudi-led air strike. Truss was subsequently branded “deeply cynical” by human rights groups Amnesty International for arguing that apparent war crimes by Saudi forces in Yemen had been “isolated incidents”. In 2016, as justice secretary, Truss released the “Prison Safety and Reform White Paper”, which described her commitment to expanding the prison system by 10,000 places.
As a committed warrior for the ‘war on woke’, Truss has been rewarded for her loyalty to Johnson – so much so that she may now represent Britain on the world stage. Through appealing to the Conservative base with populist soundbites and meaningless phrases, Truss has cemented her position as a person of power, while ignoring the chaos she has been complicit in crafting. She is seen as the “Johnson continuity candidate”.
Sunak for all his background (Oxford, Stanford, billionaire) is the underdog. And he acknowledges that. But for sound economics and ability to resolve issues, Sunak is the man. The Conservative members are more likely to go with “Least Trust” (or Liz Truss) for more chaos and confusion. And come 2024 Labour has a good chance to win.
Reference:
Liz Truss is just a bad joke, Kimi Chadd (https://gal-dem.com/liz-truss-bad-politicians/)
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