Ahead of the launch of her book ‘Ten Years to Save the West’, Liz Truss has been doing the media beauty parade. She’s criticised the establishment, the Bank of England, her fellow politicians but interestingly, never herself…
Truss the PM – Her Record
When it comes to the history of British Prime Ministers, Liz Truss will be nothing but a footnote. The two most notable elements of her time in office will be how short it was, and how despite that, she still managed to crash the economy.
Mini Budget Disaster
Truss claims she saw the economy heading for trouble. In her book she says “the UK was heading towards an economic cliff and that I was seeking to conduct a handbrake turn to avoid driving off the edge.”
‘Freeing’ the Economy Spooked Markets
The mini budget devised with then Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng was less evolution and more ‘complete revolution’. The problem was, it was ill thought out both financially and politically. It was dubbed ‘Trussonomics’ and was widely lambasted.
Trussonomics Tried – And Failed
In a nutshell, the budget was designed to lower the tax burden and remove many regulations, allowing businesses across the economy more freedom to operate. Sounds good in theory, but the reality was somewhat different.
Wheels Fell off Quickly
Easing the tax burden on the wealthiest in society, whilst doing little for the poorest was a political own goal and immediately won her no favours amongst the public. The reduction in tax income for the government would force them to borrow more.
Heavily Indebted Nations Don’t Always Do Well
The reduction in tax income and the proposed extra borrowing spooked the markets. The International Monetary Fund took an usual step, and openly criticised the plans. They said about the tax reforms, “the nature of the UK measures will likely increase inequality”.
Biden Made Comments
At the time, Joe Biden said he “disagreed with the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy”, but stopped short of urging a reversal of the decision. Nations tend not to comment on each other’s domestic monetary policy.
Government Borrowing Backdrop Was the Worry
The proposed extra borrowing scared the markets for a couple of reasons. The first was they government was already heavily indebted thanks to loose fiscal policy, and additional borrowing during covid. The second was the proposed reduction in taxes would blunt the government’s ability to pay the debt.
Markets Reacted Quickly
When it became clear that Truss wanted to press on with the plans, the markets reacted badly. Sterling plummeted to an almost 40 year low against the dollar. The stock market dropped by 2.3%. The Bank of England stepped in, and mortgage rates shot up.
Trust in Truss Was Disappearing
Despite the bluster and the promises of a free economy, the voters and establishment lost any faith they had in Truss. She quickly reversed the decision to abolish the top rate tax cuts for the super wealthy.
Popularity Slid Quickly
Polls from the time showed she suffered a 30 point drop after the economy crashed. The cost of borrowing, therefore the real cost to the public, had gone up considerably. As a direct result of Trussonomics, millions of Brits were hit hard in the pocket.
Party Started to Round on Her
Having voted her in to lead the party only a few weeks previously, the Tory party started to round on her. There were calls for her to go, and resignations amongst the party. They didn’t want to be a part of the fall.
Resignation Shortly Followed
Truss resigned her position as Prime Minister on the 20th October. In 49 short days she’d managed to alienate the voters, crash confidence in the UK economy, fall foul of her party and cost the UK mortgage payers thousands of pounds in extra repayment costs.
Truss the Author
Following her resignation, she retired into the background. As it happens, she was busy writing her book, which essentially reads as a manifesto. In her book she criticises many, but rarely herself.
Hard to Criticise, When Her Time Was a Disaster
By any objective measure, Truss was a terrible Prime Minister. She spooked the markets, crashed the currency and forced the Bank of England to step in. She managed this in less than 2 months, yet criticises others.
Tories Had a Chance
The reality is any criticism of the state of the country can’t be fired from the Conservative side – especially not from someone who has held (literally) the highest office in government.
14 Years of Regression
For Liz Truss to be taken seriously, she’s got to forget that her party has been in control of the country for 14 years. Nearly a decade and a half. Apart from a disastrous Brexit, there has been no tangible improvement in the living standards of the UK population.
Truss the Kingmaker?
She has now rebranded herself as a right wing revolutionary, criticising the establishment for not backing her plans. She’s endorsed Trump, and we can expect her to become more and more a personality on the right.
Lack of Humility Startling
Having been a part of the worst government in living memory, then taking the title of the shortest-serving Prime Minister in history, why should we take anything Liz Truss says seriously? Actions speak louder than words, and her actions were a failure.
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The post Truss’ Right-Wing Rebranding: Liz Lashes Out Against Old Enemies in New Book first appeared on Edge Media.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Alexandros Michailidis.