Like that pantomime villain that just won’t leave, Liz Truss is back and kicking. Almost a year after her car crash of a premiership, she’s delivered a speech to the Institute for Government think-tank where she’s defended herself, attacked those who disagree with her and thrown Rishi Sunak under the bus.
If you’re looking for something to do as you procrastinate uni work, I wouldn’t recommend the beige fest that is her speech (I would, however, recommend reading the comment section). She manages to boast about identifying economic growth (something any fresher econ student could probably do) as a key goal for the government, and butcher a metaphor about taking a pig to market. In the understatement of the century, she also stated that she “got into politics to get things done” and that she wasn’t interested in PR. Perhaps she should have focused on getting useful things done, instead of crashing the economy, we wouldn’t be in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
Admitting that she did, in fact, rush her economic decisions she still acknowledged little to no responsibility herself. Instead all the civil service, “the political and economic elite” and artificially low interest rates were all blamed for her failures which, by the way, were apparently not why she quit. Apparently that was actually because of pressure from a massive conspiracy of her opponents, including the media.
As she ridicules left wing economic policy, I can’t help but think that people in glass stones shouldn’t through stones. When she held office, she freely spurned advice from trusted financial institutions, including the Office of Budget Responsibility, turned her back on modern economic theory and her mini-budget drew criticism from the IMF, Goldman Sachs and the Bank of America. Not exactly a glistening resume as she now tries to advise others. In the words of Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper, “Liz Truss giving a speech on economic growth is like an arsonist giving a talk on fire safety.”.
It’s not unusual for past prime ministers to give their six pence on matters of major national interest – although, these prime ministers do tend to have more expertise than a 45 day work-experience-like stint in number 10. A good example of this is Theresa May, who’s remained in the public eye with grace. Despite her own rocky premiership, when she speaks publicly, she does so with maturity and sensitivity. If Liz is now so open minded about giving and receiving advice, maybe she should take some lessons from her colleague.
Of course Truss’ speech isn’t without an agenda. Whilst she said she had no intention of returning to office, her actions suggested differently. She seems to have set herself up perfectly to tell Sunak “I told you so” if (when) he loses the next election. The difficulty is, it’s hard to get your point across when no one’s really listening. Sometimes it can be hard to know when you’ve stayed your welcome. I think Liz Truss needs to take a hint.
“Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meets Maros Sefcovic” by UK Government is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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Liz Truss’ car crash of an economic defence
Like that pantomime villain that just won’t leave, Liz Truss is back and kicking. Almost a year after her car crash of a premiership, she’s delivered a speech to the Institute for Government think-tank where she’s defended herself, attacked those who disagree with her and thrown Rishi Sunak under the bus.
If you’re looking for something to do as you procrastinate uni work, I wouldn’t recommend the beige fest that is her speech (I would, however, recommend reading the comment section). She manages to boast about identifying economic growth (something any fresher econ student could probably do) as a key goal for the government, and butcher a metaphor about taking a pig to market. In the understatement of the century, she also stated that she “got into politics to get things done” and that she wasn’t interested in PR. Perhaps she should have focused on getting useful things done, instead of crashing the economy, we wouldn’t be in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
Admitting that she did, in fact, rush her economic decisions she still acknowledged little to no responsibility herself. Instead all the civil service, “the political and economic elite” and artificially low interest rates were all blamed for her failures which, by the way, were apparently not why she quit. Apparently that was actually because of pressure from a massive conspiracy of her opponents, including the media.
As she ridicules left wing economic policy, I can’t help but think that people in glass stones shouldn’t through stones. When she held office, she freely spurned advice from trusted financial institutions, including the Office of Budget Responsibility, turned her back on modern economic theory and her mini-budget drew criticism from the IMF, Goldman Sachs and the Bank of America. Not exactly a glistening resume as she now tries to advise others. In the words of Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper, “Liz Truss giving a speech on economic growth is like an arsonist giving a talk on fire safety.”.
It’s not unusual for past prime ministers to give their six pence on matters of major national interest – although, these prime ministers do tend to have more expertise than a 45 day work-experience-like stint in number 10. A good example of this is Theresa May, who’s remained in the public eye with grace. Despite her own rocky premiership, when she speaks publicly, she does so with maturity and sensitivity. If Liz is now so open minded about giving and receiving advice, maybe she should take some lessons from her colleague.
Of course Truss’ speech isn’t without an agenda. Whilst she said she had no intention of returning to office, her actions suggested differently. She seems to have set herself up perfectly to tell Sunak “I told you so” if (when) he loses the next election. The difficulty is, it’s hard to get your point across when no one’s really listening. Sometimes it can be hard to know when you’ve stayed your welcome. I think Liz Truss needs to take a hint.
“Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meets Maros Sefcovic” by UK Government is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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