Why Liz Truss will be a disastrous Prime Minister

It is a racing certainty that Miss Truss is going to become PM on 5 September. Liz Truss has played a blinder in terms of getting Conservative Party members to vote for her. She has told grassroots Conservatives what they want to hear even when this is nonsense.

Truss said she will cut taxes and this will stimulate the economy; she shall not give people money to help them cope with galloping energy prices in winter; the UK can shred the Northern Ireland protocol and not suffer any blowback; she can improve public services without spending more; she can slash civil service pay and she can force people to be more productive. This is all drivel. But ordinary members of the Conservative Party have lapped it up. She has demonized trade unions and the public sector: traditional foes of the Tory Party. She has come out with unworkable policies such as a guaranteed interview at Oxford or Cambridge for every pupil who scores top grades in A levels.

Consider the situation that Liz is going to inherit. Her party is 10% behind in the polls. The health service is close to breaking point. Inflation is rampant. A recession is in the offing. There are ever more strikes on trains, buses and in schools and the health service. The United Kingdom has donated billions of GBP worth of military equipment to Ukraine and the UK now needs to replace that to remain well armed. Hundreds of illegal immigrants are arriving every day. The numbers are growing. It is more people than the UK can process. Legal immigration has been over a million in 2022 alone. Legal immigration can be a fantastic thing but her party vowed to reduce it. The sky is full of storm clouds.

2023 is tipped to be annus horribilis. Some have said she should call a snap election when she becomes PM. A honeymoon for a new PM leads to electoral victory. But it is improbable that she shall lead the Tories to a historic fifth consecutive term even if she were to call an early election. She will not get much of a bounce in the polls. Though she is liked by Tory Party members she is unpopular with the general public. The question shall also arise about what the party has accomplished since the 2019 election. Apart from Brexit, it is hard to perceive anything that the Tory Administration has achieved in the last near three years. The disbenefits of Brexit are tangible. Its benefits are slight. The Conservative Government has not capitalized on Brexit opportunities. The UK's last two general elections were early. Why should a third one be held?

The progress that the UK has made under the Tory Party is largely technological and scientific. It has advanced in renewable energy. That is despite and not because of, the government.

At the moment there is a warm afterglow of the Platinum Jubilee. People are glad to be out of lockdown. The UK held the Women's European Football Cup and the Commonwealth Games. These have added to the feel-good factor. But this will evaporate in 2023. The United Kingdom is heading into another winter of discontent.

What is notable about Liz Truss is how she pivots from one hardline position to its polar opposite without suffering the least discomfiture. In her teens, she was a Liberal Democrat and wanted to do away with the monarchy. Most people change their minds over the course of three decades. But Truss has changed it on everything. She was an ardent Europhile. Not that she is one of the hardest Brexiteers.

Civil servants lament Liz Truss' unacceptance of unpalatable truths. She is purblind to things that do not suit her. Something being unattractive does not make it untrue. Her cognitive biases are shocking.

There is a vacuity to Liz Truss. She has a flat affect. She is curiously unemotional. As a rhetor she is bland and mediocre. This is strange after almost 20 years in public life. She is very controlled and comes across as an automaton. It is as though there is some disconnect in her mind.

If Liz Truss becomes PM, then 2 out of the last 3 PMs will have been women. A female PM is becoming routine and unremarkable. The United Kingdom awaits its first non-white PM. In the 1990s Tony Blair said that the UK would one day have a non-white prime minister.

Miss Truss will likely lead the Tory Party into an election in December 2024. The party will then go down to a defeat on the scale of 1997. It will be a drubbing for a generation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are wholly credited to the author and do not reflect the opinion or views of Madhyamam