TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Saturday, Jun 03, 2023

Everything you wanted to know about Liz Truss but were too afraid to ask

Everything you wanted to know about Liz Truss but were too afraid to ask

Swot up on Britain’s incoming prime minister as Boris Johnson heads for the exit.

Britain is about to get a new prime minister. Yep, again.

As the governing Conservatives pin their hopes on tax-cutting, free-trading, woke-bashing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to succeed where Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron have all failed since 2016, POLITICO has a handy primer on the U.K.’s (latest) incoming prime minister so you can pretend you know what you’re talking about with friends.

The vital statistics


Let’s start with the basics. Truss is a Conservative. She’s 47 years old, and has been an MP for 12 years and a Cabinet minister for eight, serving under three prime ministers. Her current gig is foreign secretary, meaning she’s also the country’s point person for post-Brexit EU relations — so if you’re reading this in Brussels, you may already be rolling your eyes at this turn of events. She starts work Tuesday as Johnson exits stage left, knife wounds still healing.

The personal life


Truss is married to accountant Hugh O’Leary, with whom she has two daughters. The incoming U.K. leader was born in Oxford, and grew up in Scotland and then Leeds, in the north of England, attending a school she later accused of setting “low expectations” for its pupils. She also had a spell in Canada before belatedly settling into the tried-and-tested route to Westminster — a degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

The politics


Truss is seen as a libertarian and loves low taxes and small states. She co-wrote ‘Britannia Unchained,’ a 2012 book by newly-elected Tory MPs pitched as a wake-up call for low-productivity Britain. It dubbed U.K. workers “among the worst idlers in the world,” and took a swipe at young people for being “more interested in football and pop music” than their Indian counterparts.

Yet Truss has also proved to be a pragmatic shape-shifter throughout her career, getting stuck in to running several tricky government departments and morphing from bright-eyed Cameroon moderate to flag-waving champion of post-Brexit Britain. She wisely kept her hands squeaky clean during the brutal Conservative coup that called time on scandal-hit Johnson, refusing to openly criticize him — yet managing to avoid being seen as part of the inner Johnson circle.

The policies


Truss comfortably saw off her rival Rishi Sunak and wooed the Conservative grassroots with promises to slash taxes “from day one,” scrap outdated EU laws still on the British statute book, and tackle what she’s called a “woke” culture in the U.K. civil service. One MP supportive of Truss told POLITICO last month they think Britain “could be heading for a 1980s-style culture shock” under the incoming prime minister, while a key ally, Jacob-Rees Mogg, has called for a full rethink of “whether the state should deliver certain functions at all.”

Truss has insisted she’s no Margaret Thatcher clone (although that hasn’t stopped her stealing the late Conservative prime minister’s best outfits).

You can read every one of her 149 policy pledges here, thanks to tireless POLITICO intern Noah Keate.

The in-tray


Truss takes the helm at a tumultuous time for Britain, which is battling soaring energy costs (in part ramped by the war in Ukraine) and teetering on the brink of a full-blown recession. The country has been gripped by a wave of strikes, hobbling everything from the railways to the ports. Oh, and there’s a cross-Channel “shitstorm” brewing over water companies dumping sewage into the sea.

On the political front, Truss is tasked with turning around the fortunes of a Conservative Party that’s been in power for 12 years, and his has seen its popularity fall off a cliff this year as Johnson fluffed the response to a host of scandals. No pressure, Liz.

The inner circle


A new prime minister usually means a new top team, and key figures expected to get major jobs in a Truss government include fellow Britannia Unchained scribe Kwasi Kwarteng, an instinctive small-state Conservative who looks all-but certain to become Truss’ top finance minister. Friend, karaoke-lover and fellow Cabinet minister Therese Coffey, currently holding the work and pensions brief, has been tipped for a senior role. Rees-Mogg, a die-hard Brexiteer who effectively lives in a castle and yet really hates working from home, looks like the frontrunner to become business and energy secretary.

Defeated rival and former chancellor Sunak may or may not be offered a job — but don’t expect the bloke who called Truss’s economic plan “immoral” to leap at the chance, either way.

The Brexit conversion


Perhaps the most striking shift in what we might generously describe as Truss’ pragmatic journey to the top has been her switch from worried Remainer to avid Brexit-backer. Ahead of Britain’s fateful EU referendum in 2016, Truss — then environment secretary — argued passionately for the country to stay in the bloc, warning that going it alone would be a “hugely retrograde step” on environmental protection and could usher in a “wasted decade” for the U.K. economy. Oh, and there’s always a tweet.

Fast forward to 2017 and Truss had already recanted, saying the “massive economic problems” she feared Britain would face on its own had “not come to pass.” It’s a position she’s stuck to ever since and, happily, the British economy is doing just fine, thank you very much.

The maverick diplomat


As U.K. foreign secretary, Truss hasn’t exactly been afraid to ruffle a few feathers. She’s shepherded through controversial legislation which the EU says risks ripping up the hard-won protections for Northern Ireland in the Brexit deal (unnerving Brussels and Washington in the process), and caused outrage in China by suggesting the West should be prepared to arm Taiwan. On the leadership campaign trail, she earned the ultimate badge of honor for a prospective British leader: pissing off the French.

Aussie conservatives who love her no-nonsense, free-trading talk are a bit more enthusiastic, while Baltic states spooked by the threat of Russia see a leader who’ll stand up for them when the going gets tough.

The art of the deal


Truss made her name signing a raft of post-Brexit trade deals, elevating a middle-ranking Cabinet job into a daily chance to fly the flag for Britain. As international trade secretary, Truss soared in the favorability ratings with grassroots Conservatives and bagged a string of rollover trade deals aimed at retaining post-Brexit links with key trading partners.

But her approach has not been without controversy: critical MPs accused her of being too focused on her own profile, with some even labelling her Department for International Trade (DIT) the “Department for Instagramming Truss,” based on her prolific output on the social network. Scrutiny of the deals she actually negotiated as trade secretary has only increased since she left the job, with agriculture and farming groups accusing her of ignoring warnings about the toll of opening the door to cheap imports from Australia and New Zealand.

The pork markets thing


Perhaps surprisingly, Britain’s next prime minister was previously best known for … shouting about pork (stay with us here). Truss has long embraced a somewhat goofy public persona, and gave an, erm, highly enthusiastic 2014 speech to the Conservative Party faithful as environment secretary, which included possibly the most rapturous use of the phrase “pork markets” ever recorded. She also won applause for gravely informing her audience with a steely gaze: “We import two-thirds of our cheese: that is a disgrace!”




Truss is also remembered for taking on rural Conservatives in her battle to become the MP for South West Norfolk. The group of political opponents, dubbed the “Turnip Taliban” due to their supposed militancy, grumbled that Truss’ colorful personal life (she’d had an affair with a married MP) was unbecoming for their prospective political representative. But Truss — whose allies claimed a whiff of sexism among her critics — ultimately prevailed.

Truss’ real dark secret


Brace yourselves: she used to be a Liberal Democrat. Yep, the small-state libertarian had a misspent youth as a representative of Britain’s tree-hugging, socks-and-sandals-wearing, center-left opposition party, telling its 1994 conference that she’d be up for abolishing the monarchy. That should at least give her something to chat about with the queen when she’s invited to form a new government at Balmoral Tuesday lunchtime.



AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
Elon Musk Meets Chinese Finance Minister in Beijing
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
If you donated to BLM, you got played
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines calls the British monarchy "an absurdity" he wants to remove in his lifetime
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
AG decries scapegoating and rushed lawmaking by government
The land of the free violence
×