All About Liz Truss

With her being the Conservative party leader and thus the prime minister, what changes do you think she will make? In my opinion, although Boris Johnson spent a fair time being the prime minister, there was nothing remarkable or extraordinary about him. His time in number 10 when assessed by the public will be remembered as terrible and poor. But just how they reflect on his time will be determined by his successor, Liz truss and her time in office. 

With Boris Johnson led towards the exit, and kicked out the door. Liz Truss enters the picture as the new Prime Minister of Britain. As for the basics, the 47 years old, Truss is a Conservative and has served as an MP for 12 years. Also, she has been a Cabinet minister for eight years working under three different prime ministers. 

So, who is Liz Truss?

Truss is married to Hugh O’Leary and has two daughters. It was early in 2001 when Truss at the age of 25 that she got her feet dirty and stuck in the ugly pool of politics for the first time. She stood for the constituency of Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, a safe seat for the Labour Party. Although she failed to take the seat, coming in a distant second, she managed to increase the Conservative vote by 3.2%.

Liz has been accused of being a "Political Chameleon." The reason for this is pretty simple. Liz was one of those people who protested against the first female leader of the UK; Margaret Thatcher. She was one of those who demanded the monarchy be ousted and the UK become a republic.

However, here she is, ten years later, climbing through the ranks of the Conservative Party to reach the highest seat in the game.  Although often being compared, and even seeming to be imitating the footsteps of Thatcher at many points. Truss refused it clearly has clearly stated to the BBC that women in power often get compared to Thatcher no matter what they choose to do.

"I am my person," – said Truss.

How did Liz Truss gain power?

Truss wasn't the Conservative Party MPs' first pick, and most Britons, according to polls, think she will make a "poor" prime minister, but she was the front-runner among Tory party members who chose the leader of their party. The vote was actually closer than first thought, In the membership vote, it was announced on 5 September that 57.4% of ballots were for Truss, making her the new leader.

The long-serving cabinet minister had a sluggish beginning in the early rounds of voting with MPs, but her upbeat perspective, which her detractors claim defies reality, and plan to challenge conventional wisdom on the economy had won over party members.

David Gauke shares his experience by reminiscing their time together. In his opinion, Truss had always been an ambitious lady and she was someone who kept going by challenging herself with the mantra, ‘Why not me? Why can't I make it to the top?’ Hence, this is what drove her to climb up the stairs of power and reach where she is today! I find it interesting that even David would remark on the fact that Liz had the idea of making it to the top while she was a cabinet member. 

In my opinion, there are three kinds of politicians, the kind that gets into politics to champion a cause, to fix something that they see is wrong in society. The kind that is looking to be a career politician, who is looking to be an MP, or even a major player in governments for the long term, possibly even their whole working lives. And then you have the third kind, the kind that I despise. The kind of person that is looking for nothing other than power. 

Not only does it come with power, but often money. Although the job itself is relatively well paid, it is often a short one. But there is the fact that once they come out of government there is any number of lobbying firms, big energy firms, or even banks that are willing to snap them up. Now, I won’t say it is because they have a backdoor to those still in power. But one has to question why we see high-ranking politicians often taken on board by these large companies. 

In an election where the only participants were the party's 172,000 paying members, Truss became the party leader and due to the Conservatives' continued majority in the House of Commons, Truss was automatically elected prime minister.

Truss, though, is under pressure to provide results quickly because she was chosen as the nation's leader by less than 0.5% of British citizens. At the moment, not many people expect Truss to do an exceptional job, the majority of the public in the UK is used to a rapid turnover of PMs without a real general election. There are some in the public that called for an early general election, but neither Boris Johnson nor Liz Truss thought that was the correct way to move forward. This is probably because it is widely known that not only is public opinion of the tories at a low point, no party in UK political history has won 5 general elections in a row. 

Truss is currently thought of as having to tackle the subject of "restoring trust in politics," and even then, just 16% of Britons support her, compared to Johnson's pitiful 7% at the end of his premiership.

As foreign secretary, Truss firmly backed Ukraine's opposition against Russia. She had stated that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be her first call from a world leader when she first took office. Another pricey promise made by Truss is to raise the United Kingdom's defence spending from slightly over 2% of GDP to 3%. This is also to be done in the shadow of a looming recession and a massive cut in taxes which has now been announced. 

Honestly, I think it could be said that the first 100 days are more critical for Liz Truss than many of her predecessors. She has to balance a faltering economy, a war in Europe, and a massive low in the public opinion of not only the Tories but also in politics in general. It really is make-or-break time for the blue party and the mini-budget goes to show just how extreme the lengths she is willing to go. 

But many in the UK already distrust her and the new budget didn’t really help the matter. Although, there are some positives, such as the energy price cap and moves to make investment more appealing. The massive tax cuts that will disproportionately affect the highest earners in British society has already proved to be unpopular with the public at large. 

What do you all think, will Liz Truss take us back to a time of general strikes and three-day weeks, with inflation running rampant and poverty as we haven't seen for over 60 years? Is she the saviour we need, with her new way of thinking? Or is this just a blatant power grab, seeing the Johnson administration was failing and the snake decided to strike? I guess only time will tell. 

Thanks for reading, 

Spec.