Truss(t) in democracy

Just a quickie and apologies that I’m being rather prolific at the moment, but this topic is too time-critical to leave it until the weekend.

Am I pleased Truss won?  I’m more relieved that Fishy lost, actually. He was plotting to bring down Boris and planning his own election campaign when he should’ve been doing his job as Chancellor and managing the British economy. Truss on the other hand was loyal to Boris to the end and did her job, regardless of whether she did it brilliantly, putting her ambitions for the country ahead of her ambitions to be PM, as evidenced by her lack of preparedness when the leadership race kicked off.

Do I think Truss will be a good PM? I hope so, unlike the opposition who’d rather engineer her failure and have the country disintegrate into an orgy of poverty and violence than witness Tory policies working. I have some reservations about her prospects, based on her previous pronouncements and ministerial decisions. For example, the jury’s out regarding the trade deal with Australia because of the risk of sub-standard imports under-cutting British farm produce. I’d be happier if I knew there was something in place to help disadvantaged farmers transition to the new regime and that they hadn’t just been dismissed as the ‘Turnip Taliban’. Another thing I’m not happy with is her previous call to build, build, build. 

I’m not going to comment here on her cutting funding for the Environment Agency which, the usual suspects say, led to more sewage being dumped in our rivers and seas. I’m chasing something down and will revert in a future blog.

But this one isn’t about policies. It’s about democratic principles. When the cake-knives initially came out for Boris, I said it was a dangerous distraction away from the more important job of governing the country. When he faced calls from Parliament, including some of his own MPs, to step aside, I pointed out that he had secured an 80-seat majority only two years previously and it should be for the electorate to decide whether he stay or go, although, I cautioned that an election at this time would be ruinous given all else going on in the world. I was told that Boris had no integrity, was an embarrassment on the world stage (someone forgot to tell Zelensky), a lame-duck leader, his going was the lesser of two evils, and that the rules of the country and his party allowed this to happen without a general election.

Guess what? These same holier-than-thous are now claiming that Truss is PM after only a tiny percentage of the country voted, and the leadership race meant we’ve had to suffer a zombie Government at the worst possible time … and that in the interests of democracy she should call an immediate general election, thus plunging the country into several more weeks of zombie-itis. Do these people not listen to themselves?

I hope Truss appoints a strong team to advise and support her. I suggest (my list isn’t exhaustive but I’m in a hurry) Badenoch, Braverman, Cleverly, Frost, Hart, Kwarteng, Mercer, Rees-Mogg and Wallace. Wild cards include Ruth Davidson and Kate Hoey.

The big question is, should I send her a link to my blog to keep her on the straight and narrow as well as providing some light relief?