You’ve got to hand it to Liz Truss. Few politicians do shamelessness quite like her. Or turn lack of self-awareness into an art form. Imagine being everyone’s odds on favourite for the title of worst prime minister of all time. Worse even that [sic] David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak. That would be enough to send most normal, sensate beings crawling under a stone for eternity.
But not our Liz. Almost exactly a year after her mini-budget crashed the economy, adding billions to the national debt and thousands to people’s mortgages, she’s back. And the prime minister who only lasted 49 days in the job before being humiliatingly forced to resign by her own party – hold that thought: too useless even for the Tories – wants us to know that she regrets nothing. She isn’t sorry for anything. She would do it all again in a heartbeat. Narcissism has been a trait of many recent prime ministers, but this is upping the delusional ante.
Still, there’s one thing no one can take away from her. She has at least advanced the cause of women in politics. Sort of. Not so long ago, women had to be twice as good as men to succeed to the top jobs in government. Truss has shattered that particular glass ceiling. She is living proof that a woman can now be every bit as useless as a man and still become prime minister. What a legacy. Admittedly May had nudged us in that direction, but Truss is an icon of incoherence. Radon – “she’s a gas, but she’s inert” – Liz is a beacon for the brainless everywhere. Oxford should be rethinking its PPE course as we speak. » | John Crace | Monday, September 18, 2023
Liz Truss blames ‘groupthink’ for economic damage under her watch: While former PM takes some responsibility for markets crisis after mini-budget, she says main fault lay with Bank of England »
