James O’Brien: 'Crackers doesn't go far enough': Liz Truss addresses America | LBC

Feb 23, 2024 | The UK’s shortest-serving PM, who is still entitled to claim up to £115,000-a-year for the rest of her life, spoke at the CPAC conference. Liz Truss said: "Conservatives are now operating in what is now a hostile environment and we essentially need a bigger bazooka."

Liz Truss: I Would Vote for Donald Trump

THE TELEGRAPH: Exclusive: Former PM defends sharing stage with election-deniers as she effectively endorses Republican frontrunner

Liz Truss gives a speech during the Conservative Political Action Conference in the US | CREDIT: SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Liz Truss said she would vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden if she were an American citizen, effectively endorsing the Republican frontrunner in his race to reclaim the White House in November.

Ms Truss attacked Mr Biden for projecting “weakness” on the global stage, telling The Telegraph the Republican Party was more “pro-Britain” and could deliver on Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of “peace through strength”.

The former prime minister was in the Washington suburbs to share a stage with Mr Trump at a major US conservative conference.

Speaking after her speech to grassroots activists, Ms Truss said raging global conflicts called for strong US leadership on the world stage.

She said: “I think that we need peace through strength. And I think that is what we would see if the Republicans were back in, and also I think the Republicans are more pro-Britain than the Democrats.” » | Rozina Sabur, Deputy US Editor, Oxon Hill, Maryland | Friday, February 23, 2024 [£]

If any of you were wondering whether Liz Truss had a screw loose, wonder no longer! She’s just confirmed our worst fears: she definitely has a screw loose! – © Mark Alexander

Britain’s ‘Deep State’ Thwarted My Plans, Liz Truss Tells US Far-right Summit

THE GUARDIAN: Former Conservative PM, whose tenure lasted 50 days, tells CPAC she fell victim to UK’s ‘establishment … its bureaucrats and lawyers’

Screenshot from the Guardian. | Liz Truss with Nigel Farage at the CPAC summit on Wednesday. Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP
Liz Truss, the former British prime minister, spoke at a far-right conference in America on Wednesday, styling herself as a populist who took on America’s equivalent of the “deep state” in her own country.

Truss was among the headline speakers at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference at the National Harbor in Maryland. CPAC is billed as the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US but has in recent years embraced Donald Trump’s brand of nativist-populism.

In Wednesday’s opening session, an “international summit”, the ex-PM sat side by side with Nigel Farage, former leader of the Brexit party, both with small union flags on the table in front of them. » | David Smith in Oxon Hill, Maryland | Thursday, February 22, 2024

Liz Truss is totally and utterly delusional. The trouble is that the American far-right will lap the crap up. It's just what they want to hear. – © Mark Alexander

‘She’s totally lost it’: inside story of the unravelling of Liz Truss’s premiership: Approaching one year on from the start of her tenure, a look back on how it all fell apart within 49 days »

Whisper It, but in Opposing Rishi Sunak’s Smoking Ban, Liz Truss Might Be Right

THE GUARDIAN: Restricting flavoured vapes make sense, but halting tobacco sales altogether for all entering adulthood is bizarre

Screengrab from the Guardian: ‘Smoking is both enjoyable and harmful. The state’s job is to regulate the balance.’ Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
At least twice as many school pupils smoke cannabis as smoke tobacco. Cannabis is illegal, tobacco is legal. If legality meant anything, the figures should be the other way round.

Smoking, like alcohol and narcotic drugs, is both enjoyable and harmful. The state’s job is to regulate the balance. Health education, together with nudge measures like banning smoking in public places, have cut tobacco consumption steadily since 2000. The number of smokers has fallen in the past decade from 20% to 13% of the population. The one alarming development has been the use of vaping by children, with more than 20% of 11 to 17-year-olds now saying they’ve tried it, which is why the government’s proposed restriction on flavoured vapes is long overdue and is rightly directed at manufacturers blatantly promoting them to teenagers. How effective it would be remains to be seen.

Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban tobacco sales altogether for all entering adulthood, however, is bizarre. … » | Simon Jenkins | Monday, January 29, 2024

It is to be hoped that this legislation will fail, for if it doesn't, what will be next? Alcohol? Doughnuts? Meat? The possibilities are endless. In the name of God, stop this freakery! – © Mark Alexander

Liz Truss Says Sunak’s Plan to Gradually Ban Cigarette Sales Is ‘Absurd' and 'Profoundly Unconservative’

Screengrab from the Guardian: Liz Truss. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
THE GUARDIAN: “While the state has a duty to protect children from harm, in a free society, adults must be able to make their own choices about their own lives.

Banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in 2009 or later will create an absurd situation where adults enjoy different rights based on their birthdate.

A Conservative government should not be seeking to extend the nanny state. This will only give succour to those who wish to ban further choices of which they don’t approve.

The newly-elected National government in New Zealand is already reversing the generational tobacco ban proposed by the previous administration.

The government urgently needs to follow suit and reverse this profoundly unconservative policy." » | Quotation: Liz Truss | Date unknown | From today’s Guardian.

For once, I fully agree with Liz Truss on this absurd policy. It should be stopped with despatch. This is profoundly undemocratic, unworkable and unpoliceable. As Liz Truss says, adults should be able to make up their own minds on whether they smoke. Besides, there are known health benefits to smoking in moderation. The devil is in the dose. But even if there weren’t, it’s my life, my choice. Keep governments OUT of people’s PRIVATE lives. What comes next? A ban on drinking alcohol?

We are soon to be in the situation in which two men will be able to kiss in public, but not enjoy a smoke together! How absurd is that? (And I speak as a gay man!)

Furthermore, with WWIII possibly just around the corner, does this mean that our boys will be sent to fight for King and country, but won’t be allowed to enjoy a cigarette for relaxation after battles?

Kick Sunak out of office asap! The man is out of his depth. – © Mark Alexander

UK Government urged to follow New Zealand and scrap tobacco sales ban »

Tobacco sales ban: PM accused of "creeping prohibition" »

Michael Lambert: STAGGERING WASTE of Taxpayers' MONEY

Nov 4, 2023 | Despite the Prime Minister's claims to the contrary, the UK economy is in trouble. At the Covid enquiry last week it became clear that No 10 and the government were in chaos during the Boris Johnson administration. There was little discipline or order especially during the pandemic Also throughout this time, money was spent with very little apparent control, benefitting many including Tory donors who benefitted from huge contracts.

£29.3 billion was spent on 'Test & Trace'. £30 billion was lost by Liz Truss and Kwazi Kwarteng with their disastrous budget and £21 billion was lost to fraud under Rishi Sunak.

It is clear that taxpayers' money is being wasted with few proper controls whilst friends of Tories or donors often seem to be the beneficiaries.

Many MP's have second jobs whilst others are being investigated for alleged financial offences. HMRC rent offices in Newcastle from a company whose beneficial owners are based in a tax haven thereby helping them to evade UK tax.

Money laundering is known to be widespread throughout the UK whilst HMRC ask not to be told about it

The Guardian View on Liz Truss’s Premiership: A Mistake Britain Would Be Stupid to Repeat

THE GUARDIAN - EDITORIAL: Rishi Sunak criticised his predecessor’s plans as ‘fairytales’. But it’s magical thinking that the Conservatives want

Liz Truss. ‘As a politician she believed in burning rather than building bridges.’ Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
It only took 49 days for Liz Truss to tank the British economy. Imagine what a decade could do? Ms Truss is shamelessly thinking about just that. She is now working on a book, Ten Years to Save the West, to be published in April next year. The west had better watch out. Ms Truss’s tome is unlikely to deliver the mea culpa the public deserves for crashing the pound and sending interest rates spiralling upwards a year ago. The shortest-serving prime minister in British history is likely to double down on her misjudgments. » | Editorial | Sunday, September 17, 2023

Liz Truss’s comeback defies all belief – until you understand the rotten forces making it possible: A weak PM, a dying government, a radicalised rightwing press: these are the foundations of Truss’s unlikely relaunch »

Related links here.

Unfortunately for the Tories, Liz Truss Is the Gift That Keeps On Giving

THE GUARDIAN: Almost a year after her disastrous mini-budget, ex-PM says she was right and the economy and everyone else was wrong

Liz Truss leaves the Institute for Government in London, a venue not normally known for comedy gigs. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock
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 »

The Guardian View on Liz Truss’s Resignation Honours: This List of Shame

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The former prime minister should not be allowed to recommend new peers or give gongs to those involved in her catastrophic time in No 10

‘The very existence of her list is shameless and shaming, both to Ms Truss and to those who are on it.’ Photograph: Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock
The reverberations from Boris Johnson’s resignation peerages and honours list have not died down. They are likely to continue, especially if the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who was spurned for a Johnson peerage, has anything to do with it. But even the political stink surrounding the Johnson list may soon be outdone by Liz Truss’s outrageous proposed resignation honours. Rishi Sunak will deserve every piece of opprobrium that he gets if he nods this latest list through.

From what is known about the names submitted by Ms Truss, which are now being vetted by the House of Lords appointments commission and by the Cabinet Office, her list is a disgrace on two quite separate grounds. The first is that she has submitted a list at all, having been bundled out of No 10 last October after a mere 49 days. The very existence of her list is shameless and shaming, both to Ms Truss and to those who are on it. Mr Sunak and the House of Lords appointment commission should put a stop to it right now. » | Editorial | Sunday, August 13, 2023

The honours sytem is a joke. Honours are dished out like Smarties at a kid's birthday party! For honours to mean anything, they should be given sparingly to truly worthy people. That Liz Truss, a loser by any meaningful definition of the word, should be allowed to dish out honours when her very short time in office and extreme politics were, for many, as appalling as they were painful, and equally disastrous for the country, even at a time of great difficulties for the masses and poverty for the many, is a perversion and makes a mockery of the system. In any case, do we really need to dole out honours in the twenty-first century? The system perpetuates the class system, thus hindering upward mobility for the many. Further, this country is riven by class as it is, so handing out honours divides the nation even more. There is no need to add to the nation's divisions. So do we really need to make people lords and barons and kinights and ladies and baronesses? Come the coffin, in spite of titles and honours, they will soon thereafter turn to ashes anyway! – © Mark Alexander

Truss and Kwarteng Given More Than £16,000 Each after Leaving Office

THE GUARDIAN: Severance pay for former PM and chancellor equal to about £400 for every day they held roles, accounts show

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham last October. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng received about £400 in severance pay for every day they were in office, according to government accounts published on Thursday.

The former prime minister and former chancellor each received more than £16,000 on leaving their jobs after just a few weeks, the Treasury’s annual report shows, while Tom Scholar, the department’s most senior civil servant, received £457,000 after being sacked by Truss.

The figures are contained in a series of annual reports from across government, which also show that Boris Johnson was given a payout of £18,660 after quitting as prime minister. » | Kiran Stacey, Political correspondent | Thursday, July 20, 2023

The formula for determining the pay-outs is simple: The bigger the cock-up, the bigger the pay-out! It’s always good to reward talent. – © Mark Alexander

Boris Johnson and Liz Truss Are Raking It In

Jul 16, 2023

Liz Truss in Taiwan Calls for ‘Economic Nato’ to Challenge China

THE GUARDIAN: Former British PM says Taiwan is ‘on the front line of the global battle for freedom’ during trip that China has called a ‘dangerous political show’

Former British prime minister Liz Truss speaks at an event in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday in which she called for a ‘economic Nato’ to counter China. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters
Free nations must commit themselves to a free Taiwan and must be prepared to back it up with concrete measures, Liz Truss has said in a keynote speech in Taipei, in which she called for an “economic Nato” to tackle Beijing’s growing authoritarianism.

The former British prime minister said she had come to show support for Taiwan, which was “on the frontline of the global battle for freedom”, under threat from a totalitarian regime in China. Truss arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a five-day visit, and is expected to meet senior government officials.

Truss, who was prime minister for 44 days in 2022 after serving as foreign secretary for the year prior, is the most senior British politician to make the trip since Margaret Thatcher, and drew a rebuke from China’s UK embassy, which said the visit was “a dangerous political show which will do nothing but harm to the UK”. » | Helen Davidson in Taipei | Wednesday, May 17, 2023

ALSO READ:

Chinese embassy calls Liz Truss’s trip to Taiwan a ‘dangerous political stunt’: Former prime minister will challenge Rishi Sunak to deliver on rhetoric about Beijing being a ‘threat’ to UK »

Hasn’t Truss ever heard of the concept of ‘boxing above one’s weight’? If she hasn’t, she should have. – Mark Alexander

Mini-budget an ‘International Embarrassment’ Says NatWest Boss

THE GUARDIAN: UK’s reputation ‘scarred’, Howard Davies tells staff, as he also warns of government plans to boost competitiveness

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng at the Conservative party conference in October 2022. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
The chairman of NatWest has told staff he “never felt so embarrassed internationally” as he did at the International Monetary Fund meeting in the wake of the UK’s disastrous mini-budget, as he warned about government plans to boost the competitiveness of City firms.

Sir Howard Davies told hundreds of employees at NatWest – which is still 48% owned by the state – that ex-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s package of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy in late September, which triggered a market meltdown, caused “quite a significant problem” and “scarring” of the UK’s reputation, according to a recording reviewed by the Guardian. » | Kalyeena Makortoff, Banking correspondent | Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Donations to Tory party slump 40% in three months: Just under £3m collected from July to September, as Labour takes more for first time in over a year with £4.7m »

Liz Truss Addresses the Nation in Her Farewell Speech

Démission de Liz Truss au Royaume-Uni : le Brexit, « éléphant dans la pièce »

LE MONDE – ÉDITORIAL : La décision de la première ministre britannique marque l’échec des promesses liées à la décision de sortir de l’Union européenne. En tirer les leçons risque d’être long et douloureux mais cela est indispensable pour retrouver le chemin de la stabilité et de la prospérité.

Aucun premier ministre britannique depuis 1945 n’est resté si peu de temps au pouvoir que Liz Truss, démissionnaire, jeudi 20 octobre, après seulement quarante-quatre jours passés à Downing Street. Que le pays d’Europe au système démocratique le plus enraciné du continent soit à son tour atteint par l’instabilité n’est, en soi, pas une bonne nouvelle. Qu’une puissance désormais moyenne, mais qui compte dans le monde, soit prise dans un tourbillon de crise économique et politique, au moment où l’agression russe en Ukraine met à l’épreuve l’unité et la résilience de l’Europe, n’en est pas une non plus.

Vertigineuse, la chute de Liz Truss n’en était pas moins annoncée. La brutalité et l’absurdité de ses annonces économiques, faites de baisses d’impôts massives pour les riches non financées, ont été sanctionnées non seulement par les milieux financiers – où certains l’avaient mise en garde –, mais par l’opinion, atterrée par le dévissage immédiat du pays, là où elle promettait la croissance. Sa volte-face, marquée par le limogeage de son ministre des finances et l’abandon de son propre programme, avait achevé de ruiner le peu de crédibilité et d’autorité qui lui restait. » | Éditorial « du Monde » | vendredi 22 octobre 2022

Read the editorial in English.

Truth To Power: Tory Brexit Britain Is a Global Laughing Stock

As Liz Truss becomes the fourth Prime Minister to be eaten by Brexit, the state of British politics is being mocked by other countries all over the world. The currency, bond and stock markets are also, in their own way, mocking the competence of our Tory government. After 12 years of planning, the oligarch-funded media, and Tufton Street think tanks, managed to get their hand-reared, indoctrinated puppets installed in numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street. But as soon as their ultra libertarian, economic dogma was tested in the real world, its failure was both immediate, and catastrophic, damaging the global reputation of an isolated, economically-underperforming post-Brexit-Britain for many years to come.

Brexit has been a total and utter disaster, and a total and utter disaster it will always be and a total and utterdisaster it was destined to be from the very start. Trying to "make Brexit work "is like trying to bring a dead parrot back to life! – © Mark Alexander

The Ruination of Britain

Henry Nicholls/Reuters
OPINION : GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — Until very recently the British Conservative Party was able to claim, with a great deal of credibility, that it was the most successful political party in the Western world.

The party of Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher has governed Britain for most of the last 200 years. Through much of that time the Conservatives have been synonymous with good sense, financial sobriety and cautious pragmatism. Despised by progressive elites, allergic to ideology, provincial rather than metropolitan, the Conservative Party rejoiced in being the stolid party of the boring middle ground.

Not anymore. Today, the Conservatives are synonymous with chaos.

Liz Truss, the latest Tory prime minister to crash and burn, must bear her share of the blame. There are sound reasons for why she was forced to resign after just 44 days, the shortest term in history. It was a foolish notion to suppose that she could sack the most senior Treasury official, reinvent the laws of economic management and defy the collective wisdom of the financial markets. There was going to be only one result.

But the bigger truth is that the hapless Ms. Truss is a symptom rather than the cause of Britain’s chronic crisis of governance, which has reduced the country — once respected around the world — to a global laughingstock. The Conservative Party chose her, remember, even though she was obviously not up to the job. You didn’t need the foresight of Nostradamus to know she would fail. For the fiasco of her premiership and the disastrous state of the country, the Conservative Party must collectively take responsibility. » | Peter Oborne * | Friday, October 21, 3022

Mr. Oborne is a British journalist, broadcaster and former political commentator for The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail.

‘Disgrace’: World’s Press React to Truss Resignation and UK Political Turmoil

THE GUARDIAN: Commentators and politicians question how Britain has fallen so far – with Brexit singled out as a prime culprit

Liz Truss’s resignation after just 45 days in office has made waves across Europe and beyond, with commentators and politicians alike questioning how Britain could have fallen so far, so fast – and with most blaming Brexit.

“Prime minister’s departure plunges Britain into profound and unprecedented political crisis,” was the headline in Le Monde, noting that next Friday Britain “should learn the name of its third Conservative prime minister in three months”.

Even that was not guaranteed, the paper’s London correspondent said, since the Tory party, “weakened by internal divisions, an absence of ideas and a lack of fresh faces after 12 years in power” may prove incapable of agreeing on a candidate.

“Will the Conservatives, for once, manage to rise above their own partisan interests and choose a leader who will defend those of the whole country?” Cécile Ducourtieux asked. Nothing, most observers reckoned, was less certain. » | Jon Henley, Europe correspondent | Friday, October 21, 2022

"We Are a Democracy in Name Only": George Monbiot on Truss Resignation & Who Will Be Next British PM

British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday after just 45 days in office, the shortest term in the nation's history. Her low-tax, low-regulation financial policies were widely criticized after they sent the pound plummeting, causing several senior ministers to quit. We speak to George Monbiot, British journalist at The Guardian, about her short-lived time in office, what this says about the Conservative Party, and who her likely successor will be. "You'd think we'd have a general election after all this chaos, … but that's not how it works in this country, because we are a democracy in name only," says Monbiot.

Starmer Joins Calls for Truss to Decline Ex-PMs’ £115,000 Annual Grant

THE GUARDIAN: Outgoing PM urged to forgo allowance amid cost of living crisis and cuts to public services

Keir Starmer has joined calls for Liz Truss to decline the allowance of up to £115,000 a year she will be entitled to as a former prime minister.

The Labour leader told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday: “She should turn it down. I think that’s the right thing to do. She’s done 44 days in office, she’s not really entitled to it, she should turn it down and not take it.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, also said she should turn down the allowance.

The political leaders’ remarks come after a trade union representing civil servants hit out at the entitlement to the perk amid a mounting squeeze on public services and the cost of living crisis.

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “At a time when one in five civil servants are using food banks and 35% have skipped meals because they have no food, it’s grotesque that Liz Truss can walk away with what is effectively a £115,000 bonus. » | Ben Quinn and Jamie Grierson | Friday, October 21, 2022

F*** up your country’s economy, spend 44/45 days doing it, and end up with a lifelong pension that most people could only dream of. And the clown that held office before her will be receiving the same pension for ruining this country’s economic future by backing Brexshit. Wow! If you receive that much for f*****g up, how much will you receive for doing a good job of being prime minister, I wonder? – © Mark Alexander