Great Britain: Liz Truss struggles to return to the political stage – Politics

In English it is called “hindsight” when you are wiser in retrospect, hindsight is looking back, often sad, sometimes painful. The detailed look back is, in turn, its own kind of political reporting, and produces lengthy books, a large number of which have recently been published in the UK. The intensity of events certainly confirms this. There are books about the downfall of Boris Johnson, the general chaos at Westminster, and there are reconstructions of Liz Truss’s time as Prime Minister. Unlike Johnson, Liz Truss’s review covers not just her last time in office, but her entire 45 days in office. Liz Truss’s chapter is perhaps the most fascinating, strange and unusual, but certainly the shortest, chapter in British political history.

It started a year ago this Wednesday when Liz Truss traveled to Scotland after winning the seemingly endless election campaign against Rishi Sunak within her party to be appointed Prime Minister by the Queen at Balmoral. At 12:10 p.m., the photo was taken that was shown repeatedly in the following weeks: the Queen’s last official portrait. The Queen wore a cardigan with flames burning in the background. The Queen died two days later, on 8 September at 3:10 pm; Liz Truss and a few of her closest advisers were already sitting in her Downing Street flat working on her eulogy. Some were sitting on the floor because Boris Johnson took most of the furniture with him when he left the house.

Batting on the open stage

Such details and anecdotes can be found, for example, in a well-researched book called “Out of the Blue” by journalists Harry Cole (the sun) and James Hale )Viewer). The two are considered well connected at Westminster; An evening in Birmingham last year, for example, was documented at a chaotic Conservative Party conference: At that time, late at night, several eyewitnesses observed a loud altercation between Kohl and the president. Downing Street’s media director in the party hotel lobby. During the fight, Cole allegedly put his foot into the closed elevator door.

It had a story in it sun About an amazing transformation. Truss and her Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng announced quite unexpectedly that they were scrapping the 45% tax cap, then the pound fell to unprecedented levels, the IMF intervened, and it was an economic disaster. During a memorable gig in Birmingham, Truss decided to cancel the deletion – which the tabloid reported sun Also because Cole was having dinner with Kwarteng when Truss summoned the Minister of Finance to the hotel.

Anyone who was in Birmingham at the time could have watched in amazement for days as the Tories tore themselves apart in public. In the end it was clear that Prime Minister Liz Truss’s term could not last much longer. Truss then continued for another 15 days.

The Conservatives fell far behind Labor in the opinion polls while they have not recovered to this day. The popularity rating of character gears has now reached minus 59 points. Even the deeply unpopular former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn and the unpopular Prime Minister Theresa May were more sympathetic to voters on their worst days. Truss’s resignation was ultimately inevitable.

Looking back, she would have done some things differently, Truss wrote

However, the picture she painted last evening as Prime Minister is poignant. The night before her resignation, she canceled a meeting with new Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt and instead opened a bottle of wine with her husband in Downing Street. To eat there was pork pie. It is said that the two quietly tried that evening to accept the inevitable end.

“Too late,” Liz Truss wrote a few months ago Sunday Telegraph She would have done some things differently, she wrote. But you don’t have to take this as deeper introspection or even regret, because Truss also believes she “never had a realistic chance.” Truss said in her speech that it was “coordinated resistance” from the British economic establishment and the International Monetary Fund, and “even Joe Biden” opposed it from the beginning. Rishi Sunak’s supporters in his party were also a problem.

Meanwhile, Liz Truss tries to rehabilitate her reputation. According to the announcement, she will deliver speeches in Washington and Tokyo, and will soon speak at an event held by a think tank in London “about her vision for how the government can ensure the United Kingdom achieves faster growth.” The fees for her attempts at rehabilitation are good: according to the register where MPs must list their part-time jobs, Truss has been paid £218,000 (about €254,000) for 14 hours’ work so far this year. She also established the Growth Commission, an economic growth working group that brings together like-minded business people and economic experts. And of course: she’s writing a book.

Liz Truss is likely to be present again at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester later this month, as she has already announced. There are certainly doubts within the party about whether this means the meeting will be quieter than last year.