After becoming leader of the Conservative party with just over 57% of party members' votes (81,326 of 141,725 total), Liz Truss will take over as Prime Minister from Boris Johnson when she is...
After becoming leader of the Conservative party with just over 57% of party members' votes (81,326 of 141,725 total), Liz Truss will take over as Prime Minister from Boris Johnson when she is formally appointed by the queen tomorrow.
For those less familiar with the UK system, our Prime Minister holds the office as a function of leading the party with a majority in the House of Commons, rather than being directly elected to the role. As such this wasn't a general election, simply an internal change of party leadership triggered by Johnson being forced out earlier in the year.
What this actually means for the country is still an open question. I haven't spoken to anyone who thinks she's going to do much good, but she also doesn't appear significantly worse than her predecessor. Her overall popularity is low, and it seems quite possible that we'll get another general election earlier than the Jan 2025 deadline one way or another.
I hope we do see another general election pretty soon. It feels very strange to me that a prime minister stepping down because people weren't happy with how the government were doing can result in...
I hope we do see another general election pretty soon. It feels very strange to me that a prime minister stepping down because people weren't happy with how the government were doing can result in a government that wasn't even elected by the people. Theoretically, could a party win an election, have the leader do something terrible, encourage a leadership change and elect a new government that stood for completely different things than the people voted in? I don't really know enough about the particulars of how our government works to know, but if that is the case, it feels a far cry from democracy.
That being said and despite being pretty left, I am happier with Truss than I was during the earlier days of the leadership contest. She seems to be a little more savvy and to have a better intent than she made herself look whilst the majority of the conservative party were voting, as far as I can tell; whether that's accurate, a shift in the media lens, or just how things seem from what's fed into my echo chamber, she seems to now be trying to actually address the energy crisis, so that's good.
I very much hope we get a general election soon, but I am a little less worried than I was a month or two ago!
Further reading: New prime minister, same old battles over Brexit Vox – Jen Kirby – 5th September 2022 Liz Truss: It's fair to give wealthiest more money back BBC – 4th September 2022 Liz Truss’s...
The United Kingdom’s next prime minister may be an even bigger Brexiteer than Boris Johnson.
How Truss achieved that is a somewhat remarkable political story. A former Liberal Democrat and Remain supporter, she fully embraced Brexit after the 2016 referendum, becoming one of its most ardent backers. As foreign secretary in Johnson’s government, she shored up her Brexit credentials with her confrontational stance toward the European Union.
Liz Truss has said it is fair to give higher earners more money back through tax cuts, saying recent Tory policy has failed to grow the economy.
The Tory leadership hopeful has pledged to reverse a National Insurance rise.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the cut would be a gain of £7.66 for households on the lowest incomes, but those on the highest incomes could gain more than £1,800.
The police chief in charge of boosting crime fighting has criticised Liz Truss’s law and order plans as “unwise” and “meaningless”, accusing her of chasing “soundbite-friendly” but unrealistic targets.
After becoming leader of the Conservative party with just over 57% of party members' votes (81,326 of 141,725 total), Liz Truss will take over as Prime Minister from Boris Johnson when she is formally appointed by the queen tomorrow.
For those less familiar with the UK system, our Prime Minister holds the office as a function of leading the party with a majority in the House of Commons, rather than being directly elected to the role. As such this wasn't a general election, simply an internal change of party leadership triggered by Johnson being forced out earlier in the year.
What this actually means for the country is still an open question. I haven't spoken to anyone who thinks she's going to do much good, but she also doesn't appear significantly worse than her predecessor. Her overall popularity is low, and it seems quite possible that we'll get another general election earlier than the Jan 2025 deadline one way or another.
I hope we do see another general election pretty soon. It feels very strange to me that a prime minister stepping down because people weren't happy with how the government were doing can result in a government that wasn't even elected by the people. Theoretically, could a party win an election, have the leader do something terrible, encourage a leadership change and elect a new government that stood for completely different things than the people voted in? I don't really know enough about the particulars of how our government works to know, but if that is the case, it feels a far cry from democracy.
That being said and despite being pretty left, I am happier with Truss than I was during the earlier days of the leadership contest. She seems to be a little more savvy and to have a better intent than she made herself look whilst the majority of the conservative party were voting, as far as I can tell; whether that's accurate, a shift in the media lens, or just how things seem from what's fed into my echo chamber, she seems to now be trying to actually address the energy crisis, so that's good.
I very much hope we get a general election soon, but I am a little less worried than I was a month or two ago!
Further reading:
New prime minister, same old battles over Brexit
Vox – Jen Kirby – 5th September 2022
Liz Truss: It's fair to give wealthiest more money back
BBC – 4th September 2022
Liz Truss’s law and order policies ‘meaningless’, says police chief
The Guardian – Vikram Dodd – 2nd September 2022