"How much damage can Ms Truss do before the next election?"With her distorted views, almost infinite, I think.Ain't we got fun?Letter in the FT, 12/8/22:-"George Parker (Person in the News, FT Weekend, July 30) describes Liz Truss as “essentially an anti-establishment figure, an outsider”. She certainly presents herself as that, against her rival for the job of new Tory prime minister, Rishi Sunak, whose immigrant origins are overlaid by education at Winchester College and acquired wealth.But self-description as a rightwing insurgent against what is alleged to be the dominant elite — often labelled in the US and the UK as “the liberal elite” — does not make her a real outsider.I worry that the populist image of a rightwing insurgency against an alleged oppressive leftwing establishment is being so actively promoted. In the US, this has developed into a rightwing conspiracy against a liberal “deep state”, which unites wealthy populists with discontented voters.In a separate FT letter (July 30) the correspondent deplores “the largely leftwing media”, an observation which does not reflect the balance of written media I observe. The higher education (freedom of speech) bill, currently before the Lords, has been promoted by think-tanks that claim that UK universities are systemically leftwing. The BBC, the Supreme Court, much of the legal profession and of course the House of Lords are also dismissed as part of this establishment that ignores the “common sense of the common people” which “outsiders” like Boris Johnson and Liz Truss profess to understand.This is a dangerous path to go down. We are seeing where it leads with challenges to constitutional democracy in the US. I hope that the UK’s next prime minister will not attempt to govern too far outside the conventions and assumptions of the country’s established order."Lord Wallace of SaltaireHouse of Lords, London SW1, UKThe idea of a leftwing establishment has surely been disproved in the last 7 years. The establishment has comprehensively joined in the smashing of the left, especially within the Labour Party (and much of the Labour Party, right and centre, gleefully joined in this). So, if this mad rampage continues - I don't know why I say IF, because it is continuing:-"Liz Truss was today facing a backlash after she claimed that “woke” civil service culture “strays into antisemitism”." (HuffPost)Truss even managed to annoy Margaret Hodge MP, who stated:-'Using anti-Semitism to peddle the right's ''anti-woke agenda'' is below the belt. The oldest form of racism is not a tool to use in the divisive culture war nonsense.'" Good to hear.Truss and Trump 2024 - the nightmare continues.
David Ainsworth ● 1035d