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Post by northwestman on Nov 2, 2022 12:14:16 GMT 1
Students of Britain’s modern political history would do well to put down Charles Moore’s epic biography of Margaret Thatcher or Anthony Seldon’s superb account of the Tony Blair years, and head straight to Out of the Blue: The inside story of the unexpected rise and rapid fall of Liz Truss (a snip at £24.99).
If the extract from the upcoming book we have just seen is anything to go by, rarely has a piece of prose revealed so much about the parlous state of UK politics.
It is difficult to convey the jaw-dropping nature of some of the vignettes brought to life in this book by Harry Cole and James Heale, two right-leaning political journalists. The Instagram obsession. The total lack of diplomacy. The careless disregard for her staff. The naked ambition. The regularity with which people in her orbit exclaimed: “What the f***?”
It was all there to see in the extract published by the Sunday Times, and it left many questions in the ether, of which the principal one was: how did this person so unsuited to high office become Prime Minister?
It really does matter, for the light it sheds on a particular aspect of politics today, something that characterised Boris Johnson’s time in office, and which might colloquially be termed Not Giving A F***.
Her intent was limited to the furthering of her political ambition. She saw Instagram as a key plank to establishing herself as a political figure of note. So wherever she went on trade missions, and no matter what the diplomatic exigencies, she’d curate the perfect Instagram shot: holding a Union Jack umbrella in front of Sydney Opera House, by a mini by the Brooklyn Bridge, that kind of thing.
Ms Truss’s political career is the perfect cipher for the Instagram era: ephemeral, self-regarding and cruel. But the weekend’s revelations, both in this book and with the leak that Ms Truss’s phone was hacked by the Kremlin when she was foreign secretary, left some even bigger questions.
Why was there a news black-out on the phone-hack? Credible sources have suggested that it was ordered by Johnson so as not to damage Ms Truss’s chances of becoming PM, even though (or maybe because?) he knew how disastrous she would be. So a highly important, sensitive piece of information relating to national security was suppressed on the altar of Truss’s ambition and Johnson’s desire to be succeeded in No 10 by someone who would make him look good.
It is a complete scandal, and that’s why this all matters.
The i.
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Post by northwestman on Nov 13, 2022 10:14:40 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/12/revealed-the-30bn-cost-of-liz-trusss-disastrous-mini-budgetLiz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget cost the country a staggering £30bn – doubling the sum that the Treasury says will have to be raised by Jeremy Hunt this week in a huge programme of tax rises and spending cuts. The independent Resolution Foundation calculates that the Truss government was responsible for about £30bn of the fiscal hole which the Treasury puts at £60bn, and which Hunt will have to tackle in the autumn statement on Thursday. The thinktank also says the £30bn figure would have been far higher without the U-turns already taken by Hunt on the Truss plans. The RF’s economists estimate that in her seven-week premiership £20bn was blown by Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on unfunded cuts to national insurance and stamp duty, with a further £10bn added by higher interest rates and government borrowing costs as the markets reacted with dismay to the former prime minister’s dash for growth. The rest of the fiscal hole, the RF says, can be accounted for by unexpectedly bad economic conditions, which have meant lower growth and lower tax receipts to the Treasury.
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Post by northwestman on Feb 5, 2023 23:06:43 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/liz-truss-claim-not-warned-mini-budget-risks-economy-misleadingSenior economists and the former chancellor George Osborne have cast doubt over Liz Truss’s account that she was not warned about the risks to the UK economy as she prepared her mini-budget. “She dismissed the economic establishment. She fired the permanent secretary at the Treasury. She went around telling everyone, as did her chancellor, that the Bank of England governor was useless. She didn’t consult the OBR. To then turn around and say ‘no one told me’, well I mean, she went out of her way not to listen.”
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Post by staffordshrew on Feb 5, 2023 23:42:19 GMT 1
For Liz Truss, read Dead Duck.
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Post by northwestman on Feb 6, 2023 17:20:48 GMT 1
Liz Truss - "A planet size mass of ambition teetering on a pin head of a political brain".
Matthew Parris.
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Post by staffordshrew on Feb 6, 2023 21:00:11 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Feb 14, 2023 9:23:57 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/14/liz-truss-oversaw-jump-in-credit-card-spending-at-foreign-officeLiz Truss oversaw a major jump in spending on government credit cards at the Foreign Office when she took over, a Guardian analysis shows, with spending on restaurants, bars, leisure activities and hotels all rising sharply during her time in office. An analysis of data collated by the Labour party shows officials spent far more on procurement cards under the former prime minister than they had under her predecessor, Dominic Raab. Truss is already under pressure to explain a number of items of spending which she approved, including meals at high-end restaurants, large social functions and the use of Heathrow’s VIP suite. The Guardian analysis suggests that she oversaw a broader culture of high spending when she was in one of the most powerful jobs in government.
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Post by northwestman on Mar 25, 2023 10:12:25 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/24/liz-truss-requests-peerages-for-some-of-her-closest-tory-supportersLiz Truss has requested peerages for some of her closest Tory supporters despite her government lasting only seven weeks after a disastrous budget. The former prime minister is understood to have submitted a list of peerages, while No 10 is also still considering whether to grant a long list of honours requested by Boris Johnson as well. The Sun reported that the list included Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which backed her budget, Matthew Elliott, the Vote Leave founder, Ruth Porter, her former deputy chief of staff, and Jon Moynihan, a Conservative donor and businessman. A spokesperson for Truss declined to comment on the list.
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Post by northwestman on Mar 27, 2023 9:31:55 GMT 1
Liz Truss has reportedly nominated four new peers – three of whom worked for the Tufton Street think tanks that crashed the economy.
The other one was the chair of her leadership campaign.
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Post by kenwood on Apr 3, 2023 12:36:17 GMT 1
Following on from NWM’s original post albeit in November , I have obtained a copy of Out of the Blue.
What a read , I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the Turnip Taliban when members of her constituency association although selecting her as their Tory candidate at the next election decided that she should be deselected !
Why? because some “ horsey woman “ had phoned the Daily Mail to say that Truss hadn’t disclosed at interview her affair with Mark Field .
The Norfolk constituency was in turmoil threatening all sorts and she had quite a battle with them to secure her nomination. David Cameron came to her rescue along with the Conservative Central Office who basically told what became known as the “ “ turnip taliban” that Truss would remain as the candidate .
The constituency assoc. were told in no uncertain terms what would happen to them if they failed to support her .
Half way through the book which details her early life in politics and her time at Defra when she replaced Owen Patterson who wasn’t at all pleased and her promotion as Lord Chancellor ,the lawyers etc not at all pleased with this one .
All in all a cracking read so far ,Im looking forward to the next chapters which surely will be even more exciting 😉
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Post by staffordshrew on Apr 3, 2023 22:18:02 GMT 1
Following on from NWM’s original post albeit in November , I have obtained a copy of Out of the Blue. What a read , I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the Turnip Taliban when members of her constituency association although selecting her as their Tory candidate at the next election decided that she should be deselected ! Why? because some “ horsey woman “ had phoned the Daily Mail to say that Truss hadn’t disclosed at interview her affair with Mark Field . The Norfolk constituency was in turmoil threatening all sorts and she had quite a battle with them to secure her nomination. David Cameron came to her rescue along with the Conservative Central Office who basically told what became known as the “ “ turnip taliban” that Truss would remain as the candidate . The constituency assoc. were told in no uncertain terms what would happen to them if they failed to support her . Half way through the book which details her early life in politics and her time at Defra when she replaced Owen Patterson who wasn’t at all pleased and her promotion as Lord Chancellor ,the lawyers etc not at all pleased with this one . All in all a cracking read so far ,Im looking forward to the next chapters which surely will be even more exciting 😉 Has it turned up in Poundland now then? |
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Post by kenwood on Apr 4, 2023 13:13:05 GMT 1
What a bloody cheek, I’ll have you know I spent good money buying it. Poundland indeed.
A very enjoyable read so far , says a lot about the inner workings of the government . Particularly surprised that Liz. was kept out of quite a few meetings whilst working under Hammond because it was thought she was prone to leaking policy before it had been before parliament.
She took her revenge by using social media to stir things up and defended her decision to do so on the basis that she hadn’t been told what the governments line was . Her boss Phillip Hammond didn’t trust her to keep her mouth shut.
It’s a wonder she got anywhere near holding the position of PM as she annoyed quite a few people in the party .
I will carry on reading, Boris is about to make an appearance .
To be honest don’t know how much it cost , got the wife to buy it for me on her Amazon account along with a few other things 👍
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Post by northwestman on Apr 4, 2023 18:00:50 GMT 1
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