Opinion | The dawn of Liz Truss marks a dark new era for Britain

By Tom Fowdy

Today, Monday 5th September, Liz Truss is expected to be revealed as Britain's next prime minister after voting closed for the Conservative Party membership last weekend. If the polls are anything to go by then it won't even be close, with her being widely anticipated to trounce her rival Rishi Sunak, whose British-Indian and moderate political background ultimately falls short against Truss's ultra-chauvinistic Brexit triumphalism, which she had nurtured for years as first Trade Minister, and then Foreign Secretary.

Truss will replace the scandal-ridden Boris Johnson, whose premiership was ultimately toppled by the fiasco of partygate and allegations of misconduct in his government. Of course, she is a continuation of his political legacy, which touted "Getting Brexit done" and "Global Britain", but with the distinction of being a far more extreme version of it combined with the new geopolitical climate of an uncertain world. Not only is Truss a Brexit fantasist, but she is also a crusading NeoConservative who strives for confrontation against both Russia and China, perceiving world affairs as a confrontation between democracy and autocracy.

Yet deflecting nationalistic diatribe against these targets is hardly a deflection given the consequences of such policies are already having adverse policies on the British people. She will not be getting off on an easy footing, with her entry into office coming amidst the UK facing a multitude of crises resulting from the conflict in Ukraine. Energy prices are surging astronomically, as well as costs of living, to an extent that the British economy is already in contraction and is expected to fall back into a recession in the last quarter of the year. In line with this, trade union unrest and strikes are growing across the board, and will only intensify as many unions seek a confrontation to discredit and undermine the new government. Truss has vowed to freeze energy bills, but there is no inclination as to how she proposes to do this.

And on that note, the disastrous legacy of her predecessor's government, combined with the increasingly caricatural image that many in the public view her through, means that Liz Truss's premiership arguably starts with no public trust or confidence whatsoever. In fact, public opinion perceives her to be even less favorable than that of Boris Johnson. This also rings true for Conservative Party members themselves. This means Truss has a mountain to climb in order to establish public trust and appeal, both in terms of her own personal image but also the multitude of challenges facing Britain itself which leave limited public tolerance.

Truss however, is only likely to make the situation worse, precisely because her deeply dogmatic thinking eschews the concept of compromise or pragmatism, yet alone the question of actual competence. Despite the fact that Britain faces buckling inflation, combined with the aftermath of Brexit, it seems an almost certainty that Truss will escalate confrontation in China in ways which are further detrimental to the British economy, whilst also only doubling down on the Ukraine war. The moderate position of Boris Johnson which at least sought to quickly deepen economic and trade ties with Beijing is likely to be quickly thrown out, marked by her announcement she will declare China an "official threat". Hostility will be undoubtedly increased across the board in ways which may provoke retaliation from Beijing.

Whilst politics is typically unpredictable in its trajectory, one might look at the above and feel Truss has little chance of succeeding as Prime Minister. One should not be hasty to make such predictions. However, it does seem evident irrespective of her personal political prospects that hard times are on their way for the United Kingdom, if they are not here already. Far from creating a "global Britain" and a so-called "network of liberty", the UK faces an intensified period of economic decline and shrinking living standards. There's no reason to think such an arch-ideologue such as Liz Truss is in any sense prepared to deal with that or confront the country's real problems. Rather, she is floating her rise to power on nostalgic great-power jingoism, and whilst a sizeable amount of British people do buy into that (as shown time and time and again) that doesn't mean things are really getting any better.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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