Opinion | Liz Truss, God's shortest mistake
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
Liz Truss squatted in No. 10 for exactly 49 days, long enough to damage, but not long enough to destroy the UK. Now loitering in the wilderness, she is itching for a comeback. Domestically, she is in no-man's land, ignored and irrelevant. But internationally, Trumpish madness is always beckoning. As a cheap trick, she chooses to invoke Taiwan as the "abracadabra" or magic word for attention-seeking. She is an exact carbon copy of Nancy Pelosi, announcing her similarly provocative trip to Taiwan. These two women seem to share one thing in common--both possess the power to disrupt but neither has any ability to construct.
In her short tenancy at Downing Street, Truss managed to harvest a bunch of nicknames. She has been dubbed "the human hand grenade" for her destructive and self-destructive powers. Others call her "a wrecking ball". One newspaper has nicknamed her "lettuce Liz", cruelly comparing her to a head of lettuce---betting that this fast-wilting plant will outlive her. In a rare moment of self-insight, she once called herself: "disrupter-in-chief".
At a time when Great Britain is losing its luster and shedding its greatness, spiraling down to being "a second-rate power in Europe" and a "third-rate power in the world", Truss and four other conservatives co-wrote a book with the aspirational title of "Britannia Unchained". In it, she argued that the UK should adopt a radical approach to turn itself into a leading player in the global economy or risk sliding into mediocrity.
But strangely, she has discarded her own advice, losing no time in antagonizing the world's second largest economy with a proposed visit to Taiwan to "show solidarity" with Taiwanese separatists, which is tantamount to fishing in troubled waters. A member of her own party sneers, "It is the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy", categorizing the trip "performative, not substantive." Now an outsider in Europe, Britain badly needs to win friends and economic partners worldwide. Her 15 minutes in the limelight as a somebody in Taiwan when she is a nobody in Britain is sure to disrupt her country's nuanced approach to bilateral relations with China. The UK government is doing its best to distance itself from her strategically stupid move, apologetically muttering that "We wouldn't get involved in the independent travel decisions of a private citizen."
As if hobnobbing with Taiwan politicians were not bad enough, Truss went out of her way to upset French President Macron by calling his recent refusal to be a vassal of the US "a sign of weakness". How wrong can she be! It took backbone to reclaim strategic sovereignty under enormous American pressure. It is Truss that is weak and wobbly as a defender of British interests. Asia-Pacific has long ago ceased to be a British sphere of influence. Britain's relevance in this region is purely economic. All it can do is to piggyback on the vitality of the world's second largest economy.
Clement Attlee, a weak British leader cowed by Hitler, was once described as "a sheep in sheep's clothing". Liz Truss, who has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, should be called "a wolf in wolf's clothing." Truss self-imploded in 49 days. Never underestimate her power to destroy. One thing is for sure, her tilt towards Taiwan will not usher in "Britannia Unchained" but "Britannia Unhinged".
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | Orwellian tricks of language and the West's big China lie
Comment