In a few short weeks UK Prime Minister Liz Truss seems to have shot the Conservative Party in the head (“UK bond market crash takes shine off 'Big Bang' plan”, October 4). Many MPs at the party’s Birmingham conference were talking openly about a period in opposition.
Truss became prime minister because the party wanted to dump Boris Johnson. She won the vote of Tory MPs, and then a majority of 160,000 conservative members throughout the UK. She thus automatically became prime minister, but I would argue the two positions come with different mandates.
In 2019, 14-million people voted for Johnson’s policies, giving the Conservatives 365 seats, a majority of 162 over the Labour Party. This is what Truss inherited and what the majority of Britons voted for. We like to think our politicians are clever and intelligent people. Wouldn’t it have been better to campaign on the policies people voted for and introduce changes after a period in the driving seat? Apparently not. Hubris, vanity and “I know best” seem to have been the order of the day.
Labour are rubbing their hands together in glee, but two years until the next election is an eternity. They say miracles do happen, even in politics. Maybe the Conservatives will only get a bad headache instead of lying dead on the floor.
Bernard Benson
Parklands
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
