She used to talk big during the contest for the job. Wannabe Prime Minister Liz Truss said that she was ready to use nuclear weapons, even though it would mean global annihilation, winning applause from Tory party members. She was, of course, trying to project strength when challenged with a hypothetical situation facing Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or NATO.

 

Even senile Biden dares not openly announce that the United States would use nuclear weapons in retaliation against Vladimir Putin. To show her courage, Truss also whacked China. She and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak were competing with each other to win the anti-Chinese contest. She eventually beat Sunak by 81,326 to 60,399 votes and got the job.

 

After Truss becomes the British prime minister, she continued to condemn Russia and China. Dismissing Putin’s nuclear rhetoric as “bogus threats”, she had pledged to increase UK military support to Ukraine – for as long as it takes. She had forgotten that her own country was suffering an energy crisis due to Ukraine War, which both Washington and London had provoked from the beginning.

She declared China as a threat to not only national security, but also to the international order. Truss lectured that the Chinese should learn from the West’s economic retaliation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She warned that China’s rise as a superpower was not inevitable. Even after screwing UK’s economy, she wanted to officially declare China as a threat to the UK for the first time.

 

Hilariously, despite all the tough talks against Moscow and Beijing, Mary Elizabeth Truss suddenly surrendered and resigned on Oct 20 – just 44 days in office – effectively become the shortest serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. Her unexpected departure was not only a humiliation, but also a disgrace to UK, Europe and the Western powers.

 

India Today said Truss’ short tenure was “marred by failed promises and dashed hopes”. Washington Post mocked her tenure as “a disastrous series of self-inflicted wounds which turned into a political death spiral”. German’s Die Welt laughed that the honourable Palace of Westminster has “become a madhouse” since political crisis in 2016.

Canada’s Globe and Mail said Britain’s political “disgrace” was due to Brexit. Australia former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ridiculed – “I was staggered. I thought Boris was wild and woolly, but turned out Truss was even crazier“. Even President Biden, supposedly a strong ally of the British government, has laughed Truss’ tax plan as a mistake while self-praised U.S. economy as “strong as hell”.

 

After Truss resigned, Russia said that Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister. The Russian Foreign Ministry said – “She will be remembered for her catastrophic illiteracy”. China, on the other hand, took the opportunity to belittle the British PM’s U-turn in her political life as failing Western politics and that Western democracy cannot solve emerging new problems.

 

The biggest critic came from Britain itself, when a national newspaper declared a “lettuce” the winner after the vegetable outlast Liz Truss. Apparently, the tabloid Daily Star set up a live feed showing the unrefrigerated lettuce next to a photo of Truss, asking readers – “Which wet lettuce will last longer?” The Economist magazine described Truss as having the “shelf life of a lettuce”.

But why has Truss’ resignation attracted so much mocking and ridicules? That’s because she was too arrogant, bragging too much before even she was given the keys to the Downing Street. She fantasized herself as former Iron Lady PM Margaret Thatcher, or was capable of copying former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s policies, but proven to be nothing but an empty vessel.

 

The egoistic Truss, along with her new finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, hastily announced a radical new economic agenda. A “mini budget” that would cut taxes by £45 billion to boost the UK economy was introduced, which includes scrapping the highest rate of income tax for the richest from 45% to 40%. It will also slash energy prices for millions of households and businesses this winter.

 

However, there was one “huge problem” with the half-baked programme. The nation has no money so Truss’ brilliant plan required borrowing, a policy that went against fiscal prudence established by her predecessors for the last 12 years. Economists immediately condemned her reckless gamble, but not before investors and traders dumped the British pound like a plague.

Traders were not impressed over the biggest tax-cutting package in 50 years, introduced just a day after the Bank of England warned that the country was already in a recession. Truss’ promise of a “new era” saw the British pound crashed to a record low against the U.S. dollar on Sept 26 – plunging to as low as US$1.0373, its lowest level since the decimalization of the currency in 1971.

 

The crisis was so bad that the Bank of England was forced to intervene to protect the UK’s financial system from a meltdown apocalypse. Fearing that the mini-budget could threaten the financial health of the country’s biggest pensions and insurance companies, which together manage trillions of pounds of people’s cash, the Bank pledged “unlimited” bond-buying rescue plan.

 

The announcement to splash £65 billion to buy as many long-dated government bonds as needed over the next 13 working days (from Sept 28 till Oct 14) to stabilize its bond market was an admission of the incompetence of Truss government. It was so screwed up that the IMF (International Monetary Fund) joined the bandwagon condemning the tax cut which triggered the collapse of the pound.

Thanks to clueless Truss, the Bank of England may have no choice but to raise interest rates to near 6% by next spring, from the current 2.25%, to support the currency and contain inflation. Yet, the defiant prime minister still tried to defend her toxic economic agenda, assuring that it will provide more details of its plans on November 23.

 

But the damage has been done – the economic chaos saw about 1,000 mortgage products taken out of the market as banks struggle with bond market uncertainty. On the other hand, business owners are already facing a sharp rise in borrowing costs while hundreds of thousands of people with mortgages will need to refinance their loans.

 

Charlie Bean, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, said the UK government has made “really stupid” decisions. It would take a week of volleys of criticisms for the newly crowned British PM to – reluctantly – admit her government’s mistakes. But instead of taking full responsibility like a leader, she shamelessly put all the blames on Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Pointing finger at her colleague, Truss said that the tax cut reforms were not agreed by her cabinet, but were a decision made by Kwarteng. She said – “It was a decision the chancellor made”. The despicable act of throwing the Chancellor under the bus just to save herself demonstrated the type of leadership of the United Kingdom.

 

To be sure, Kwasi Kwarteng himself was equally incompetent. Despite the market chaos after his mini-budget, the Chancellor had even suggested that there was “more to come” on tax cuts. Both Truss and Kwarteng were in hiding while the bond and currency chaos continued for days. When the PM finally emerged, she tried to spin – and failed – her disastrous economic agenda with local radio stations.

 

A survey by the Observer newspaper showed three-quarters of British voters, including 71% who backed the Conservative Party in the last election, believe PM Liz Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng have “lost control” of the economy. Another survey by YouGov shows that the Tories are 33 points behind opposition Labour Party after the economic mishandling.

Subsequently, it led to a revolt within her own Conservative Party. A new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, took over from Kwarteng and most of the policies were reversed. But it could not hide the comical drama where Home Secretary Suella Braverman quits after a “90-minute shouting match” with Truss. Fellow MPs were also bullied and even threatened – some crying – until they sided with her.

 

When the opposition booed her in Parliament, she boastfully claimed she is a fighter, not a quitter. Yet, within 24 hours, Triss threw in the towel and resigned. The burning question is how did a politician with 12 years experience in government make such a mess and thereafter, easily quit and left the economic turmoil behind for the next prime minister?

 

Truss’ brother once revealed that she “had to win” at Monopoly. And if defeat looked imminent, she would “disappear rather than lose”, not bad for a leader who expressed her wish to force Russia’s economy “back into the Soviet era”. In truth, she was quitting the Monopoly game before she was forced out, despite having bragged that she was a tough leader.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Economic Disaster In Less Than A Month – PM Truss Needs More Than Anti-Chinese Rhetoric To Show Her Competence
• Reserve Bank Of Australia Goes Bust After Losing A$44.9 Billion – Now It Has No Choice But To Print More Money
• Queen Elizabeth II (1926 – 2022) – The Spectacular Journey & Fortune Of The Queen That You Might Not Know
• Europe’s Fake Solidarity Cracking – Panic & Social Unrest Began As Putin Says “No Gas” Until Sanctions Lifted
• Moscow & Beijing Laughing All The Way To The Bank – How China Makes Easy Money Reselling Russian Gas To Europe
• $600 Billion vs. $4 Trillion – Why G7’s Half-Baked PGII Is Too Little Too Late To Counter China’s BRI
• Pandora Papers – The Biggest Leak Of Offshore Financial Secrets, From Jordanian King To Malaysian Crooks
• Leaked! – Trump Refuses To Visit UK … Until A Warm Welcome Is “Fixed”
• Riza Aziz’s London Mansion – UK Is “Fantastically Corrupt” For Doing Nothing
• Najib, Have You Forgotten How British Queen Elizabeth Insulted You?
• Saudi King Abdullah Dies, Queen Elizabeth Now World’s Oldest Monarch

Tweet

October 22nd, 2022 by financetwitter

If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider: