Today’s episode of The Editors gives some valuable information to interested but confused Americans who don’t understand why Liz Truss, Britain’s outgoing prime minister, lost her position so quickly.
Our resident British politics expert, Maddy, takes us through some background. “It was mainly a political blunder, as opposed to ideological. . . . She didn’t coordinate her budget. So she won the Tory leadership contest early September, and then straight off the bat, she announced this energy-support package. And this was to freeze energy bills, which were just getting totally out of hand.”
Maddy lays out how Truss tried to both cut taxes and participate in a huge amount of borrowing, which put the British government far over budget. She apparently struggled with communication, as “it also turned out that she hadn’t discussed any of this with the Bank of England. People reacted badly . . . the pound plummeted, her approval rating plummeted to 10 percent (which is pretty unheard of, to be honest), and her political courage plummeted, which is really what did it. . . . Just a major crash and burn.”
If nothing else, she at least set a record, because as Maddy points out, “I think she’s the shortest-reigning prime minister in British history.”
Phil Klein, in viewing this mêlée, notes how grateful he is to the Founders for the manner in which they organized the U.S. government. “To me, watching as an American, it just makes me really appreciate what the Founders did by rejecting a parliamentary system, into a system of separated powers with a bicameral legislature. . . . If you look at the total, utter chaos that has been the British system, over the past decade, it’s just been a complete catastrophe.”
He reminds us that having a more stable system allows for the dust to settle and the newly elected to get a chance to find their footing: “I think the Founders recognized, one, that the way that system that we have is set up is that it helps protect against massive, radical change happening really quickly. But it also just gives people and leaders a bit more time to have a chance to recover from early stumbles or early unpopularity.”
As for all the complaints about the American system, Phil says he’s “really thankful that for all of our problems, and for all of the talk about ‘democracy on the brink’ . . . actually, we’re doing pretty well.”
In stateside news, Republicans still seem to be gaining in the polls, but how optimistic are NR’s writers? And is abortion really going to play a role at the ballot box this November? Insights and wise words on all this and more can be found by listening below.