Kmflett's Blog

Liz Truss; from CND Activist, Trotskyist & LibDem to Remainer & right-wing Tory PM. A political chameleon

One sees on social media claims that Liz Truss will be the most right-wing PM ever. She is certainly right-wing but the perspective suggests a certain lack of knowledge about British political history. One might think of Lord Liverpool who at the very least gave the nod for the Yeomanry to be sent in at Peterloo in August 1819. One must also take into account that Truss has spent the past few weeks endeavouring to appeal to a right-wing audience of a few thousand Tory members.

She is sometimes described as eccentric, which may be sexism, but may also be a recognition that those who are competent in one area- Truss is an accountant- may not be in other areas.

I prefer a Sunday Times view that Truss is a pragmatic chameleon, rather like in that sense Johnson who backed both sides on Brexit before deciding Leave was the best career opportunity.

As a youth in Leeds in the 1980s Truss was involved with CND, going on demos and so on. Partly this was family influenced but no amount of cajoling can get someone on a demo they are not interested on being on.

At Oxford the historian and barrister David Renton reports (see @livesrunning) that she was recruited to the Socialist Worker Student Society after a long chat with himself. However she stayed only a couple of weeks before de-camping and becoming  a leading LibDem, campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis (it must be presumed that she did inhale), but also a way of standing out from Tory ex-public schoolboys. Johnson did something similar although more with the SDP.

Renton notes that like himself Truss was elected to the student council but over two years did not distinguish herself in debate. Given that she is a lacklustre public speaker this seems like a missed opportunity to learn the skill of oratory (I did the same myself- I only mumble in private- though obviously not at Oxford)

Truss entered the world of work at the moment New Labour won a landslide in 1997. At that point she joined the Tories. Why? The pragmatic chameleon had worked out that the time had passed for her to make her way in Labour or the LibDems(whose MP numbers only went one way after 1997/2001) but the Tories at a low ebb presented the ideal opportunity for someone to make their way when few others were keen.

What will she do as PM? I have no crystal ball but only a broad shot at a materialist analysis (consciousness determines being). Truss will try and do what best promotes her future. She may find as Johnson did, that events, dear boy, events conspire against her. Particularly if protests like Enough is Enough continue to gain momentum.