Lord help us all….Lib Dems react to new Cabinet

So Liz Truss is now ensconced in Downing Street appointing her new Cabinet. And it looks like it is going to be one of the most socially as well as economically conservative governments in over quarter of a century. This is somewhat surprising given that she is the first Prime Minister of my lifetime who is younger than me.

After a 1000 mile round trip to see the Queen, she went  to her private Commons office  to send Rishi Sunak supporters Grant Shapps, Steve Barclay and Dominic Raab packing.

Every time a new Conservative PM announces their top team, you think it couldn’t get any worse. Remember when Theresa May appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary? And then when Boris in turn made Priti Patel Home Secretary.

So far, Liz Truss has made some very worrying appointments.

First of all, someone who opposes abortion and same sex marriage to health:

Can she be trusted to make the right decisions on Monkeypox, PrEP and the many problems in healthcare for LGBT people?

And then someone who really, really hates human rights is sent to the Home Office. Layla Moran’s reaction says it all:

More worrying for the planet is that Jacob Rees-Mogg, who decries “climate alarmism” is reportedly being given responsibility for climate change as well as Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Having someone in charge of employment law who thought it was ok to leave passive aggressive notes on the desks of civil servants working from home is anxiety inducing to say the least.

Brandon Lewis, the man who notoriously voted in a key Brexit vote when paired with Jo Swinson when she was on maternity leave, ends up at Justice.

Tim Farron pointed out the folly of only surrounding yourself with your mates:

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

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12 Comments

  • George Thomas 6th Sep '22 - 11:38pm

    Truss made a point of saying no fresh election until 2024 but what are the odds that Tories have another leadership race before that date?

    This is just a group of Liz Truss mates with desire to act as viscously as possible in a time when we need it least.

  • Tristan Ward 7th Sep '22 - 8:15am

    Looks like a rush to Singapore -on-Thames to me. That is the logic of Brexit converts.

  • Thérèse Coffey….”This is, I think, a government of all the talents that we have in this party..

    If that is true, and who am I to doubt Ms. Coffey, then things are worse than I thought.

  • @ Ian Sanderson Indeed so, Ian. The Times newspaper rightly complained at the time.

    But Squiff managed to persuade King Teddy not to insist on the new full Cabinet having to go over to the Hotel Crillon in Paris to receive their seals of office. He was also compensated by having dinner with the King (whisper it softly) at Mrs Cassels’ (the King’s Mistress) villa in the evening.

    Maybe Ms Truss might just have been right about one thing in her LibDem days.

  • Helen Dudden 8th Sep '22 - 10:52am

    Seeing a recent photograph of M/s Coffey the new Health Minister. Cigar in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.
    So the control on smoking is no longer or the alcohol a something that needs respect. How many more insults need to be handed out.
    It is a time when we have to look at the voting system and who exactly wishes to improve our daily lives.

  • @ Ian Shires. As an elected Liberal Democrat councillor and Cabinet member at the time, I’m sorry to have to tell Ian that the decimation of local government predates Johnson to at least 2010.

  • Mick taylor 10th Sep '22 - 9:14am

    Ah, David Raw. Not like you to be incorrect in your history.
    Local Government has been under constant attack since Thatcher. During my two terms as a Calderdale Councillor (21 years in all), we lost our college, our care homes, our council houses, our buses and schools as well as much our powers to intervene. Just before local government reorganisation in 1974 we lost water and sewerage too. Local Councils used to run some gas and electricity supplies as well. All of these were lost long before 2010. The changes since 2010 have been mainly financial, with successive governments cutting central support and not allowing compensating rises in council tax. Although that was already happening under Blair/Brown.

  • Ah, Mick, in sending you my best wishes for a new life in Greece, may I just wriggle out of your correction by asking you to note that I qualified my comment by using the phrase, “at least” ?

    I could, of course, have gone further back to the 1931 Ramsay Mac Coalition cuts and made similar critical comments about Sir John Simon in my native Spen Valley. ‘Plus ça change, et plus c’est la même chose’ though Charlie Trevelyan was much more compelling.

  • Mick Taylor 10th Sep '22 - 2:11pm

    David Raw.Thanks for your good wishes, though without Ruth, it’s not what I expected. And there was me thinking you were doing your usual anti-coalition thing. Wonderful thing hindsight, always perfect. There are a number of things I would/wouldn’t have done with hindsight….

  • @ Mick Hope all goes well, Mick, and thanks for what you did in the Calder Valley together with my old chum David Shutt.

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