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:
Earlier this year, our new Health Secretary voted to revoke access to at-home abortion care, and recriminalise women who end their own pregnancies without the approval of two doctors.https://t.co/cj2bIovhN4
— BPAS (@BPAS1968) September 6, 2022
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:
Lord help us all https://t.co/vEZXblLezM
— Layla Moran 🔶 (@LaylaMoran) September 6, 2022
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:
If you only appoint your supporters you will look petty, reduce the quality of your team and create a ready made internal opposition on your backbenches ready to bring you down…. Is the advice I’d have given Lib Dem sleeper agent Liz Truss if only she’d answered my calls…
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) September 6, 2022
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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12 Comments
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.
Looks like a rush to Singapore -on-Thames to me. That is the logic of Brexit converts.
‘After a 1000 mile round trip to see the Queen, ‘
A bit shorter than Asquith’s visit for that purpose to Edward VII in Biarritz in 1908. On the other hand, the outgoing PM was too ill to travel and jet aircraft were not yet available.
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.
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.
Johnson decimated Local Government. Rees-Mogg will do a hatchet job on the civil service. If we don’t get a General Election by May of next year there will be nothing left of our democracy.
The fact that Truss has surrounded herself with a bunch of friends with on average, little more than 1.5 years of decision making experience around the Cabinet table leaves her vulnerable not only to the opposition, but from those in her own party who had the temerity not to support her.
In the Leadership battle she secured a much smaller majority over Sunack than expected. Couple that with those Tory MPs allegedly plotting Johnson’s second –
coming, and her ability to last till 2024 is slim to say the least.
Opposition MPs would do well to look for ways to work together to force an early vote of no confidence.
@ 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.
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.
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.