The unwelcome return of Liz Truss – POLITICO

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.

On behalf of the establishment (left-wing media branch), I’d like to apologize to Liz Truss for the behavior of the establishment (very powerful economic branch) during her brief time as British prime minister.

Yes, in the week that we found out that the classic TV sitcom “Fawlty Towers” is coming back to our screens, there’s been an equally ill-advised return in the form of Truss.

Now, if you or I got a new job and immediately announced the biggest tax cuts since 1972, funded by a vast expansion in borrowing, and with little attempt to explain how it could be paid for, then been unceremoniously and embarrassingly ousted after just 45 days — that’s less time than “Umbrella” by Rihanna spent at number one in the U.K. singles chart — because the economy had crashed through the floor, we’d probably go hide under a rock for, at the very least, forever.

Truss, however, is back, and she returned in style with a 4,000-word essay in the Sunday Telegraph. To put that in context, in the journalism industry a 4,000-word article being filed would be greeted with howls of laughter and the stern instruction to go back and cut out, say, 3,500 of those words. But Truss is nothing if not conventional.

In her essay, she lashed out at the “powerful economic establishment” which she says led to the abrupt end of her premiership; a run, you will recall, so short that she was outlasted by a lettuce (the lettuce, incidentally, got a job as a senior economist at the World Bank).

“I am not claiming to be blameless in what happened [Ed: no shit, Sherlock], but fundamentally I was not given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support,” she wrote.

Truss, you’ll remember, is a member of the Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010. Tories might as well have the word “establishment” tattooed on their foreheads (or perhaps their assistants’ foreheads as tattoos are a bit too vulgar and working class).

Days later, she told the Spectator of her mini-budget: “Was it the right decision? It’s very hard to tell.” Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.

Truss, you’ll remember, is a member of the Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010. Tories might as well have the word “establishment” tattooed on their foreheads (or perhaps their assistants’ foreheads as tattoos are a bit too vulgar and working class).

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“This week’s Venn diagram: center-left and center-right trying their best to overlap,” by Fred Myers.

Paul Dallison is POLITICO‘s slot news editor.