April 13, 2023 - 7:15am
Former prime minister Liz Truss was known for being a committed libertarian and free-marketeer, but in a speech today to the Heritage Foundation in Washington she offered a new emphasis: as a campaigner against ‘woke’ politics.
“The woke Left has succeeded where people are silent. They’ve managed to infiltrate huge parts of the public sector, huge numbers of institutions, a large swathe of the media; and what they rely on is people being too afraid to take them on,” she said.
While much of Truss’s speech was given over to criticising China, she also attacked targets such as ESG, gender self-ID and critical race theory. “We find ourselves on the back foot,” she told the D.C. crowd, asking “the idea that it’s your individual characteristics that are important — your hard work and your talent — not what sex you are or what race you are: how is it that those ideas have fallen by the wayside? […] Our sense of self-belief seems to be dissipating.” She went on:
Truss drew attention to her spell as minister for women and equalities between 2019 and 2021, when, she claimed, she “stopped gender self-ID in Britain without a medical certificate”. She also commended her successor as prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for blocking Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
The ex-Conservative leader observed that “what we don’t see is enough people who are prepared to take the orthodoxy on,” continuing, “we’re in a situation where people in our own societies appear to be questioning the very value of what we are, whilst others are desperate to get into the country, and it’s an extraordinary contradiction.” By way of solution, she suggested that “we need to be as organised, and we need to be as fearless as our opponents. And first of all, we need to be proud of our core values and tell the story of freedom again.”
On top of this, she stressed the need to “recapture the language”, given that “the Left has weaponised people’s concerns about the economy and the environment, using terms like ‘fuel poverty’ and the ‘climate emergency’ to justify policies which are anti-growth and socialist.”
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeGood Woman. I like her more everytime I read about her. I very much like that she’s telling the Americans, woke comes from there anyway. They need to keep it to themselves, Britain is not America, we don’t need their politics.
America would be better off without it too.
Wokeness is undeniably an American export (or French by way of America), but the blame lies with us for lapping it up.
No, the blame lies with academia and the education system that came up with this nonsense and indoctrinated a whole generation of kids with it because nobody was paying attention. The woke generation was cultivated. It didn’t spring into existence on its own.
Oh good I can bash the French about it too? I had to say good things about Macron the other day, this will redress the balance.
No, the blame lies with academia and the education system that came up with this nonsense and indoctrinated a whole generation of kids with it because nobody was paying attention. The woke generation was cultivated. It didn’t spring into existence on its own.
Oh good I can bash the French about it too? I had to say good things about Macron the other day, this will redress the balance.
America would be better off without it too.
Wokeness is undeniably an American export (or French by way of America), but the blame lies with us for lapping it up.
Good Woman. I like her more everytime I read about her. I very much like that she’s telling the Americans, woke comes from there anyway. They need to keep it to themselves, Britain is not America, we don’t need their politics.
It’s not enough for politicians to be anti-woke. They need to stand for something.
They need to do more than stand – they need to DO something [effective] to counteract woke!
They need to do more than stand – they need to DO something [effective] to counteract woke!
It’s not enough for politicians to be anti-woke. They need to stand for something.
Too little, too late.
Too little, too late.
Yet another free-trade / free-markets / free-sex quasi-libertarisn that tries to bolt on an opposition to wokeness to salvage her career.
Liz, wokeness isn’t just about pronoun badges. And serious opposition to is would require an adjustment of ALOT of your policy positions.
I don’t see it as salvage. After the way all our press and everyone went after her, coming out fighting is more how I see it. She could have hidden. She didn’t.
I don’t see it as salvage. After the way all our press and everyone went after her, coming out fighting is more how I see it. She could have hidden. She didn’t.
Yet another free-trade / free-markets / free-sex quasi-libertarisn that tries to bolt on an opposition to wokeness to salvage her career.
Liz, wokeness isn’t just about pronoun badges. And serious opposition to is would require an adjustment of ALOT of your policy positions.
What a pity she is a female version of Alan B’stard with no apparent intellect. Standing up to woke needs incisive wit and humility – she doesn’t have it.
How can you compare someone so utterly lacking in basic human traits, a one-dimensional caricature of a politician, with the great Alan Beresford B’Stard?
How can you compare someone so utterly lacking in basic human traits, a one-dimensional caricature of a politician, with the great Alan Beresford B’Stard?
What a pity she is a female version of Alan B’stard with no apparent intellect. Standing up to woke needs incisive wit and humility – she doesn’t have it.
I was speaking to one of my neighbours the other day, we don’t tend to talk about politics as she’s no real interest in it but she volunteered apropos of nothing really that she despises Liz Truss. Why? Because the real world result of the 44 day reign of Mad Queen Liz was a savage hit on her pension pot and an increase in her mortgage, directly attributable to her disastrous budget.
But Truss takes absolutely no responsibility for this, it was all other people’s fault, so lacking any self awareness or contrition she still harbours the illusion/ delusion (delete as appropriate) that she can become Tory Leader and Prime Minister again one day.
So she still pushes tax cuts for the rich as a recipe for growth, although one reason for the market reaction to her budget is that they didn’t remotely see growth resulting from her tax cuts (it’s worth remembering that she was a minister in Cameron’s government, when austerity was taking 20,000 cops off our streets but he still cut Corporation Tax by 35% and the top rate of income tax by 10% which partly because it was for everyone, and there were no obligations, led to bigger pay packets for those at the top, more second homes and a new yacht for Phillip Green but no noticeable impact on growth), and voted against the Windsor Framework hoping to damage Sunak. It’s also worth remembering she was a Remainer when she saw it as good for her career, before becoming an evangelical Brexiteer for the same reason.
So now a warrior in the war on woke? Quelle surprise!
Someone who nobody in good faith would send to the shops to buy a pint of milk if there was a semi competent four year old available.
‘increase in her mortgage, directly attributable to her disastrous budget’
Not sure that’s true. I’m pretty sure interest rates were being hiked to fight inflation regardless of truss.
‘increase in her mortgage, directly attributable to her disastrous budget’
Not sure that’s true. I’m pretty sure interest rates were being hiked to fight inflation regardless of truss.
I was speaking to one of my neighbours the other day, we don’t tend to talk about politics as she’s no real interest in it but she volunteered apropos of nothing really that she despises Liz Truss. Why? Because the real world result of the 44 day reign of Mad Queen Liz was a savage hit on her pension pot and an increase in her mortgage, directly attributable to her disastrous budget.
But Truss takes absolutely no responsibility for this, it was all other people’s fault, so lacking any self awareness or contrition she still harbours the illusion/ delusion (delete as appropriate) that she can become Tory Leader and Prime Minister again one day.
So she still pushes tax cuts for the rich as a recipe for growth, although one reason for the market reaction to her budget is that they didn’t remotely see growth resulting from her tax cuts (it’s worth remembering that she was a minister in Cameron’s government, when austerity was taking 20,000 cops off our streets but he still cut Corporation Tax by 35% and the top rate of income tax by 10% which partly because it was for everyone, and there were no obligations, led to bigger pay packets for those at the top, more second homes and a new yacht for Phillip Green but no noticeable impact on growth), and voted against the Windsor Framework hoping to damage Sunak. It’s also worth remembering she was a Remainer when she saw it as good for her career, before becoming an evangelical Brexiteer for the same reason.
So now a warrior in the war on woke? Quelle surprise!
Someone who nobody in good faith would send to the shops to buy a pint of milk if there was a semi competent four year old available.
The speech was mostly about economic policy. Since when did it become Thatcherite to criticise the IMF? But then, there was a reason why Nigel Lawson supported Rishi Sunak. If Trussonomics had been accompanied by spending cuts, then the markets’ reaction would have been even worse. The fantasies of the Walter Mittys on Tufton Street and on the former Fleet Street bear no resemblance to the views of the Masters of the Universe.
Since October 1997, when I was a fresher at Durham, types from the City have been telling me that I “would be surprised” at the real political centre of gravity there. I believe them. Briefly, but memorably, we were governed by people whose fixed ideological presuppositions had led them to thoroughly unsuccessful careers in the field for which they had purported to speak ever since that failure had spurred them into the full-time politics that they had always been going to take up eventually. They still cannot comprehend that, having been put into practice, everything in which they had always believed had turned out to have been an unmitigated disaster in its own terms.
I love the idea that Truss had, in her own words, “broad support”. At the next General Election, she and her guru, Professor Patrick Minford, should be made to explain to the voters of South West Norfolk why he thought that the United Kingdom should have no agriculture, and why she agreed with him.
The speech was mostly about economic policy. Since when did it become Thatcherite to criticise the IMF? But then, there was a reason why Nigel Lawson supported Rishi Sunak. If Trussonomics had been accompanied by spending cuts, then the markets’ reaction would have been even worse. The fantasies of the Walter Mittys on Tufton Street and on the former Fleet Street bear no resemblance to the views of the Masters of the Universe.
Since October 1997, when I was a fresher at Durham, types from the City have been telling me that I “would be surprised” at the real political centre of gravity there. I believe them. Briefly, but memorably, we were governed by people whose fixed ideological presuppositions had led them to thoroughly unsuccessful careers in the field for which they had purported to speak ever since that failure had spurred them into the full-time politics that they had always been going to take up eventually. They still cannot comprehend that, having been put into practice, everything in which they had always believed had turned out to have been an unmitigated disaster in its own terms.
I love the idea that Truss had, in her own words, “broad support”. At the next General Election, she and her guru, Professor Patrick Minford, should be made to explain to the voters of South West Norfolk why he thought that the United Kingdom should have no agriculture, and why she agreed with him.
“we need to be intolerant of intolerance.”
Too bloody right we do. We need to start making life very, very unpleasant for the woke scum. We need to deny them employment and housing and access to banking facilities and social media.
Oh the irony. Satire is not dead.
How very libertarian of you.
..
I’m a conservative with some liberal sympathies, not a libertarian. In particular, I believe in dealing robustly with communists and other types of fashist.
Then how very British of you.
That’s more like it.
That’s more like it.
Then how very British of you.
..
I’m a conservative with some liberal sympathies, not a libertarian. In particular, I believe in dealing robustly with communists and other types of fashist.
Oh the irony. Satire is not dead.
How very libertarian of you.
“we need to be intolerant of intolerance.”
Too bloody right we do. We need to start making life very, very unpleasant for the woke scum. We need to deny them employment and housing and access to banking facilities and social media.
If I had a cause and was looking for a Champion suspect I’d swerve Mad Liz.
Some intriguing stuff though – if she did indeed block self ID during 19-21 she didn’t look to block primary school guidance on teaching about same-sex parents – as the guidance formulated and became Govt Policy then. Now maybe she doesn’t see that as Woke, but some Anti-Wokers do. Truth is there isn’t an agreed Anti-Woke manifesto and it varies. Mad Liz though got form for being pretty unspecific where she can get away with it.
The last quote too – ‘intolerant of intolerance’. Hmm assumes some universal agreement of what might be intolerance. That said she did sack Braverman
If I had a cause and was looking for a Champion suspect I’d swerve Mad Liz.
Some intriguing stuff though – if she did indeed block self ID during 19-21 she didn’t look to block primary school guidance on teaching about same-sex parents – as the guidance formulated and became Govt Policy then. Now maybe she doesn’t see that as Woke, but some Anti-Wokers do. Truth is there isn’t an agreed Anti-Woke manifesto and it varies. Mad Liz though got form for being pretty unspecific where she can get away with it.
The last quote too – ‘intolerant of intolerance’. Hmm assumes some universal agreement of what might be intolerance. That said she did sack Braverman
I wonder if Truss is getting out of politics and trying to get a job as a talking head for Fox News or even her own show. The British enjoy a default level of credibility in America. The British accent is a selling point and would surely give her an advantage. The British actor in American cinema has become something of a cliche. One can easily name a dozen British actors who have had success over here, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston, and I could go on. There’s even a commercial that makes fun of how prevalent it’s become when the advertiser announces he’s just a ‘charming British actor’.
I wonder if Truss is getting out of politics and trying to get a job as a talking head for Fox News or even her own show. The British enjoy a default level of credibility in America. The British accent is a selling point and would surely give her an advantage. The British actor in American cinema has become something of a cliche. One can easily name a dozen British actors who have had success over here, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston, and I could go on. There’s even a commercial that makes fun of how prevalent it’s become when the advertiser announces he’s just a ‘charming British actor’.
Well done her! We need someone with the guts and backbone to rally the vast silent majority against the LBGT global warming racism national socialists, but she has ” shot her bolt” …
She supported Govt guidance issued to primary schools allowing teaching about same sex parents when Equalities Minister in 2019. I would guess that diminishes her a little in your view of what might constitute an Anti-Woke Champ?
Please leave the LGB out of it. T is the letter you need.
She supported Govt guidance issued to primary schools allowing teaching about same sex parents when Equalities Minister in 2019. I would guess that diminishes her a little in your view of what might constitute an Anti-Woke Champ?
Please leave the LGB out of it. T is the letter you need.
Well done her! We need someone with the guts and backbone to rally the vast silent majority against the LBGT global warming racism national socialists, but she has ” shot her bolt” …
It’s pretty damn discouraging that the first libertarian PM in a third of a century lasted 44 days. Crap.
It’s pretty damn discouraging that the first libertarian PM in a third of a century lasted 44 days. Crap.
Given that Liz Truss was the mostly useless politician in human history, I think the woke can sleep a little sounder tonight
Liz Truss is down but don’t count her out. She was Right On and most impressive the other night in Washington.
I’m as anti-woke as Truss, but I’m afraid her total capture by fruitcake US think tanks means that I will only ever agree with her on certain topics. The odd thing about Truss is that she never seems very British, in a cultural sense. As if she and her wacky gang of extremists are alienated from their own country.
I’m as anti-woke as Truss, but I’m afraid her total capture by fruitcake US think tanks means that I will only ever agree with her on certain topics. The odd thing about Truss is that she never seems very British, in a cultural sense. As if she and her wacky gang of extremists are alienated from their own country.
Liz Truss LOL
All the others. LOL
Liz Truss PMSL.
All the others. LOL
Liz Truss PMSL.
Liz Truss LOL