JAMIE STONE: Disdain for democracy – what next for Liz Truss?
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Jamie's Journal by Jamie Stone
I don't understand why it is that politics of late seems to have altered my sense of time.
For instance, it seems like ages ago that I asked the then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng my big question about benefit payments. However, as I sit and write this column, I suddenly realise it was only last week. Goodness me – such a lot has happened in such a short space of time.
In the Chamber of the House of Commons, I pointed out to Kwasi that it would be morally wrong not to link the benefits that many receive to the rate of inflation. If you don't do that, then some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society are going to get poorer still. I also pointed out the blindingly obvious point that people who receive benefits spend that money locally on food and the necessities of life such as clothes for the kids.
At the time, I thought it was a fair point. But what did the bold Kwasi come back with? He glared at me, shook his head disdainfully, and said rather sarcastically: "I’m delighted to see that a member of the ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’ is focusing on growth."
What on earth? I don't normally get annoyed by an answer, but this one was just being too clever by three-quarters and deliberately avoiding my question.
So, when I heard he was fired by the Prime Minister only four days later, well... I can't say I had a damp eye. I suspect that after his and Liz Truss's car crash of a mini budget, he is confined to the political dustbin. His arrogant attitude was quite easily his least likeable attribute. Cheerio, pal!
But moving into more recent events, where does this leave our Prime Minister? After all, she and Kwasi dreamt up the mini budget which proved to be a complete disaster, something that led to a run on the pound, a near-collapse of the British pension industry, and the need for urgent action by the Bank of England. Their mistake will ensure their place in the history books, but not for any reason they would wish.
And yet she's still there in Number 10. On Monday, she ducked the call for her to come to the Commons and explain her recent debacle. The Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt, appeared in her place and repeatedly assured us that Liz wasn't "hiding under the desk in Number 10" and that there were pressing reasons for her not to come and account for her actions.
Given that the House of Commons is supposed to be the cockpit of democracy in the UK, her absence speaks volumes of her disdain for democratic process. For this government, it has long been all about clinging onto power, no matter what. And yes, I think she was hiding under the desk... or perhaps she took a page from her predecessor's book and chose the fridge instead.
A real Prime Minister, a Churchill or an Attlee, would never have done that. They would have led from the front. "In office but not in power." That is how every single Conservative MP that I have talked to this week describes their leader.
If she had a disdain for democracy, then they now have a disdain for her. Apart from Kwasi Kwarteng, I don't know that any of us have ever seen a political reputation so utterly trashed and ruined forever as that of Liz Truss.
Wherever I go, be it Asda in Tain or Tesco in Wick, people are making their feelings very clear to me. They have had more than enough of this incompetent bungling and they want a general election now.
In all my political days, I have never heard a message like this before. It is quite unprecedented.
- Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
