Boris Johnson’s government will go down in history as a record-breaker — just not, however, for achievements of which any prime minister would be proud.
His government began badly. He suffered a series of defeats from the House of Commons after he was appointed prime minister. Prime ministers in the British constitution are not directly elected but are appointed by the ability of the Parliament to win the confidence of Parliament. A government is supposed to resign if it cannot maintain a majority in Parliament. Johnson lost four of his first four votes in Parliament. 12 altogether in autumn 2019.
Johnson cut his spending on health over the next two years. educationHis government contracts totaling billions of dollars were awarded to him allies, and presided over the COVID pandemic in Britain that saw some of the highest death rates in the world. Europe.
Johnson’s government ended even worse than it began. Between July 5 and 7, 57 ministers of the government resigned to avoid serving under Johnson. Never before in British History had so many senior executive members resigned. quit at once. Despite his reputation as the great British politician survivor, he is now leaving power and the race to find his successor is on.
Conservative Party members will vote from a short list of candidates to choose the winner. The winner will then be announced on September 5. Sunak, who has been in senior office for a longer time, and was nominated more Conservative MPs (Conservative members of Parliament) should be the favorite.
Sunak is the House of Commons’ richest MP because of his marriage with Akshata Murty (whose father was N.R. Narayana Murthy, often called the “Indian Bill Gates,” founded the Indian tech company Infosys. Sunak has long been criticized for the way he and his wife handle that family business, which included his wife declaring herself a “non-domicile” resident of England while he was chancellor, to avoid paying taxes.
Sunak takes into the leadership contest one defining policy, which is that Britain overspent during the COVID crisis and now needs to “work hard” and “make sacrifices.” Sunak resigned as chancellor because of Johnson’s lack of support for budget cuts, setting in motion the series of resignations which led to Johnson’s removal. This is especially important as gas and electricity companies depend on it. expected to hike energy ratesMost households will see a 70% increase, which is enough money to put millions of people in poverty. Johnson has refused to provide any protection for the affected before he leaves office. Sunak, if elected, would offer nothing to the victims of price increases.
Sunak is not a social liberal but he doesn’t seem to be content playing the populist role. Late in the contest, he delivered a speech warning about “woke nonsense,” but this was given later and very obviously in response to what is perceived to be Truss’s success in wooing the Conservative base. Sunak, on the other hand, represents a return of the austerity politics that dominated Britain before 2016. This wider unpopularity led to the internal rebellion in Conservative politics that culminated in Brexit and the rise to Johnson.
Liz Truss, on the other hand, has presented herself as the continuity pro Johnson candidate. In days neo-Nazisprotestors have taken to the streets and demanded that public libraries cancel all story times hosted by them drag queensTruss attempted to claim the leadership position in the anti-trans movement. He threatened trans athletes with performance bans and laws that would prevent anyone under 18 from embracing gender-affirming beliefs. hormones. Truss also promises to “support and extend” Boris Johnson’s plans to rip up the UN Refugee Convention, by Deporting Rwandan refugees.
Truss is like Sunak and has nothing to offer rising fuel prices victims. She, however, believes that there is an alternative to rising inflation, which will lead to falling living standards. Truss insists on limiting inflation and limiting prices rather than limiting them profits of the giant oil companiesThe government should reduce taxes for the wealthiest members of society.
She presents herself as the enemy of financial experts and business, a message amplified by her supporters who contrast Sunak’s £450 shoes to Truss’s £4.50 earrings. But this is not about helping the poor. Another of Truss’s big ideas was to pay for those tax cuts by cutting the pay of some of Britain’s worst-paid public sector workers.
Truss has termed campaigners calling for a Green New Deal “militant activists,” and pledged to press on with the Conservatives’ plans to criminalize protests. Boris Johnson had already published plans to water down Britain’s Human Rights Act, which requires government at all levels to behave in a way consistent with essential rights. Truss promises to abandon that human rights framework altogether.
Such policies have made Truss the bookies’ clear favorite to win. As with many other countries, Britain feels like Europe after WWI. Conservatives are pushing the fantasy that we need a dictator elected from the top, without any of those post-war checks and balances we used to believe were at the heart of democracy and who would solve all our difficult crises.
Truss is an unlikely candidate in many ways. While some have compared her to Margaret Thatcher, who paved the way for the Conservatives’ post-1979 hegemony by defeating the country’s unions, privatizing much of the welfare state and making privatization (briefly) a popular cause, a much more likely comparison is Theresa May, who was welcomed into office with press headlines predicting a period of authoritarian right-wing government (“Crush the saboteurs”) only to be defeated at the first moment she had to test those policies on voters.
It is a difficult choice to make between austerity and populist Bigotry. This portends a grim future for government in the U.K.
