Liz Truss

2022 - 9 - 9

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Image courtesy of "The New Yorker"

How Will Liz Truss Govern a Britain in Crisis? (The New Yorker)

The new Prime Minister inherits a nation facing skyrocketing energy costs and a looming recession. Sam Knight discusses how she will respond.

[Spotify](https://pod.link/EAxjj.spotify?pdst_key=df1e65c3eb684bbabcda953605e811ee&pdst_group=83a946fcfb264355b29c24a0dd34adf2&pdst_label=bj0vajYd) [Apple](https://pod.link/EAxjj.apple?pdst_key=df1e65c3eb684bbabcda953605e811ee&pdst_group=83a946fcfb264355b29c24a0dd34adf2&pdst_label=bj0vajYd) [Boris Johnson](https://www.newyorker.com/tag/boris-johnson), and faces a nation in the midst of a bleak economic forecast, including talk of a recession.

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Image courtesy of "BBC News"

Liz Truss set to unveil plans to limit energy bill rises (BBC News)

The government could borrow £100bn to cap the typical household energy bill at around £2500 a year.

The system to support business could be more complex than that for households and is likely to be reviewed more often. The cost of living is currently rising at its fastest rate in 40 years, with prices 10.1% higher than the same time last year. We also strongly need to see some investment from the government in renewable energy so that 12 months along the line we've got systems in place." The current price cap - set by Ofgem and which limits the maximum amount domestic customers can be charged for each unit of energy - is due to increase in October. The cost of UK government borrowing is currently at its highest level for eight years, with the yield on 10-year bonds rising above 3%. Rosemary Brown, director of Bluebell Dairy, a luxury ice cream maker, said her energy costs had jumped from £35,000 a year to £80,000. Following a series of meetings with officials, energy companies - mainly in the nuclear and renewables sector - have agreed in principle to accept new long-term contracts at fixed prices well below current rates, BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt said. It also means any future borrowing will be more expensive. However, some economists have suggested that plans to cap energy bills could mean that increases in the cost of living will peak earlier and be "significantly lower" than previously forecast. "We are definitely thinking about shutting our doors, it's very stressful." Rocketing prices are leaving households facing eyewatering energy bills. To limit the amount customers' bills go up by, the government is expected to compensate energy firms for the difference between the wholesale price for gas and electricity they pay and the amount they can charge customers.

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Image courtesy of "PoliticsHome.com"

King Charles Has Held First Audience With Prime Minister Liz Truss ... (PoliticsHome.com)

King Charles III has held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II o...

Even as he mourns, his sense of duty and service is clear.” “We owe him our loyalty and devotion. [meeting ](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/liz-truss-officially-sworn-in-as-prime-minister-by-the-queen) [the Queen in Balmora](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/liz-truss-officially-sworn-in-as-prime-minister-by-the-queen) [l](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/liz-truss-officially-sworn-in-as-prime-minister-by-the-queen). [the news of Elizabeth II’s death was c](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/queen-elizbaeth-dies-age-96) [onfirmed.](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/queen-elizbaeth-dies-age-96) [led tributes by MPs in the Commons to the Queen](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/liz-truss-leads-tributes-to-the-queen-in-parliament-house-of-commons), and also “offered loyal service to our new King”. The King has told Liz Truss his mother’s death was “the moment I’ve been dreading” as Charles held his first audience with the Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace today.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Liz Truss to meet King Charles for first time since Queen's death (The Guardian)

Prime minister expected to head to Buckingham Palace before monarch makes televised address to nation.

Parliament is unlikely to sit next week out of respect for the Queen. Ministers have also met to discuss logistics for the national mourning period and the Queen’s funeral. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, also led tributes to the Queen at a meeting of the shadow cabinet on Friday morning, Labour said, with the meeting observing a minute of silence.

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Image courtesy of "ITV News"

The King tells Liz Truss his mother's death is 'moment I've been ... (ITV News)

The prime minister and the monarch will meet weekly as per tradition - but the details of their conversations will remain private. | ITV National News.

[ paying a poignant and moving tribute to his “darling Mama” the Queen in his first public broadcast as monarch.](/news/2022-09-08/nation-begins-period-of-mourning-for-its-rock-the-queen) Charles said of his “beloved mother” the late Elizabeth II: “We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example”. He added: “To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. He has already made a profound contribution through his work on conservation, education and his tireless diplomacy. "During the darkest moments of the pandemic, she gave us hope that we would meet again. “His Majesty King Charles III bears an awesome responsibility that he now carries for all of us. “Even as he mourns, his sense of duty and service is clear.

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Image courtesy of "TownandCountrymag.com"

King Charles Meets With Prime Minister Liz Truss (TownandCountrymag.com)

"Britain is the great country it is today because of her," Truss said earlier this week about Queen Elizabeth.

The death of Her Majesty The Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world. He also spoke fondly of his late mother, calling her his "darling Mama" while also praising her lifelong duty to her role and promising to follow in her example of "lifelong service." Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. and flowers," [he continued](https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-09-09/king-charles-tells-pm-truss-queens-death-the-moment-ive-been-dreading). [per People](https://people.com/royals/king-charles-prime-minister-liz-truss-first-audience-monarch/).

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

'A broken system': campaigners urge Liz Truss to rethink energy plan (The Guardian)

Climate activists, anti-poverty groups and trade unionists plan wave of protests in autumn.

This can no longer be dismissed as a campaign about a future abstract threat, it is about the material reality of people’s everyday lives.” Protesters taking to the streets this autumn face a far stricter public order policing regime, after the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act earlier this year. “As we head into one of the worst cost of living crises this country has ever seen, young people are getting organised. “Truss is doubling down on the broken system that causes bills, billionaires and CO2 to soar while pay falls. [Warm This Winter](https://www.warmthiswinter.org.uk/news/leading-charities-urge-pm-hopefuls-to-end-fuel-poverty), a coalition of charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children and fuel poverty and climate activist groups, which is demanding the government do more to address the cost of living crisis. From trade unionists fighting for decent pay, to climate campaigners, this autumn will see a wave of action to force change.”

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Image courtesy of "Financial Times"

Liz Truss's expensive energy lifeline (Financial Times)

British families and households finally have some clarity that substantial support in paying crippling gas and electricity bills is on its way. The new prime ...

[Purchase a Print subscription for 11,12 € per week You will be billed 107,91 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_uk3m?segmentId=461cfe95-f454-6e0b-9f7b-0800950bef25&utm_us=JJIBAX&utm_eu=WWIBEAX&utm_ca=JJIBAZ&utm_as=FIBAZ&ft-content-uuid=b5dbef50-bf66-41ed-9c06-cb1ee2682953) [Purchase a Digital subscription for 6,64 € per week You will be billed 39 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_digital?ft-content-uuid=b5dbef50-bf66-41ed-9c06-cb1ee2682953) [Purchase a Trial subscription for 1 € for 4 weeks You will be billed 65 € per month after the trial ends](/signup?offerId=41218b9e-c8ae-c934-43ad-71b13fcb4465&ft-content-uuid=b5dbef50-bf66-41ed-9c06-cb1ee2682953)

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Image courtesy of "edie.net"

Liz Truss confirms price freeze for energy bills, dismisses windfall ... (edie.net)

Liz Truss's new Government has agreed on an energy price freeze to combat the energy crisis, although this won't be funded by a windfall tax on energy firms ...

However, the Green Alliance states that opening new fields in the North Sea would be “uneconomic” given the “unstoppable rise” of clean technologies and the need to hit long-term climate goals. This means businesses will see their energy costs capped at the same price per unit that households will pay. As such, major oil giants including BP and Shell are incentivised to drill in the North Sea. A new licensing round has been announced and Truss expects more than 100 new oil and gas licenses to be awarded. The scheme will be led by the Treasury and the Bank of England, to address the “extraordinary liquidity requirements” faced by energy firms operating in UK wholesale gas and/or electricity markets. Truss also confirmed that new gas licenses would be issued for the North Sea oil and gas industry. This, the Government claims, is to ensure that the new limits on energy bills stop taxpayers’ money from being funnelled into the profit margins of suppliers. A [windfall tax] would discourage the very investment we need to secure a homegrown energy supply.” The Conservative Government imposed a moratorium on fracking in 2019 because companies leading extraction projects could not prove their ability to operate below a threshold for tremors they had previously agreed to. The package includes a new price freeze on household energy bills, effectively eliminating the £3,549 price cap due to come in October. It is important to state that while this has been branded an energy cost crisis, the key contributor to rising costs is gas. Extraordinary challenges call for extraordinary measures, ensuring that the United Kingdom is never in this situation again.”

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Liz Truss clearly had a plan for her first week, but fate tore it up (The Guardian)

There was a reshuffle, a No 10 overhaul and an energy package before she suddenly found herself leading a nation in mourning.

Truss’s team also made it clear she would be dismantling Johnson’s reforms of the No 10 operation, and at least 40 civil servants were told directly about their new roles in the Cabinet Office. One current serving minister said they were concerned that a mass clearout of Sunak supporters would entrench divisions in the party. Two former ministers said they were despondent about the party’s future, with one saying throwing themselves in the Thames was a similarly appealing prospect. “She is quite obviously more of a future prospect for the party than Penny or Suella [Braverman, the home secretary] now.” Badenoch had been keen to take over as culture secretary and Mordaunt rejected the job of party chair. Truss had evidently prepared to a high degree as it became obvious she would triumph over her rival, Rishi Sunak.

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Image courtesy of "POLITICO.eu"

A week like no other for Liz Truss (POLITICO.eu)

The UK prime minister looks set to be defined by her first weeks in office. TOPSHOT-BRITAIN-ROYALS-QUEEN- ...

Instead, Truss has an entirely new challenge — to rise to the occasion, as a novice prime minister, at a moment of history. In an Ipsos poll this week, only half of the people surveyed said they knew a fair amount or a great deal about her. This is difficult to get right but putting public empathy before politics is the key.” Blair’s memorable reference to Diana as “the people’s princess” in his speech that day chimed with the nation, and indeed went down in history. He won praise for his empathy at a time when the rest of the royal family was under heavy criticism for its muted response to Diana’s death. is also now in doubt, with the queen’s funeral and the fiscal event already pencilled in that same week. If she survives this crisis and shows the necessary leadership, she will emerge from it with the praise of the future.” She intended to hit the ground running. She knew her premiership would be judged on how it landed with the public. Four hours later, at 4.30 p.m., Truss was informed of the queen’s death by Simon Case, her most senior civil servant. Her announcement, an estimated £100 billion package to freeze bills at their current level, would be one of the biggest-ever fiscal interventions by a U.K. Already ringed red in Truss’ diary was Thursday, September 8, two days into her premiership, and likely the most important day of her career.

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Image courtesy of "The American Prospect"

Liz Truss Gets Her History Wrong (The American Prospect)

Britain's new prime minister is no Margaret Thatcher. But can Labour do better?

The Labour leadership seems fixated on the idea that because a group of voters from working-class backgrounds, usually in the postindustrial north, voted for Brexit and then for Boris Johnson in 2019, Labour can only win back their votes by embracing rightist hostility to Europe. In a major YouGov poll of 1,600 respondents in mid-August, only 39 percent said leaving Europe was a good idea, compared to the 52 percent who voted for Brexit six years ago. That era of cheap money, low inflation, cheap energy, cheap labor, and cheap goods produced anywhere in the world without respect for the conventions of the ILO is now over. Thatcher won power in 1979 as an opponent of uncontrolled strikes in every sector from the BBC to electricity power stations in the 1970s. The OECD and the U.K. She opposed Brexit in 2016, but turned her coat fast as the Tory Party moved to Johnson’s Trumpian style of lies and disinformation about Europe. The strikes in Britain in 2022 have all been voted for in a secret ballot. In fact, the big decade of trade union and working-class militancy in Britain was the 1970s. The worst of the strikes in terms of numbers of workers and unions participating was during the Labour government of 1974-1979. It was the biggest improvement in the lives of the working class since the Industrial Revolution. She adopted it to symbolize her battle with the antisemitic military junta in Argentina that stupidly took on the British army and Royal Navy in the Falklands. The description of Margaret Thatcher as the “Iron Lady” was in an article in the Red Army newspaper in 1978, with the Soviet journalist thinking that comparing her to the medieval iron maiden torture instrument would be a satisfying insult.

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