TORIES AGAINST TRUSS

Things are moving along at such astonishing speed that I must remind myself that it is only six weeks since we saw another Tory leader standing outside 10 Downing Street and telling us how they would change the world. Liz Truss, Prime Minister since 6 September 2022 will very shortly – perhaps as soon as I finish typing this piece – be handing over power to a new leader of the Conservative Party. That leader will be the fourth Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in as many years. How did things become so unstable? We used to laugh at the Italians for the frequency of their changes of government. Is anybody laughing now?

In the space of less than two months Liz Truss has achieved greatness few Prime Ministers before her could imagine. My friend from King’eero sent me a photo of Ms truss accompanied by this: “Liz Truss, the UK Prime Minister. She will be gone soon! Her legacy is already very impressive. She buried the Queen, the Pound, the Country, the Chancellor, and the Conservative Party. All in one month!” My friend likes to drink tusker in a subterranean pub called Kamutiini. If this is the view of the world in the depths of Kamutiini, God help Ms Truss. The best I can say for her is that if she turned up at Kamutiini, she would not leave thirsty.

I will probably have to write down the time of day each time I write these pieces because of the speed of events. But before things move on to the next phase in the dramatic life of the Twenty-First Century Tory Party, I need to try and make sense of where things are now.

The news hitting the airwaves yesterday evening was that the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, had chosen to resign because of a breach of the Ministerial Code. Her offence was to send sensitive documents to a friend from secret government systems while using her private email address. This perplexed me. In the light of what we have recently seen of aberrant ministerial behaviour, this was not to my mind a resignation affair. At most, I thought, Ms Braverman should have received a severe reprimand – including, perhaps, a warning letter – and told that the way she was conducting her affairs was not worthy of her position in government. Full stop. To my extreme surprise, the news was that Braverman was leaving the cabinet. I smelled a fish.

It seems to me that the right wing of the Tory Party has given up on Liz Truss. If that is correct, then she will not last very long in Downing Street. Every new occupant of the flat at the top of Number 10 is entitled to a few privileges once they take occupancy. Some choose to take the flat as they find it, depending on how long they see their occupancy lasting; others are bolder. Boris Johnson belongs in the latter category. When he was given the keys to the flat, he gave them to his msichana wife, a beautiful girl (twenty or more years younger than Johnson) and told her to enjoy herself.

Christ Almighty – Lynn Truss has resigned!! (13.36). More later. I need to think a lot…

Gitau

20 October 2022 (13.40)