Lonely Britain - what to do when you lose two Lizzies at once
Lonely Britain - what to do when you lose two Lizzies at once
With burying the longest serving monarch in history, Great Britain had a lot to do in the last weeks. Coronation and installation of the new king, a whole country in mourning, and the question of who will be the new caretaker of the royal corgis - a long list. In addition to all this chaos, the world became witness of a ceremony that can be called the 'changing of the ministers'. Instead of the King's Guard changing places we could see a spectacle of prime ministers and finance ministers stepping in and out of office. Liz Truss, the latest Prime Minister tried her best to pick up the pieces left by her predecessor - but she couldn't be helped and so she had to step down after just a few weeks.
With the official cause of death of Her Majesty the Queen being "old age", Elisabeth the II - "Lizzy" - finally joined her husband Prince Philip on the other side, who certainly was already waiting for her (May she Rest in Peace). A difficult time for Prime Minister Liz Truss who had been in office for only three days at that point. With a war happening not far away, an economic crisis and a health care system in desperate need of some help, the winner of this year's election had to follow after Boris Johnson into a pretty harsh work environment. But that didn't stop Liz from announcing a mind-blowing 'mini-budget' plan to help Britain get out of its recession. With an agenda to cut taxes by 50 percent (and without a plan of how to pay for them) pension funds got put to the ground, crushing bond prices and setting chaos in the mortgage market along the way.
After this rather eventful way to start the legislation period, Truss fired her close politics friend and UK finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng to try to keep up appearances. Consequently, the new and fourth finance minister in three months, Jeremy Hunt, followed. He threw over Liz's financial plans in order to at least try to calm down the markets. But it doesn't stop there: another employee followed Kwarteng out of office - Home Secretary Suella Braverman resigned from Truss's Cabinet because of allegations against her using a personal device to send governmental documents. Her resignation letter does little to hide the criticism she holds for the Prime Minister. With the words "Pretending we haven't made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can't see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics", she accuses Liz Truss for not acknowledging the chaos she caused with her financial plans.
On October 20th, 2022, after a turbulent 45 days in office (of which 10 days business was paused, because of the Queen's death) she decided to resign. "I recognize though given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," were the words of her goodbye. All that leads to thinking that maybe it would have been better for her to stay in her prior Cabinet position after all.
Now, a failed mini-budget plan, one finance and prime minister later - Britain is faced with the loss of not one, but two Lizzies. It's up to you to evaluate which one is being missed more, but it is safe to say that there is probably not going to be a new Liz(zy) anytime soon. On the other hand... third time's the charm, right?