This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Philip Cross, August 22, 2024
In her just-published memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, former British prime minister Liz Truss diagnoses the problems facing conservative governments everywhere. The most important is opposition from what she calls “the blob — a permanent, immovable mass of resolutely left-wing prejudices and vested interests” that attempt to block almost all conservative reforms. Her ill-fated 50 days as prime minister serve as a warning about the resistance Pierre Poilievre will face as prime minister should he win the next federal election. But it can be overcome by avoiding some of the mistakes Truss made.
In her book, Truss describes how she fought “the blob” during her years as minister of various departments. Mostly she succeeded through perseverance and artful negotiation. Upon becoming prime minister, however, she moved quickly — probably too quickly — to enact her pro-growth agenda of tax cuts. She also deviated from her goal of fiscal restraint by temporarily raising subsidies for energy bills, which had soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The obstructionist response of the Treasury, the Bank of England, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and other government departments is disturbing to anyone who believes in democratic government supported by a professional and non-partisan civil service. Officials used a variety of tactics to undermine public and investor confidence in Truss’ program, including exaggerated forecasts of the deficit, leaked criticisms of her policies and tepid and contradictory intervention by the Bank of England. Truss attributes the Bank of England’s lack of cooperation to her having questioned its independence, something Poilievre must be wary of, too. The Bank’s ambivalence triggered a crisis of confidence in financial markets about the sustainability of British government debt, leading to withdrawal of the tax cuts and eventually, inevitably, Trump’s resignation.
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