As We Face the Final Showdown...

 

As Ragtime Cowboy Boris does his Terminator impression, and rides off into what is sure to be a well-heeled sunset (at least for him), we who are glad to see the back of him are left with an unwanted legacy of two lacklustre candidates for prime minister who face a final duel on TV tonight. I'm sure that some people can't wait.

As one of the many who don't give a rap who wins, be it Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, and would like to see the Conservative party booted out of office tomorrow, I thought it a good idea to remind myself, and readers, of just what a pair of lummoxes Rishi and Liz are. First, let's look at what they have in common - in other words common reasons why we should dislike them. The estimable Adrian Ramsay, of the Green Party, has summarised these reasons admirably: 

“Both have voted for cuts to welfare benefits, against free school meals and for harsher asylum policies. And both seem more interested in pandering to the fossil fuel lobby and climate sceptics in their own ranks than actually addressing the climate crisis. A pledge on committing to net zero by 2050 had to be extracted from them under duress... we need a politics of compassion towards the most vulnerable in society, not a competition in nastiness."

All valid, but there is more to be said, so let's examine the cases of both candidates separately.

Speaking for myself, I think that Liz Truss would be bad for the UK as she can't seem to be able to open her mouth without putting her foot in it. One major blunder of hers was to denigrate her old school in Leeds, which has drawn withering criticism from a number of sources. One such critique came from Martin Pengelly in The Guardian, who attended the same school. He writes: 

"... when we were at Roundhay, Conservatives controlled education policy and spending, and how when the school was rebuilt, Labour did. The history of the school’s official rating also tells such a tale, from “satisfactory” under the Conservatives to “outstanding” under Labour.
Still, this is not 1992 or 2002 or even 2012. It is 2022, when the candidates to lead the Conservative party of Boris Johnson seem untroubled by truth. Truss left Roundhay in 1993. I left in 1996. Simply put, we were both taught well by the same good teachers, from whose work I have benefited every single day since I left the school – as I am sure Truss has too."

And, as has been reported, Ms Truss has not always been a Tory. It has already been noted that she was once a Libdem member who, as Wikipedia says:

"She was president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students. She expressed republican sentiments in a speech at the 1994 Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, stating: "I agree with Paddy Ashdown when he said, 'Everybody in Britain should have the chance to be a somebody', but only one family can provide the head of state... we believe in referenda on major constitutional issues; we do not believe people should be born to rule, or that they should put up and shut up about decisions which affect their everyday lives"."

Ah well, ex-poachers make the best gamekeepers, don't they?

More worrying, at least for me, has been her impetuosity, as our Foreign Secretary, in speaking out provocatively on sensitive matters.

Hopefully, we all agree that the war in Ukraine requires the utmost diplomatic skills of our politicians. If we do , then consider this from Liz Truss in February, as reported by the BBC:

"Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she supports individuals from the UK who might want to go to Ukraine to join an international force to fight.
She told the BBC it was up to people to make their own decisions, but argued it was a battle "for democracy".
She said Ukrainians were fighting for freedom, "not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe".

Actually, I don't disapprove of these sentiments, but, at such a critical time, moderation in language would have been the correct note to strike.

Private Eye, that underrated organ, points out that Rishi Sunak has some interesting questions to answer about his business dealings in the past. There is, for starters, his wife's offshore fortune. As The Eye says, there is also his "tax-efficient jingoism" which led our boy in 2019 to say, on the campaign trail,  that he got into politics because he loved his country. He didn't mention his non-domiciled status, his US green card, to which he only admitted earlier this year.

But most of all, there is widespread resentment (justified, I believe) about the face that Sunak is coming from such a wealthy background. His wife, Akshata Murthy, is singled out for attack here, As the BBC says: 

"Ms Murty received £11.6 million of income from the company ( a company based in India) last year.But because of her status as a 'non-dom', Ms Murty didn't have to pay tax on this money to the UK government. The BBC estimates she would have avoided £2.1m a year in UK tax.
While this is her right to do so - some people are upset with Mr Sunak as a result.
This is because many people feel it's unfair that Mr Sunak and his family are benefitting from not paying tax while asking lots of people in the UK to pay tax, at a time when there is a big rise in the cost of living".

And these are the people that Boris has left to govern us. Some people think that this will facilitate his return to power. Let's hope that it enables a Labour landslide.