Liz Truss and the art of shamelessness
I once called a teacher “mum” and never lived it down. Some people spark a gilts crisis and keep going like nothing happened
If Mitt Romney has binders full of women1, I keep a mental folder titled ‘Times I Said The Wrong Thing’. Pulling on the tabs at random, there was the time in 1994, when I called Miss Edmunds ‘mum’. Or in 2005, when I made a crass joke at a friend’s expense, which they overheard. Or yesterday, when I said ‘fine, thanks’ to a barista who – I immediately realised – had not in fact asked me how I was doing.
"Shame occurs when people begin to evaluate themselves relative to some internalized or cultural ideal and come up short," wrote Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts. For many, unacknowledged shame can lead to profound sadness, volcanic anger and depression. For others, the response is a descent into narcissism, what the writer Michael Lewis calls “the ultimate attempt to avoid shame, albeit a doomed one.” Can you guess which path Liz Truss has taken?
Prime minister of the month for September and October 2022, Truss has chosen not to stay quiet. While many former leaders carefully pick their interventions from the backbenchers, Truss does not enjoy that option, having lost her seat at the last election, suffering the largest ever swing from Conservative to Labour in the process.
Truss’s memoir, ‘Ten Years to Save the West’, is not exactly a font of self-reflection. And at 320 pages, comes in at 6.5 pages per day of her premiership2. For reference, and using the same metric, Margaret Thatcher’s autobiography would have run to 27,391 pages. But I think we’re getting sidetracked here.
In a remarkable column published in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Truss begins with a quote from the American economist Thomas Sowell: “People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right – especially if events prove you right while proving them wrong.”
Starting with a quotation can be a little hackneyed (though we are all guilty of it), but is especially risky for Truss, whose book falsely attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking family, a quote that has long been used by antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Following a complaint by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, it was agreed that the quote would be removed from future editions. A spokesperson for Truss said she had not “meant” to cause offence.
The whole column is, like the author, erratic, contrived and at times untethered from reality. But my favourite part is when she criticises Mark Carney for being, amongst other things, “the unelected prime minister of Canada”. Which is a little like me attacking Lines To Take readers for being overly reliant on Tony Blair references or obsessing over transportation taxes.
What are our expectations, people? Is it the full Profumo? Having admitted to lying to his wife, the cabinet, Parliament and the nation over his affair with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler, John Profumo dedicated the final 40 years of his life to working as a volunteer at Toynbee Hall, a charity in East London, for which he was given a CBE in 1975.
Of course, shame is about more than personal betterment. It used to carry an important thermostatic purpose. Fear of public humiliation underpinned political and social norms which helped to prevent some of the worst excesses of power. If it no longer matters, we are one step closer to the abyss.
Look, I get it. It cannot be easy for Truss to accept such a complete humiliation. Rejected by the bond markets, the Conservative Party and the voters of South West Norfolk. Meanwhile, “Liz Truss crashed the economy” will remain a Labour talking point for decades to come. Much as the Winter of Discontent cost Tony Blair votes in 1997 and the negative equity of the early 1990s helped to deny David Cameron a majority in 2010. Voters have long memories.
There is, I am quite sure, a reasonably happy medium between waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night rehashing something stupid you said in 1994 and whatever it is that Truss is doing right now. I’ll let you know if I ever locate it.
He really said “binders full of women”
Or, if an audio version had been recorded, it would take a little under 1% of her time in office to listen to
"Truss’s memoir, ‘Ten Years to Save the West’, " Condolences for reading the bloody thing.
I was really looking forward to you eviscerating that ridiculous column by Truss, but I think you let her off lightly. There were so many things she said that needed either countering or debunking. I don't suppose you could have another go at it?