Not that it makes any difference but I’m leaning towards Liz Truss in the race for Number Ten.
Part of me would love to have a British Asian family in Downing Street because the message it would send would be hugely positive, but that alone is not enough.
Prospective prime ministers must be defined even more by their policies and that’s why, if I was a member of the Conservative party, I would probably vote for Truss even though Rishi Sunak has a great back story and seems a perfectly competent candidate for PM (which is arguably what we need right now).
The problem is it’s still not clear whether he’s another Blair-lite politician like David Cameron or a more radical figure like Margaret Thatcher, which is what I think Britain needs even more.
One thing I strongly reject is the argument put forward by one Conservative MP last week that the leadership election is all about winning the next election and nothing else, the implication being that the Tories under Truss won’t win because her more stilted and dogmatic style won’t play as well with the electorate.
I’m sorry, but winning a general election should not be the be-all and end-all for any political party.
Of course you have to win elections to gain power and implement policies but what’s the point if the leadership has no vision and your policies are little different to the opposition?
Like Boris, Rishi got some of the big calls right during Covid but now we are post pandemic he still seems wedded to high taxation and Big Government.
I’m no economist and the money to repay the loans for furlough and other unexpected costs like helping Ukraine has to come from somewhere, but Truss’s low tax ambitions seem more exciting to me.
If you can’t make up your mind between Sunak and Truss - and there may be twists and turns ahead - I recommend this article by the Telegraph’s Allister Heath - Truss is winning because she promises to fight the failed groupthink ruining Britain:
Tragically, the former chancellor, a hugely capable and charismatic man, has failed to grasp his party’s mood. His campaign is targeted at centrist general voters and technocratic elites in the City and Whitehall. He has fallen into the trap of becoming the Tory that anti-Tories on Twitter love to support – a new Heseltine, Clarke, Hunt or Davidson – but who party members reject. Tories didn’t always want a flame-throwing Right-winger: in the mid 2000s, they remained in awe of Blair, so embraced Cameron. But that centrist moment has passed.
It’s behind a paywall but do read it if you can.
The screen shot below might also interest you. It’s from theyworkforyou.com and I found it by Googling ‘Liz Truss, smoking, tobacco’.
A similar search for Rishi Sunak recorded no results although, to be fair, he was only elected as an MP in 2015 since when there has been no major tobacco-related legislation to vote on.
As Chancellor though he has been happy to follow the example set by his predecessors and rob smokers of even more of their hard-earned cash so read into that what you will.
I’m not saying Truss is guaranteed to be less hostile to smoking and other lifestyle issues than many of her peers, but I do think she’s less committed to the idea that government should bully us into submission.
There’s still more than a month to go before our new PM is confirmed but the more I learn about both candidates the more I’m leaning towards Liz, with apologies to her opponent.
Update: Truss also voted against plain packaging of tobacco, joining 104 Conservative MPs who defied the Conservative-led Coalition government.
Goodness knows how I forgot because I credited them all here!
