Be afraid of fulfilling your desires: a disastrous legacy for Liz Truss

Liz Truss, a 47-year-old mother of two girls who managed to go through several positions in the British government, has become the owner of the Prime Minister's residence on Downing Street. Her last post was Minister of Foreign Affairs. Truss's predecessor, Boris Johnson, left her an ostentatious apartment refurbished to suit his young wife's taste. But the interiors are not the main thing: the wallpaper can be re-pasted and the furniture replaced. The other part of the legacy looks much sadder - the near-catastrophic state of affairs in the economy and the rapidly falling standard of living of the British, whose patience may come to an end. The outcome of the situation largely depends on the personal qualities of the newly elected prime minister.

It makes no sense to quote conservatives loyal to the new leader, especially now that the distribution of ministerial portfolios has begun in the cabinet. This is the time of flattering speeches that help climb the career ladder a step up. Liz Truss herself followed this path: having been elected to Parliament in 2010 when the British Young Reformer David Cameron led the Conservative Party. Two years later, she already received her first position in the cabinet. It was a local "Komsomol appeal" - responding to the demands of the time, the ruling conservatives actively diluted the men's bureaucratic club with female faces.

At the time, Maria Elisabeth Truss was not regarded as a rising political star. She is remembered only for a clumsy statement at a party conference in 2014. Truss was then minister of the environment, food, and agriculture. In an attempt to spice things up, she amused everyone by suddenly taking out her wrath on fermented milk products coming into the UK from overseas: "We import two-thirds of the cheese. It's a disgrace!" Liz Truss can still say something: everyone remembers her recent historical and geographical comments about "invasions from the Mongols to the Tatars" and the refusal to recognize Russian sovereignty over the Rostov and Voronezh regions.

Similarly, Truss has dramatically changed her attitude towards Brexit. Before the referendum in 2016, it was categorically against breaking with the European Union, but now it threatens Brussels with the abolition of the protocol on Northern Ireland, one of the key documents signed as part of the agreement between the UK and the EU. "An anti-Brexit, former pro-Republic Liberal Democratic Party member, she voted three times for Theresa May's failed deals, now she is going to lead the Conservative Party and left the European Union Britain, - writes Nigel Farage, - who could imagine such a thing? It is possible that she now believes that the Irish Protocol should be changed, and considers herself a true conservative, but I doubt it. I see only careerism. "The Times quotes Truss's colleagues who claim that from the first days of her political career, trying to be seen, she stuffed the rest with her elbows:" She did not miss a single photo session . "Colleagues noted that Truss was surprisingly hyperactive and not prone to embarrassment.

Even before receiving a parliamentary mandate, Liz Truss managed to overcome a major scandal associated with her affair with her senior party colleague, conservative Mark Field. Adultery happened in 2004. She was married, and he is married. His marriage fell apart, but hers survived. Husband Liz Truss, an accountant by profession, forgave the betrayal. In 2006, the couple had their first daughter. Today, Liz Truss calls her husband "the love of her life."

Former Johnson adviser Dominic Cummings nicknamed Truss a "hand grenade," saying it would blow up everything it touched. Since taking over as foreign minister last year, Truss has been noted for a tank ride near the Russian border, in the style of Margaret Thatcher and with a hint of premier ambitions.

Like Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, Liz Truss is called upon to be the de facto crisis manager. Things in the economy are more than bad. On Friday it became known that Britain, according to the Bloomberg agency, has lost its status as the fifth largest economy in the world, skipping ahead of the former colony - India. The same agency predicts that six out of ten UK companies could close soon due to crazy electricity prices. Unlike households, businesses in the United Kingdom are not protected by gas price ceilings – with new contracts, suppliers easily triple or even quintuple their bills: “Inflation is out of control. The pound is in free fall. The trade deficit is exploding, unions are threatening strikes all the time, gilding is falling off, living standards are collapsing before our eyes,” writes Telegraph columnist Matthew Lynn, “all this is beyond the control of anyone who takes the post of prime minister.”

Speaking about the energy crisis, Liz Truss promises to change the situation radically by increasing the exploitation of British oil and gas fields. Reserves in the North Sea are estimated at 15 billion barrels. In addition, the new cabinet intends to start shale gas production by lifting the ban on hydraulic fracturing technology. So far, no shale gas has been produced in Britain due to protests from environmentalists and residents of areas where drilling was planned, and it does not seem that their opinion has changed much. It is enough to look at the example of the Netherlands, where they are forced to stop the development of one of the largest gas fields in Europe, Groningen, due to emerging earthquakes.

Increasing production in the North Sea also takes time, so there is no magic wand in the hands of the new prime minister and there remains a pandemic-tested method: to get into debt by providing material assistance to businesses and the public. The option is not ruled out that the government will freeze prices for gas and electricity - this is exactly the measure that the opposition Laborites are proposing today.

The new cabinet has not yet announced the number of costs to combat the crisis. Considering that the refusal to raise taxes has been announced, experts estimate the number of forthcoming borrowings in the region of 130 billion pounds. At the same time, Liz Truss looks extremely selectively at the root system of the current troubles. Great Britain is an active preacher of sanctions against Russia, which hit Europe like a boomerang. Despite this, the British government still declares its desire to inflict maximum damage on the Russian economy. London generously adds fuel to the fire of the conflict in Ukraine - the volume of military assistance to Kyiv from the UK is 2.4 billion pounds. One of the first visits of Liz Truss is planned for Ukraine.

In the UK, the Conservatives have been in power since 2010, during which time three prime ministers were forced to resign. David Cameron lasted the longest - six years, he was ruined by the Brexit referendum. Theresa May spent three years, and Boris Johnson did the same. The latter does not hide his ambitions to return, taking advantage of the pause to earn extra money. Given his literary talents, one can soon expect memoirs, publications, lectures, and speeches on forums for substantial rewards. The time is such that prudent politicians do better to sit in the shadows. It is no coincidence that many perceive Liz Truss as a bargaining chip who is sacrificed in advance for the sake of geopolitics, realizing that in the current state of the world economy, caused by the confrontation of the West with Russia and China there is no chance of overcoming the crisis.