# Liz Truss tries to lead the UK {and resigns as of 2022-10-20} **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 5, 2022, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992 "2022-09-05T14:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/501 "2022-10-22T13:30:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Yes, it was tax breaks for the rich, cuts for anything benefiting the poor, and massive increases in defense spending based on government borrowing. And decreased government spending to attack inflation. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/502 "2022-10-22T15:13:05Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > Labour are now looking good and electable under Starmer. But it will be two years before a General Election and the country seems forced to endure more Conservative psycho-drama. > > Politics in the UK is going through a very difficult phase. Minus a general election, does the law have any actual reference to the parties? My expectation would be that it says things like “largest faction” or “majority faction” rather than “those who ran as a Tory when they were campaigning, during the election”. I.e. all it would take for a non-Tory government would be for some one of the Tory divisions to split off and go to the other side, so that it becomes the majority party. Or is there some legal obstacle to that? If you’re looking at a crushing defeat in the election, two years hence, it’s not like there’s really any bonus to party allegiance. You might as well start on the path to resuscitating your name, before the general. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/503 "2022-10-22T15:28:49Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > Johnson created a policy of ‘levelling up’ to support the economy of the northern industrial belt and preserve these newly converted voters. A large number of Conservative MPs will lose their seats if improvements are not delivered. A Johnson promise is simply a lie undelivered yet. We’ve got the new levelling up department in Wolverhampton. Apart from relocating a bunch of people from London to somewhere they can buy a ten bedroom mansion for the price their old single room flat, it hasn’t done a thing. I think it was also the department of housing, but was renamed to Levelling up. So just more nonsense apart from a government department moved there. Which might make up for the Inland Revenue place which got closed down a few years ago. I think Gove was in charge for a year. Does nothing. “Levelling up” was nonsense. Hasn’t happened. Will not happen. How many times does Johnson have to be shown to be selling another imaginary bridge to the moon before people realise its all snake oil? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/504 "2022-10-22T15:42:29Z")
Can you explaing “levelling up” in 20 words or less? I’m not completely clear from context. TIA. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/505 "2022-10-22T15:48:44Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Minus a general election, does the law have any actual reference to the parties? My expectation would be that it says things like “largest faction” or “majority faction” rather than “those who ran as a Tory when they were campaigning, during the election”. I.e. all it would take for a non-Tory government would be for some one of the Tory divisions to split off and go to the other side, so that it becomes the majority party. > > Or is there some legal obstacle to that? > > If you’re looking at a crushing defeat in the election, two years hence, it’s not like there’s really any bonus to party allegiance. You might as well start on the path to resuscitating your name, before the general. The utterly crapulous UK electoral system minimised the power of voters so as to maximise the power of the dominant political parties, always exactly two in number. Most voters vote by party loyalty; the candidate’s personal qualities matter only at the margins, unless they are incredibly good or incredibly bad. MPs candidates do defect from one main party to the other, though that is a rare event. But I cannot think of a single example where an MP has done so, and had then been re-elected from the same constituency on behalf of his new party. Mind you, that is not what has to happen for a general election to be called. A GE will be called if the government loses a vote of confidence. This means that government MPs don’t have to quit the party and join the opposition party; it’s sufficient that they simply don’t vote for the government, or vote against the government, in the vote of confidence. But it’s pretty much a career-ending move in most circumstances; an MP who does this will almost certainly be denied his party’s nomination at the election. They can run as an independent, but would be very lucky indeed to win, because the crapulous electoral system (see above) hugely devalues votes cast for candidates who do not belong to one or other of the two dominant parties. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/506 "2022-10-22T16:38:27Z")
Astoundingly, thanks to the FPTP electoral system, the Tories might come out of the next election not even being the official opposition. [Some models predict](https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html) they’d get fewer seats than the SNP. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/507 "2022-10-22T16:42:39Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > I cannot think of a single example where an MP has done so, and had then been re-elected from the same constituency on behalf of his new party. I’ve worked some jobs where the better answer was to bail out than to be part of the slow, miserable, saddening implosion. If you’re going to fail, why have it suck longer? And, you can always move districts to somewhere that you’d be competitive. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/508 "2022-10-22T16:47:54Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > decreased government spending to attack inflation But wasn’t that simply a shift from domestic programs to miltary spending, resulting, actually, in a near-tripling of debt? Heh - maybe this can get derailed into a 1999 thread. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/509 "2022-10-22T16:58:30Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Minus a general election, does the law have any actual reference to the parties? My expectation would be that it says things like “largest faction” or “majority faction” rather than “those who ran as a Tory when they were campaigning, during the election”. I.e. all it would take for a non-Tory government would be for some one of the Tory divisions to split off and go to the other side, so that it becomes the majority party. By custom and convention the sovereign appoints whoever is seen to command a majority in the House of Commons (in practice, of course, the election results make clear who that should be, and officials at the Palace and No.10 settle the procedural arrangements before the new PM goes to the Palace). Your understanding as to how a majority might evaporate is correct - previous periods of instability in the early 1920s and the 1931 economic crisis saw movements a bit like that. 1931 put George V on the spot, and he was far more active in promoting the National coalition that emerged than would probably be tolerated now. Statute law, AFAIK, only recognises political parties as such in relation to the mechanics of elections and spending limits. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/510 "2022-10-22T17:05:27Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Can you explaing “levelling up” in 20 words or less? I’m not completely clear from context. TIA. The Tories sow inequality between regions and classes favouring London/the South and richer regions. “Levelling up” was a Boris Johnson lie/policy to bring the regions and classes that his own party left behind as a matter of policy, to the same level as the better-off in London, without diverting money away from London. Sorry that’s more than 20 words! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/511 "2022-10-22T17:10:39Z")
Thanks! I think I get the gist. Basically, promise them everything, but give them nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/512 "2022-10-22T17:19:52Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > But Labour was led by a radical faction under Corbin that was far to the left of the electorate. My impression at the time—and again, my knowledge of British politics is very shallow—was not that Labor was excessively leftist, but that it had no coherent messaging on Brexit and Corbin himself was ambivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/513 "2022-10-22T17:24:22Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > A GE will be called if the government loses a vote of confidence. Who gets to decide when there is a vote of confidence? Do the minority parties in the Commons have any say? If it’s completely up to the prime minister, that seems like a pretty weak valve for democratic pressures. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/514 "2022-10-22T17:42:12Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Can you explaing “levelling up” in 20 words or less? I’m not completely clear from context. TIA. We will give more money to the north. We will. Why are you laughing? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/515 "2022-10-22T17:43:52Z")
I’m laughing because you were so much more succinct than @gracer. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/516 "2022-10-22T18:00:33Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > My impression at the time—and again, my knowledge of British politics is very shallow—was not that Labor was excessively leftist, but that it had no coherent messaging on Brexit and Corbin himself was ambivalent. Their manifesto for the 2017 election surprised me by its moderation, and indeed it helped lose May her majority. But in 2019, they seemed to go bonkers with a new (uncosted) policy promise every day. Plus, as you say, the not very convincing papering over of divisions over Brexit and Corbyn’s personal deficiencies - tin-eared, stubborn self-righteousness and students’ union style attitudinising on foreign policy. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/517 "2022-10-22T18:01:15Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Can you explaing “levelling up” in 20 words or less? I’m not completely clear from context. TIA. I don’t know whether this helps but it’s actually the name of a government department. I suspect it might be like the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. > **[Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_for_Levelling_Up,_Housing_and_Communities?wprov=sfti1)** > > Charles III > > William, Prince of Wales ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/518 "2022-10-22T18:03:49Z")
Interesting name for it. Kinda like “cleaner” and “carer,” right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/519 "2022-10-22T18:11:42Z")
Nice callback. Apparently it used to have more of a grownup name— Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. I guess because if the merger between the executive and legislature in the parliamentary system, all the big government departments can be completely restructured by any prime minister. In the American system, it’s much more difficult to do that, which, good for us. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992/520 "2022-10-22T18:20:50Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > By custom and convention the sovereign appoints whoever is seen to command a majority in the House of Commons (in practice, of course, the election results make clear who that should be, and officials at the Palace and No.10 settle the procedural arrangements before the new PM goes to the Palace). Your understanding as to how a majority might evaporate is correct - previous periods of instability in the early 1920s and the 1931 economic crisis saw movements a bit like that. 1931 put George V on the spot, and he was far more active in promoting the National coalition that emerged than would probably be tolerated now. Interesting. That would seem to say that if Charles was feeling fairly enterprising and willing to involve himself in the real world of British politics, he could try to single out a prospective PM that he thought get could a majority across all the MPs from all parties and work behind the scenes to build a coalition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liz-truss-tries-to-lead-the-uk-and-resigns-as-of-2022-10-20/970992.md?page=27)