George Monbiot’s article (Rightwing thinktanks run this government. But first, they had to capture the BBC, 5 October) alerts readers to the dangers for us all in a prime minister parachuted into power by forces not commonly recognised or understood by the man on the Clapham omnibus. Their capture of the BBC command structure means the anodyne-sounding “supply-side reforms” that these groups advocate are rarely unmasked in terms that the average voter can relate to: more sewage on the beach, more likelihood of another Grenfell Tower disaster, and so on.
What the opposition needs to emphasise is the American origin of Liz Truss’s ideology as well as much of the funding behind its propagation. Herein lies its weakness as well as its strength: the Manchurian candidate may have landed, but the doctrine doesn’t actually travel.
