A cornucopia of gifts to Labour tumbled out of Downing Street during the official mourning period. The royal order was “no politics”, and yet there was constant news of policies from the prime minister’s desk, leaks deliberate or malign. As one eccentric and unspeakable new plan followed another, Labour’s frontbench steadfastly obeyed the mourning rules with every lip zipped.
But that’s over. A rush of announcements this week will probably reveal these perverse policies, mostly unpopular, even among Tory voters. Strung together, Liz Truss’s remarkable list of free market, state-shrinking, deregulation, anti-nanny state ideological totems show her to be a conviction politician of striking recklessness. Where is her predicted “pivot”? Many assumed after winning the leadership she would ditch the wilder red meat she threw to Tory party members. But no. She seems bent on drawing lines with Labour; there’s no sign of pragmatism.
