With the recent announcement of Liz Truss as Britain’s new prime minister, many still wonder what inspires her politics. The answer, argues Dr Simon Lee, lies in a new kind of ideology - ‘Do-It-For-Myself Economics’, a confection of politically expedient, headline-grabbing soundbites designed to appeal to the prejudices of Conservative Party members and advance her own personal career ambitions.

In his 1985 BBC Reith Lectures, the economist David Henderson developed the thesis of 'Do-It-Yourself Economics'. This thesis argued that, over wide areas of policy, including economic policy, the judgement of politicians and their officials was guided to a large degree by 'Economics of Everyman', i.e. ‘the intuitive ideas of lay people, rather than the more elaborate systems of thought which occupy the minds of trained economists’.

What the hustings of the Conservative Party leadership contest has revealed about Liz Truss is that her thinking on economic policy has been shaped, not so much by Henderson’s ‘Do-It-Yourself Economics’, but rather by her own ‘Do-It-For-Myself Economics’: a confection of British nationalism, politically expedient, headline-grabbing soundbites designed to appeal to the particular prejudices of Conservative Party members and thereby advance her own personal career ambitions to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.