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.
In relation to Truss’ ‘back-to-basics’ crime and policing strategy, one Chief Constable has described Truss’s soundbites as ‘attractive headlines’ which are ‘meaningless without further explanation’. The same can be said for Truss’s political economy which only makes sense when placed in historical context.
Truss has claimed to possess ‘a bold new economic plan’, offering ‘a vision of a low-tax economy with sound economic stewardship, that puts personal freedom and responsibility at the heart of everything we do, and is on the side of hardworking people’.
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