So who the hell is Liz Truss, anyway? Even the Brits aren't exactly sure

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So who the hell is Liz Truss, anyway? Even the Brits aren't exactly sure
Yep, the U.K. has a new prime minister, for now. But Boris Johnson is leering over her shoulder and won't go away

By ANDREW O'HEHIR
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 6:59PM


(Salon) It's not entirely fair to describe Liz Truss, the brand new prime minister of the United Kingdom, as "Boris Johnson in heels." But the salient point here might be that Truss herself would not find that insulting.

For better or worse (and it's not super-likely to be for better), Truss' tenure will be defined by the bloated ego and oversize personality of her mischievous-schoolboy predecessor, who on his way out the door compared himself to Cincinnatus, the Roman statesman who — according to historical accounts of uncertain veracity — was summoned back from retirement on his modest farm to assume dictatorial powers in 458 BC.

When Truss was announced on Monday as winner of the Conservative Party's arcane internal leadership struggle — and by extension the incoming prime minister — she gave a brief speech in which she called Johnson her "friend" and thanked him for "getting Brexit done" and leading the Tories to their whopping 2019 election victory. That struck me as more than a routine effort to mend fences with the ousted leader and his wounded supporters; it was a ritual incantation, meant to keep the imprisoned demon in his box. When we see that in a horror movie, we all know it's not going to work, and such is almost certainly the case here as well.

On this side of the Atlantic, the media is overloaded with quasi-informative explainers about who Truss is, how and why she has landed in 10 Downing Street and what her arrival might mean both for Britain's future and to the "special relationship" between the U.K. and the U.S. All of which is understandable, since even the British public is mildly puzzled by their nation's new parliamentary leader, and not at all sure how long she will last or whether she's anything more than a placeholder — either for the long-delayed return to power of the Labour Party under its neither/nor center-left milquetoast leader, Keir Starmer, or for the triumphant comeback of Boris Johnson himself (in the role of Cincinnatus or Donald Trump or Darth Vader, or all three at once). ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/06/so-the-hell-is-liz-truss-anyway-even-the-brits-arent-exactly-sure/

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1. Per guardian, her answer to high prices, tax cuts for rich. Nt