Earlier this month in London I met with Liz Truss, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 44 days in 2022.
The Heartland Institute, of which I’m Chairman of the Board of Directors, opened an office in London to help us keep information flowing between our headquarters in the American Midwest and Britain and Europe.
Ms. Truss and other Britons who care about the legacy of liberty and understand the power of free markets — such as Nigel Farage, Nick Candy, Richard Grantley, and Prof. Daniel Hodson — came out to wish us well.
Liz Truss was the last Prime Minister ever to serve under the late Queen, Elizabeth II, and the first to serve under her successor, the current King, Charles III.
Ms. Truss also attempted to reverse Britain’s slide into the worst high-tax, high-regulation, anti-energy, anti-growth, and anti-free-market policies promoted by the establishment of the European Union from which Britain had just exited.
Her policy salient failed.
The media presented her as a cardboard cutout. I found her, by contrast, to be personable, articulate, and policy-savvy.
So what happened in Britain in 2022?
Prime Minister Truss was opposed, to be sure, by the then-opposition (now-governing) Labour Party, and by its allies in the bureaucratic establishment and the media. Remarkably, she was also opposed by many within the ranks of Members of Parliament within her own Conservative Party.
An American might say that she was defeated by “The Swamp”. In Britain the phenomenon is known as “The Blob”.
Documentary film-maker Michael Pack has investigated the battle between Liz Truss and “The Blob” in a splendid, short film that you can see in its entirety here, or watch it below.
The documentary was made in cooperation with The Wall Street Journal, with Paul Gigot serving as its Executive Producer and Joseph Sternberg, the London-based writer of the Journal’s “Political Economy” column, as an important on-camera resource.
The Wall Street Journal‘s podcast series recently discussed the film and its making, here (or watch it below).
Meanwhile, in The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Sternberg devotes his column to the subject of “Why We Still Need to Talk About Liz Truss.”
Best wishes for the holiday season and for peace, freedom, and prosperity in the new year.
Joseph A. Morris is a partner at the law firm of Morris & De La Rosa and is the chairman of The Heartland Institute Board of Directors.
