Liz Truss: New government must demonstrate that politics can deliver

Some time ago in an editorial meeting at City PM’s offices, just after the discussion of another major UK infrastructure project dumped on the back-burner, one of our more cynical staff members suggested that it might not be all bad for Britain to enjoy a benign dictatorship for a few years, driving through necessary but unpopular reforms and projects to get Britain back firing.

It was, we believe, a joke, and it remains our editorial position that democracy is certainly preferable.

However, it seems others take the idea more seriously. A new poll of some 8,000 adults conducted by JL Partners for the centre-right think-tank Onward suggests that some 46 per cent of the country would favour running the UK with “a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with parliament or elections.”

It is possible to guess that the 61 per cent of 18 – 34 year olds who agreed with the statement may have been swayed by that age group’s hardly warm support for Boris Johnson, but it is nonetheless a startling statistic and one that should give Westminster pause, even if it’s easier to plump for strongman-rule on a survey than it is to support it in practice.

There is no doubt an element of Brenda from Bristol’s “not another one” to the survey result, but it’s possible to speculate that the malaise lies deeper than that.

Liz Truss’ first speech as Prime Minister

Simply put, politics for some time has not worked for people. Britain has not been growing. Though the employment rate remains high, average wages are not hugely above where they were two decades ago. High streets and the trains – two touchstone measures of a nation’s health – are in a seemingly constant state of crisis.

Nobody is expecting a coup, but for Liz Truss to restore faith in politics, never mind her party, she has to demonstrate that Westminster can actually deliver concrete progress in the lives of ordinary people. In short: ditch the culture wars and quit the fighting – grow the economy, build the new houses, and push Britain forward instead.