In Great Britain, the only question asked is when the Conservative Party will see off its Prime Minister, no longer whether. The scolded Liz Truss faces the questions, the anger and the ridicule of MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon. It's dramatic.
She, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, has nerves - Liz Truss proves this at lunchtime when she answers questions from MPs in the House of Commons. Angry MPs, particularly from the Labor Party, await her when she enters the cramped chamber around 12pm London time. They smack her in the face with the catastrophic record of the past few days. But she keeps her composure, holds out to some extent and does not collapse. The "Guardian" writes that thanks to her appearance, her position is secured - for the next few hours.
In particular, opposition leader Keir Starmer puts her through the wringer: "Last week the Prime Minister stood here and promised that spending would not be reduced under any circumstances and her MPs all cheered. This week the Finance Minister announced a new wave of cuts. What can you do with a prime minister whose promises don't last even a week?"
He demands her resignation: "The economic credibility - gone. And her once best friend, the finance minister, gone. They're all gone. So why is she still here?" Then he etches: "Working people have to pay £500 more on their mortgages. And what's her answer? She's sorry. Is that all?" And so it goes on, again and again the members of the opposition hoot, laugh and shake their heads. According to Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party, "this Prime Minister is in office but not in power."
And Truss? Resist. Says, "I'm a fighter, not a giver." Tried to accuse Labor of possibly backing a rail strike and abusive unions. In between, her own deputies ask her shallow questions, such as whether she wants to congratulate soldiers on a successfully completed exercise, or whether one should not ensure good infrastructure when new houses are built. But then the thunderstorm of the opposition continues.
Her appearance wasn't disastrous, she endured a lot - but an audience of millions will now see on the television news how her six-week prime minister is grilled. And some people are likely to hoot and laugh like the MPs.
A new poll came out on Wednesday, stating that she is Britain's most unpopular Prime Minister in polls. 80 percent of Britons have a bad opinion of her. Ultimately, Truss has herself to blame for this, even if her party knew what she was planning and had chosen her as her boss in a long process.
Truss couldn't shy away from her appearance in the House of Commons - she had already done so last week and sat silently on the government bench while her ministers struggled to defend her. Now she could be glad that her own people did not join in the tirades of the opposition. She may have reassured some behind the scenes by promising a hard Brexit line. She said in the House of Commons that she supports the Northern Ireland Protocol bill. This will undermine the status of Northern Ireland agreed upon in Brexit.
Truss is the loneliest woman in political Britain. She is an on-demand prime minister who only appears to be in office because her party has yet to agree on a successor. The situation is so chaotic that some are now even bringing Boris Johnson back into play as his successor. The UK is struggling for composure.
The country was only just facing financial collapse because Truss, like her idol Margaret Thatcher, planned to radically cut taxes to unleash growth. But the markets reacted in panic because there was no counter-financing. And so Truss scurried back on Go, unceremoniously jettisoning her own beliefs and ousting the Treasury Secretary. Their successor announced on Monday that most of their plans would be withdrawn. Truss apologized in a television interview, saying she understood. Even then she showed nerves: she announced, despite her dramatic misjudgment, that she wanted to stay in office.
But the damage was there. The financial hole must now be filled again. Is the next round of cuts coming at schools, hospitals and the police? The anger of the opposition and many people in the country is great, the conservative party has fallen to a new low. The polls are in free fall, with Labor soaring. Truss was supposed to bring the Tories back to their former glory after ousting Boris Johnson from court after his constant lies eventually caught up with him. The Conservative Party looks like a riot of chickens, and Truss is right in the thick of it. This performance was not a liberation. At most a breather.
