Liz Truss’s accession to power was welcomed by elements of the Tory press, with Kwasi Kwarteng’s budget seen as a valued step-change towards full market fundamentalism. The optimism was short-lived, though, and within days the budget was ditched, as was the leadership soon afterwards, the stock markets having delivered their verdict.
It then became received wisdom within the Conservative Party that the Truss government had been an aberration of little long-term relevance and was best glossed over. But there was another view – that the Truss/Kwarteng error had simply been trying to do what was right but doing it much too fast.
It is well worth remembering that during the closing stages of the Truss vs Rishi Sunak leadership contest earlier in September, both candidates had fully embraced a neoliberal approach and each was every bit as determined as the other to emulate Thatcherism at its high point, 40 years earlier.
