The Meaning of Liz Truss

A panel discussion

2nd November, 6-7.30pm

RHB 137

Liz Truss’s record as Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister will go down in infamy for the “mini-budget” which generated immediate economic chaos, drew outrage from technocrats and international elites, and led the Treasury onto a dramatic collision course with the Bank of England. Truss’s dogmatically ideological agenda, apparently cooked up by libertarian think tanks, represented a genuine challenge to economic orthodoxy, and has since been quashed by the sort of technocratic coup that is familiar from the recent history of Italy and Greece. The Sunak government has now promised to address Britain’s manifold crises – in energy, health and poverty – only in accordance with orthodox conservative fiscal principles.

How are we to interpret this new conjuncture? How does it relate to longer term political, economic and ecological crises of capitalism, the United Kingdom and the state? What does it tell us about the longer-term trajectory of conservatism and neoliberalism, both in the UK and elsewhere? And how to think clearly, purposefully and politically, amidst a media-sphere and Westminster cycle characterised by relentless breaking news, outrage and scandal?

Discussing these questions will be Richard Seymour, writer and activist; Carys Roberts, Executive Director of the ippr; Will Davies, Director of the Goldsmiths Political Economy Research Centre. The discussion will be chaired by Elizabeth Evans, Professor of Politics at Goldsmiths and Editor-in-Chief of Politics.

This event is jointly hosted by PERC and Politics. All are welcome to attend and no registration is required. To find Goldsmiths, click here. RHB 137 is on the ground floor of the Richard Hoggart Building.