The new Elizabethan era begins..

So Liz Truss won the leadership contest. My feeling is largely one of mild relief. Obviously I thought it was very unwise to ditch Boris, but given the new options I felt this was the next best thing. It's a bit like being 2-0 down in a football match then coming back to draw 2-2. Ideally you want the win, but when it looks like you're going to end up three or four down snatching a draw inspires a sense of gratitude.

I haven't really paid attention to the media today other than checking the result, but when I briefly skimmed social media I was left with an instinctive feeling that the anti-Liz/anti-Boris folk will now push hard for an election. I said at the start of the leadership campaign that an election could be far away, and that the main focus should be clawing back the draw, but I didn't really think about what would happen if Truss actually won. That was a luxury I couldn't afford myself.

Now though it occurs to me that it's still the same parliament and politicians that ousted Boris in spite of his majority. So it stands to reason that Truss will the get the same (if not less) loyalty.

(This is all assuming that she is indeed what she says she is of course: brexity that is.)

The anti camp will feel they'll be able to beat her at a general election. Though personally I'm not so sure. It's hard to imagine what will happen. Brexit really focused things last time round. Boris was able to give people a clear direction on the most pressing issue - but what's the direction now?

Leadership is massively about providing a direction. Just in basic terms. If you're lost in the woods at some point you follow the guy who says, "Right, we're going this way". You can't really follow someone who's saying "What do you think?" all the time.

In 2019 Boris provided clear leadership, whereas the other parties were just saying:

"What do you [the public] think?"

Even though deep down they had their chosen direction (in their case remaining in the EU) they couldn't speak it aloud. So they never offered actual leadership.

I don't really know what Truss will be like, but it's probably the case that she won't dither as much as Starmer.

(I've mocked her up as Elizabeth I, but given her first

name is actually Mary perhaps she'll be more Bloody Mary

- who knows?)