Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Why Liz Truss may surprise us

By
Contributing columnist
September 5, 2022 at 2:07 p.m. EDT
Liz Truss arrives at the Conservative Party headquarters in London after being announced as Britain's next prime minister on Sept. 5. (Phil Noble/Reuters)
4 min

In electing Volodymyr Zelensky as their president, Ukrainians chose a TV comedian and got a charismatic Winston Churchill. In electing Boris Johnson, Britons did the opposite: They chose a Churchill wannabe and got a comedian with a propensity for scandal.

Now that Britain’s ruling Conservative Party is replacing Johnson with Liz Truss, a prime minister who models herself on Margaret Thatcher, it’s anybody’s guess how she’ll turn out. But if we are being charitable, she might combine a bit of Thatcher with some part of that steely German pragmatist, Angela Merkel.