12% Public Support

According to a late August YouGov poll:

“Only 12% of Britons expect that (Liz) Truss will be a great or good prime minister.”

A majority (52%) expect her to be “poor or terrible.”

Another 20% expect her to be “average,” 16% expressing no opinion.

Before selected by Tory party members — not elected to Britain’s top job by the public — her near-rock-bottom approval perhaps has nowhere to go but up.

Or maybe she’ll lose public support altogether for extremist views and policies too much for even Tory supporters to bear.

The same poll showed ousted PM BoJo’s approval at 22%.

And when asked if Truss will perform better or worse than her ousted predecessor, respondents were equally divided.

One-fourth (24%) expect her to be worse, the same percentage believing she’ll be better.

Among Tory supporters alone, 43% think she’ll be worse, compared to 20% believing she’ll be better.

Compared to what YouGov called recent prime ministers since Margaret Thatcher (in office from May 1979 – November 1990), 45% of respondents expect Truss to be the worst of the lot, that view shared by 60% of Tory supporters.

On 11 issues YouGov asked about, distrust of how Truss would handle them ranged from 53 – 65%, compared to from 16 – 24% believing that she’ll deal with them well.

On all things Russia and Ukraine, only 6% trust her a lot, 18% a little.

On defense, only 5% a lot, 19% a little.

On the mess created by Brexit, 6% alone expressed a lot of trust, 14% a little.

On education, no respondents (zero) expressed a lot of trust, 17% a little.

On the dismal state of Britain’s economy, zero respondents trust Truss a lot, 15% a little.

On the similarly dismal state of Britain’s national health service, no respondents expressed trust, 16% a little.

On immigration, the numbers are 4 and 14% respectively.

On her ability to curb soaring double-digit inflation, it’s 4 and 14%.

On environmental issues, it’s zero and 15%, and on housing, it’s zero and 14%.

YouGov noted that before taking office, Truss “ha(d) a reputation for being out of touch,” adding:

On most all issues, negative public opinion about her outweighs positive views “by wide margins.”

She “performs worst on connecting with everyday Britons, with 65% considering her to be out of touch with ordinary people.”

Only 16% respondents called her  caring, 18% likable, 19% honest, 21% competent and 23% strong.

Between her and BoJo, it’s a Hobson’s choice between death by hanging or firing squad for the vast majority of Brits — under a system beholden to the nation’s privileged class at the expense of most others.

According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, Truss at No. 10 signals a “crisis of (fantasy) democracy in Britain,” adding:

Virtually no one in UK high places is competent and caring enough to “adequately, professionally, and intelligently represent the various branches of government.” 

Zakharova later mocked Truss’ “mind-blowing stupidity” about affairs of state.

And the selection of a UK prime minister is unrelated to democracy as it should be, the real thing absent throughout the West.

When Sergey Lavrov met with then-foreign minister Truss last winter in Moscow, he said communicating with her was like talking “to a deaf person.”

After becoming prime minister, he said the following:

“She has her own principles, primarily, adherence to a hard line in defending Britain’s interests without any wish to take into account the position of others or make compromises.” 

“London has for a long time been actively trying to compensate for (its) loss of identity and influence in the EU by taking drastic steps, including aggressive actions,” including its support for Ukrainian Nazis.

According to Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman, Dmitry Medvedev:

“Out goes the freak guy.”

“In comes the freak lady.” 

She’s “an incompetent and mediocre thermonuclear Russophobe who has no elementary ideas about politics, history, geography, but wants to defeat Russia in everything.”

She tried imitating former UK PM Thatcher, “without having even 5% of her abilities.” 

She falsely blames Russia for Britain’s failed policies.

And “(s)he quarrel(s) with everyone, fail(s) in everything, and (will) leave in disgrace (ahead) like her predecessor.”

According to Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov:

It’s clear “that no improvement for the better may be expected” with Truss at No. 10.

Following her first questions to the PM (PMQs) by MPs in parliament on Wednesday, Britain’s New Statesman said the following:

A “key dividing line” between Truss and Labor “was drawn.”

“Who is going to pay for (her regime’s) enormous energy aid package?”

Labor leader, Kier Starmer, asked:

“Is (she) telling us that she’s going to leave these vast excess profits on the table and make working people foot the bill for decades to come?”

According to the Mirror:

“(T)he most surprising thing about the new PM facing up to the baying mob for the first time was how entirely unenthused she seemed about the whole affair,” adding:

What “seemed to get her heart rate up during the 40 minute session was the prospect of bankrupting the country.”

Labor is “closer to public opinion on the energy crisis.”

The London Guardian’s assessment of her PMQs was “no triumph, but she avoided catastrophe.”

And this from the Socialist Workers Party publication, the Socialist Worker:

“Truss is only a short term solution for the Tories. She can’t bail out” longstanding failed policies of its ruling regimes.

During question time, she announced a two-year freeze on electricity bills — capping them at  £2,500 a year ($2,875 at the current exchange rate) from October 1.

Instead of financing it by a windfall tax on energy company profits, she’ll likely do it by taking on greater debt and cutting social programs.

Labor leader, Starmer, cut to the chase asking:

She “claims to be breaking orthodoxy, but the reality is she’s reheating George Osborne’s failed corporation tax plans – protecting oil and gas profits and forcing working people to pay the bill.”

“She’s the fourth Tory prime minister in six years.”

“The face at the top may change but the story remains the same.”

“There’s nothing new about the Tory fantasy of trickle-down economics, nothing new about this Tory prime minister who nodded through every decision that got us into this mess and now says how terrible it is.”

“And can’t she see there’s nothing new about a Tory prime minister who, when asked who pays, says ‘it’s you, the working people of Britain.’ ”

According to a London Guardian editorial, Truss “is pursuing reckless policies in the (BoJo) style,” adding:

Earlier this week, she called for “slash(ing) civil service wages outside London” — then backtracked in response to “red wall” Tories.

Saying she represents “change,” she’s been more “confrontational” than the other way around.

At a time of economic decline and soaring inflation, her way of addressing them has largely been the discredited notion that government is the problem, not the solution, and that markets left on their own work best, so let them.

Her pledge to cut imports from China, Britain’s 3rd largest trading partner, while risking a trade war with EU bloc nations, its most important market, will make a bad situation worse if implemented.

So will her right wing extremism for the great majority of Brits.