Is Liz Truss a Warmonger or is Her Saber-Rattling & Bold Cut-Tax Approach Way to Win Tory Race?

At the final hustings in London on Wednesday night, Liz Truss, one of the two contenders for British prime ministership, boldly promised no energy rationing and pledged not to raise taxes. Even though her rival, Rishi Sunak, received the loudest cheers on August 31, bookmakers believe Truss will come out on top.

"A commitment made on a warm August evening about not rationing energy might have to be abandoned if cold Siberian winds hit the UK in February," says Iain Begg, professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science. "However, the UK does have a quite diverse energy supply mix and is much less vulnerable than countries like Germany or Italy. There is likely also to be some reaction from consumers to much higher energy prices by lowering energy use, leading to stocks of gas being kept up, although the UK has more limited gas storage capacity than some others."

As for the politician's vow not to raise taxes and cut existing ones, it "necessarily means that if public spending is not to be cut and she goes ahead with promised tax cuts, public borrowing will increase," according to the professor. "This is not an immediate problem for the UK, because it has a sufficiently strong credit rating, but would have longer term costs," he remarks.

In contrast, Truss' rival, Rishi Sunak, did not rule out the prospect of energy rationing as bills soared.

“The challenges we face with this crisis are significant. Many European countries are looking at how we can all optimize our energy usage. That is a sensible thing for us to be doing as a country,” he said.

Sunak also underscored that it was he who introduced a windfall tax while being chancellor, adding: "I'm glad that I did." According to him, "it is absolutely the right thing to do when energy companies are making billions of pounds of profits." Sky News pointed out that the former chancellor's cautious stance "secured the loudest cheers at the hustings venue on Wednesday night."

Truss' Conflicting Domestic and Foreign Policies

Truss' election promises to cut taxes and avoid energy rationing come in contrast with her actual foreign policy and warmongering, which threaten to further exacerbate Britain's problems, according to Nick Griffin, political analyst and former MEP.

Liz Truss has been calling for ever more economic and military aid to be sent to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The British foreign secretary even went so far as to urge Britons to fight against Russians, something that No 10 distanced itself from later. During the debates, Truss also made it clear that she is ready to push the "nuclear button" if necessary.

"In either case, while her anti-Russian rhetoric threatens the people of Britain with yet higher taxes and an even deeper energy crisis, it won't have any effect on Russia or the rest of the world," Griffin says. "Creating foreign policy crises and playing with the fires of war, in order to distract the public from problems at home, is a tactic which is much older even than Britain's Conservative Party. But the energy crisis created by the UK elite's suicidal lurch from fossil fuels to innately unreliable wind and solar power is going to continue to deepen."

The former British MEP expects various subsidiary crises to strike in the months ahead, including "the looming shortage of the Diesel Exhaust Fluid on which the UK and EU delivery chains rely." That may prompt Truss to play the Russian card again, if she becomes prime minister, according to the analyst.

"It is difficult to tell whether Truss is actually a clinically insane warmonger, or if her saber-rattling, Cut-Price Maggie Thatcher approach is simply an act, designed to appeal to the 160,000 Conservative members who choose the UK's next prime minister," he says.

Pollsters Say Truss Likely to Come Out on Top

The outcome of the Conservative leadership contest will be announced on September 5. On September 2, the ballot will close. As of August 31, Politico's poll of polls indicates that Truss has 59% of the vote, with 32% for Sunak, and 10% undecided. According to i News, the bookmakers say Truss' odds of winning are 1/20, while some have it as short as 1/100. Sunak, meanwhile, is at around 12/1.

If Truss wins the British leadership contest, she is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's footsteps, according to Griffin, especially when it comes to Russo-British relations and the ongoing Ukraine crisis.

"Realistically, the only thing that is going to change the situation is if the pain of sanctions and confrontation causes Germany and France to give up on Kiev and to find the courage to resist the pressure from the Biden regime to continue confronting Russia," the analyst says. "If Germany - and hence the EU - decides to stop committing energy and economic suicide, then the UK government will hail the fact that Russian soldiers with snow on their boots are not marching through Kiev and Warsaw as a 'victory,' and hope that voters are so happy to see their energy bills falling that they ignore the well-deserved humiliation of the West's collective liberal elite."

Whoever takes the reins of the British government after September 5 will have a lot on his/her plate, according to the analyst. Still, one might expect that the new British prime minister will keep focus on prolonging the Ukraine conflict via military supplies in line with Washington's agenda.

Under these circumstances, Liz Truss will be "just another temporary figurehead who will do whatever has to be done to retain their favor for as long as possible, for that is the nature of our plutocratic system," Griffin concludes.