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Thursday, October 20, 2022

British system of governance in turmoil - Liz Truss resigns !!

Indians are not fit to rule – they are only fit to be ruled – thundered British a few decades ago !  .. .. now it is not London Bridge that is falling down, but the British Parliament and together the UK system of governance !!



Their conquest was not driven by a strategy to spread their power, either in their own interests or that of the people they ruled. They first engaged with India as members of the monopolistic East India Company. From the start they were anxious about challenges to their position from other European merchants and Indian rulers. Trade always involved violence, with the company recruiting armies and building forts from the late 1600s. what it was – British Empire was founded in India as UK colonised major parts of the globe and looted Nations, carrying away the riches and mismanaging the affairs in every country.

There were rulers like Winston Churchill who disparaged India and other colonial countries stating that they were not capable of self-rule .. and his own Nation is now in turmoil, struggling for revival after Corona and struggling on political front too.   

In a land which proclaimed as ideal democracy, the  representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), and  Liz Truss (2022). 

The ceremonial head is the Monarch .. .. the Prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, they sit as members of Parliament. The office of prime minister is not established by any statute or constitutional document, but exists only by long-established convention, whereby the reigning monarch appoints as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons;  this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The PM has certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to prime ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury.

The post is not whether the system is a success but the buzz news of PM Liz Truss resigning.  The   Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Liz Truss has  announced that she is resigning,  following pressure from Conservative MPs citing the loss in public confidence in the government's policies following the September 2022 mini-budget. Truss resigned today, 44 days after taking office, making her the projected shortest tenured prime minister in the United Kingdom's history.

According to the Daily Telegraph, by 17 October there were at least five Conservative MPs calling for Truss's resignation: Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen, Angela Richardson, Charles Walker and Jamie Wallis.  In an interview with the BBC's Chris Mason that evening Truss said she was "sorry for the mistakes that have been made" but remained "committed to the vision".  



Mary Elizabeth Truss (26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom since 6 September 2022. She announced her resignation as prime minister on 20 October 2022, after 44 days in office, but will continue to serve until a successor is chosen on 28 October 2022.  She also announced her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on the same day. She had previously held various Cabinet offices under prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, most recently as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. Truss has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010.

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG PC (1676 – 1745) was a British statesman and Whig politician who is  regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Although the exact dates of Walpole's dominance, dubbed the "Robinocracy",  are a matter of scholarly debate, the period 1721–1742 is often used – a period of 21 years !  H. T. Dickinson sums up his historical role by saying that "Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession, and defending the principles of the Glorious Revolution (1688).  

Decades later came - George Canning FRS (1770 - 1827) a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the last 119 days of his life, from April to August 1827. The son of an actress and a failed businessman and lawyer, Canning was supported financially by his uncle, Stratford Canning, which allowed him to attend Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Canning entered politics in 1793 and rose rapidly. His tenure was cut short not by defeat on the floor of the House but after he was assassinated in 1812. When Lord Liverpool resigned in April 1827, Canning was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister, ahead of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. Both of them declined to serve under Canning, and the Tories split between Peel and Wellington's Ultra-Tories and the Canningites.  He died in office in August 1827, after 119 days in office, the second shortest tenure ever of any British Prime Minister to have completed their period in office, as of October 2022.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
20th Oct 2022.

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