What Would the Iron Lady Say to Liz Truss?

            The “Iron Lady,” otherwise known as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, knew something that could have helped a future Prime Minister Liz Truss. Thatcher was a great friend of President Ronald Reagan. They worked together for the benefit of both nations. An article written by Anthony B. Kim and published by The Daily Signal reminded me of the Iron Lady and her impact on Great Britain. 

            According to Kim, Thatcher said on October 10, 1980: “To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the ‘U-turn,’ I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to: The Lady’s not for turning.” She spoke those words was address a Conservative Party conference. “It was a defining speech that underlined Thatcher’s firm rebuttal to calls to perform a ‘U-turn’ in response to opposition to her agenda of liberalizing and revitalizing the British economy.” Kim continued:

Unfortunately, in marked contrast, Britain’s Liz Truss – who announced her resignation as prime minister last week, -- said that she had “absolutely no shame” in performing a dramatic policy U-turn on her economic reform agenda, particularly concerning cutting the top individual income-tax rate of 45%. Truss further noted that she “took the decision very rapidly” to axe the policy, which was “becoming a distraction” from the rest of the government’s economic plan….

Pointing out policy missteps made in recent years, Truss had been initially quite upfront about her preferred path forward to restoring Britain’s economic dynamism by offering a clear free-market principles-based alternative to the certainty of steeper economic decline, and to spur much-needed investment and productivity growth in the private sector.

Regrettably, Truss backtracked on her initial economic reform plan in direct and indirect concessions to the Left in the U.K. and failed to stand her ground. That ultimately weakened her position and made her the shortest-serving prime minister in the country’s history, having assumed the office just 45 days earlier.

            Kim quoted Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation: “Liz Truss’s resignation and disastrously short tenure is a leadership lesson for conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic. Never surrender to the Left, don’t U-turn on key policies, and stick to conservative principles and ideals.

            Indeed, this is a lesson for all conservatives. Do not surrender your principles to the Left because the Left will never be satisfied. They will continue to call for more U-turns until they destroy the power of conservatives. Stick to conservative principles because they win every single time. The Iron Lady knew the importance of sticking to conservative principles, and her country was the better for it.