UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, reportedly go way back. So, it speaks volumes that she has cast him as the black sheep of her cabinet and made him its sacrificial lamb.
Truss throws Kwarteng overboard
Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as Chancellor amid intense speculation Prime Minister Liz Truss is about to junk key parts of their economic plan. Mr Kwarteng met Ms Truss for crunch talks in Downing Street after cutting short a US trip.
In a letter to the PM, Mr Kwarteng said her vision for economic growth was ‘right’ and he still supported it.
(BBC, October 14, 2022)
Naturally, ‘junk’ is the keyword here. But it also speaks volumes about Kwarteng’s slavish devotion that he’s still praising Truss’s vision for economic growth (aka “reverse Robin Hood”). Even she had the sense to realize her vision was far from “right.”
I told you so
I denounced Kwarteng as an Uncle Tom in “British MP Huq Criticizing Chancellor Kwarteng Is Like the Pot Calling the Kettle Not Black Enough,” September 28, 2022. His reaction to his sacking vindicates my doing so. It shows once more that he’s so eager to please Whites that he’s actually praising Truss after she scapegoated him.
Incidentally, in that September 28 commentary, I explained why the political machinations afoot would lead to Truss throwing Kwarteng overboard.
But let’s not gloss over the bitter irony: this first Black will go down in British history as the most feckless, shambolic, and embarrassing chancellor ever. He lasted only 38 days on the job.
Kwarteng’s one saving grace? Ian Macleod lasted just one month as Chancellor. But epic incompetence did not cost him his job. A sudden heart attack in 1970 did.