WHAT'S IN A NAME ANYWAY? Liz Truss, New Prime Minister of The United Kingdom

The name of the AP Photographer is of interest also - Kirsty Wigglesworth

As David Allen Green notes, "This would be a challenging time for any prime minister. Given how low her support is with her party’s MPs and the limited time left before the next election, Truss is in an especially difficult position. A lot of noise can be made, of course, but little progress. . ."

✓ From Encyclopedia Brittanica: truss, in engineering, a structural member usually fabricated from straight pieces of metal or timber to form a series of triangles lying in a single plane. (A triangle cannot be distorted by stress.) A truss gives a stable form capable of supporting considerable external load over a large span with the component parts stressed primarily in axial tension or compression. The individual pieces intersect at truss joints, or panel points

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Truss gets to the top of the greasy pole

 

Liz Truss arrives at Conservative Central Office in Westminster after winning the Conservative Party leadership contest in London. She will now become UK's next prime minister [Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo]

David Allen Green

5 - 7 minutes

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The United Kingdom is about to have a new prime minister. She will be Elizabeth “Liz” Truss, the current foreign secretary, and she is taking over from Boris Johnson.

In some ways, this is not constitutionally or historically unusual. Several previous foreign secretaries have taken over as prime minister, such as Anthony Eden (1955), Alec Douglas-Home (1963), James Callaghan (1976) and John Major (1990). Johnson himself was foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018. Indeed, the post of foreign secretary is often regarded as the most prestigious and senior role in the British government after the prime ministership.

It is also not unusual for the prime minister to change without a general election. Since 1974, every single British prime minister has either come into office or left office between general elections, with the last two — Theresa May and Johnson — doing both.

What is, however, unusual is the manner of this change at the top. More importantly, many of the challenges that Johnson struggled against politically in recent months could also haunt Truss.

. . . With the United Kingdom heading towards another general election, she has limited time, until December 2024, to make any political impression. In the meantime, any controversial legislation — especially if not covered by the Conservative’s 2019 manifesto — may get stuck in the upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords. Strident words may not have time to become striking achievements. . .

To be sure, one should never underestimate any politician who climbs to the top of what Victorian statesman Benjamin Disraeli called “the greasy pole”. Truss has managed to become prime minister, while hundreds of her contemporary politicians have not.

The signs are not good for a successful Truss premiership, or for her party at the next general election. Truss is the UK’s fourth prime minister since the Brexit referendum, just over six years, and we may soon be on our fifth after the next election.

Yet, more unusual things have happened in British politics in recent years than a successful Truss premiership, and so all one can say confidently is that the next two or so years will be as politically interesting as the last six or seven."

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.