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WORLD NEWS Monday 6 February 2023

It wasn’t me: Ex-UK PM Truss blames ‘system’ for her failure

By JILL LAWLESS Cambridge University
Associated Press economist Charles Read
LONDON (AP) — Former said he warned the Trea-
British Prime Minister Liz sury in early September
Truss says her failure wasn’t that a sudden economic
her fault. Truss on Sunday stimulus package “risked
blamed a “powerful eco- financial instability and a
nomic establishment” and financial crisis.
internal Conservative Party “The mini-budget crisis last
opposition for the rapid autumn was predictable,
collapse of her govern- preventable & avoidable,”
ment, and said she still be- he wrote on Twitter.
lieves her tax-cutting poli- Truss’ article could put more
cies were the right ones. pressure on Prime Minister
Britain’s shortest-serving Rishi Sunak, a former Trea-
prime minister resigned in Outgoing British Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks outside Downing sury chief installed by the
October, six weeks into Street in London, on Oct. 25, 2022. Conservatives to calm the
the job, after her inaugural Associated Press markets and steady the
budget plan sparked mar- ($54 billion) in unfunded her low-tax, small-state government after her de-
ket mayhem. tax cuts — including an in- agenda “was the right parture.
Breaking her post-premier- come tax reduction for the thing to do, but the forces Sunak says tackling double-
ship silence in the Sunday highest earners — spooked against it were too great.” digit inflation is more impor-
Telegraph newspaper, Truss the financial markets. She claimed “large parts of tant than immediate tax
said she underestimated The prospect of more debt the media and the wider cuts. But with the economy
the resistance her free- and higher inflation sent the public sphere” had a left- still struggling — the Interna-
market policies would face pound plunging to its low- wing slant, and criticized tional Monetary Fund says
from “the system.” est-ever level against the U.S. President Joe Biden for Britain will be the only major
“I am not claiming to be U.S. dollar. The cost of gov- calling her plan a mistake. economy to contract this
blameless in what hap- ernment borrowing soared Critics accused the former year — and the party lag-
pened, but fundamentally and the Bank of England prime minister of rewriting ging well behind Labour in
I was not given a realistic had to step in to prop up history and using the popu- opinion polls, some Conser-
chance to enact my poli- the bond market and pre- list playbook by blaming vative lawmakers are get-
cies by a very powerful vent a wider economic the system for her own fail- ting restless.
economic establishment, meltdown that threatened ures. Gavin Barwell, a Con- A faction inside the party is
coupled with a lack of po- people’s pensions. servative who was chief of still pushing immediate tax
litical support,” she wrote. Truss first fired her Treasury staff to ex-Prime Minister cuts, despite the damage
Truss took office in Septem- chief, Kwasi Kwarteng, then Theresa May, tweeted at done by “Trussonomics.”
ber after winning a Con- quit herself. Truss: “You were brought Lawmaker Jake Berry, a for-
servative Party leadership In the article, she claimed down because in a matter mer party chair, said that
contest to replace scan- her government was made of weeks you lost the confi- while Truss’ agenda “wasn’t
dal-tarnished Prime Minister a “scapegoat” for long- dence of the financial mar- delivered in the right way,”
Boris Johnson. Her promise brewing instability with li- kets, the electorate and she had the right instincts.
to spur economic growth ability driven investments, your own MPs. During a “Her point of, we need to
with tax cuts and deregu- a form of bond market de- profound cost of living cri- lower taxes, we need to
lation enthused Tory mem- rivatives in which pension sis, you thought it was a pri- create a growing econ-
bers, but a budget con- funds are heavily invested, ority to cut tax for the rich- omy, that’s what people
taining 45 billion pounds Truss said she still believed est people in the country.” want,” Berry told the BBC.q

Chile wildfires spread amid heat wave as death toll rises

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — At least 22 people have
Chile extended an emer- died in connection to the
gency declaration to yet fires and 554 have been
another region on Satur- injured, including 16 in se-
day as firefighters struggled rious condition, according
to control dozens of raging to Interior Minister Carolina
wildfires that have claimed Tohá. The death toll is likely
at least 22 lives amid a to rise as Tohá said there
scorching heat wave that are unconfirmed reports of
has broken records. at least 10 people missing.
The government declared Sixteen of the deaths took
a state of catastrophe in place in Biobío, five in La
the La Araucanía region, Araucanía and one in Ñu-
which is south of Ñuble ble.
and Biobío, two central- The deaths included a Bo- Charred trees stand in an area destroyed by wildfires in Santa
southern regions where the livian pilot who died when Juana, Chile, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.
emergency declaration a helicopter that was help- Associated Press
had already been issued. ing combat the flames
The measure allows for crashed in La Araucanía. Over the past week, fires usually burned in an entire
greater cooperation with A Chilean mechanic also have burned through an year, Tohá said in a news
the military. died in the crash. area equivalent to what is conference.q