4bars
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- Do you believe that Truss has below average or above average intelligence
Hard to quantity intelligence but everything she's done in public life suggests she's either lacks it or simply can't apply it. Maybe she a good artist or something.
- if it is above why she failed as PM
Because she's a truly awful politician. Her only vision was to cos-play Thatcher and assumed thats all there was to it. She took a huge risk doing something every economist said was suicidal, but still did it any way and tanked the economy as a result.
-if it is below, how she ever got near any position of power let alone MP
Britain is not a meritocracy. Who you know is worth far more than skill or experience. She failed in every ministerial job she was given but still kept getting promoted. Failing upwards has been the Tories MO for years.
Plus the Tory leadership election (and thus the next PM) was decided by the 100k or so Tory party members. It was a choice between her and Sunak and she promised a Tory wet dream economic policy (the one that tanked the economy) and Sunak spent the campaign saying that her plan was a bad idea (because it would tank the economy).
Rewarding her failures probably just reinforced her arrogance and delusions of grandeur. To the point were she believes she can't possibly get it wrong and say failures are due to some grand conspiracy to stop her from succeeding.
Echoing @Bert_ comments.
- Do you believe that Truss has below average or above average intelligence
I'm not sure about intelligence generally but as for a politician and a minister she is clearly not up to the job and is lacking any self awareness. Her main aim now is to appeal to right wing rhetoric to make further money which shows she knows who she is pandering to.
- if it is above why she failed as PM
She was incompetent in many ministerial roles before hand. She decided to run for leadership, cheered on by delusional supporters and thought she was great because she was applauded at Tory membership hustings events when going for leader. She was met with friendly questions and hardly any scrutiny. This made her feel she would be great in the role. However upon being appointed, it soon became apparent what everyone else knew that she was incompetent and had no clue how to be PM. She was then removed by her own party not anyone else.
-if it is below, how she ever got near any position of power let alone MP
Selection of candidates for election of MPs and then ministerial positions are political decisions. Due to the voting system in the UK, most areas will vote Tory even if there was a pig with a blue rosette. You just have to look at some of the names in parliament at the moment: Anderson, Gullis, Francois, Atkins, Braverman, Swayne, Jankyns, Fabricant, Trott etc I could go on forever. Then these people are selected for minsterial posts if they align themselves with the PM. Truss was kept around but she was useless in all of her positions. There is no IQ test for MPs and alot of them have no idea of the real world. Just look at Sunak in most situations.
This Tory government is filled with career politicians, who have moved to leading quite sizeable departments with little expertise or subject matter knowledge. Jeremy Hunt, as an example, has been secretary of state for FCDO, DHSC, DCMS and now the Chancellor. Now, I'm not saying he isn't capable of leading these departments (well tbh, he isn't) but can you really put people in charge of departments who have no prior knowledge, experience, or insight in there? It's symptomatic of this government that we just reshuffle the deck and keep the same people in power, and it's why it's such a shit show.
Now the fact that we have these career politicians, who have no real idea of the departments they lead then we can quite easily say yes they aren't intelligent or competent. Their type of intelligence is playing the game and staying in power. Johnson, Dorries, Gove, Hunt...there's loads of them.
When speaking about Truss specifically - she is part of this same crew. Great at playing the game (as most Tories tend to be) without having much substance.
Thanks for you answers. So basically you answered the same with some small differences.Do you believe that Truss has below average or above average intelligence
- I think she’s passably intelligent. Average. Nothing more or or less.
if it is above why she failed as PM
I answered neither. But think what she is, is a good study and she’s probably quite effective. University was probably easy enough and she was cosseted from then into safe spaces where just ‘doing’ was enough. She looks like a busy little cnut. You can go far in the civil service and politics by being a busy cnut that can write well. She probably has those attributes. Curry favour with seniors who you’re being effective for, get promoted into different departments, and round out a puddle thin experience level of lots, while never quite staying long enough to have to be an ideas person, or get anyone to follow your ideas
That the Tory Party has baked in a meritocracy amongst a pool of people that included plotting dreamers under May… then excluded anyone with any gumption or short term desires under the thin skinned Boris. You kind of got left with this limp bunch of inexperienced and ineffectual idiots that have got far too close to actual power and mistake that as being an endorsement of their capabilities.
There are probably 5-10 Tory MP’s that would make a good cabinet minister, none of them are in it. That Michael Gove is (by almost all accounts), the most effective Minister in the Tory government is just flat out scary.
I get that a career politician can reach certain areas of power in their party. The right contacts, the right moment, but i cant get how she could rose to PM
You can see why bojo rose to power, he had a charisma and appeal to certain prople. Theresa may, you could disagree 100%, but you could see certain work ans stateswomanship behind. Sunak has 0 charisma, but you can see that has dome intelligence.
The little i have seen of Truss, i cant see anything. Not enough intelligence, work, stateswomanship or charisma for anyone in ger party to think it could work