Is Liz Truss really like Margaret Thatcher? We spoke to a West Midlands-based philosopher to find out
Liz Truss gained media attention in the run-up to and during her leadership campaign by mimicking the Iron Lady.
There were photoshoots where she appeared to be dressed the same, and she seemed to be generally modelling herself on Margaret Thatcher.
Before u-turning over her economic policy, Ms Truss also showed a certain kind of steadfast attitude - the kind many people associate with the 'lady who wasn't for turning'.
But what does she actually share, both in terms of personal qualities and philosophical beliefs, with Britain's first female Prime Minister?
According to a West Midlands-based philosopher, the answer is not really very much.
While they share a similar ideology - different variants of neoliberalism - that's where the similarities end.
"Any resemblance of Thatcher is extraordinarily superficial," Jake Scott, a Conservative thinker at the University of Birmingham said.
"When you go to Tory conference, the ghost of Thatcher is everywhere.
"This isn't a problem just with Liz Truss, it's a problem for the whole party," he continued.
But, according to Jake, the obsession with Margaret Thatcher doesn't really consider the real woman as she was.
Jake claims the Iron Lady was far more pragmatic than a lot of Conservatives give her credit for, meaning she regularly changed strategy with the view to realising her dream neoliberal state. She very much was 'for turning' if it helped her achieve her goals, even introducing windfall taxes on bankers and the oil industry in the early 80s.
The Thatcher that Truss models herself on, or appears to model herself on is, therefore, "a caricature."
"It's an obsession with a caricature of Thatcher, of this idea of the two prongs of Margaret Thatcher," he explained.
"One is the 'low tax, small state Margaret Thatcher,' and the second is, of course, the famous the 'lady's-not-for-turning Margaret Thatcher' who was very decisive and drove in a consistent direction.
"Both of those are caricatures."
So, the view here is that Margaret Thatcher was a lot more nuanced than the steadfast, not-for-turning picture we often paint. To emulate that version of her would be to emulate a fallacy.
The so-called Iron Lady did, however, at least according to Jake, take some of her ideas from Conservative think tanks.
There have been claims Liz Truss be might doing the same.
