Speaking at a fringe event at the 2024 Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham last week, Liz Truss took aim at the “institutions of wokery” as foundational contributors to the overall “decline of Western civilisation”. When pressed on the issue, Truss explained that there is a “complete intolerance for conservatism” and “people on the right” within these institutions; claiming that conservatives in academia are being “hounded out and not allowed to exist”. She ultimately declared that such institutions should be “defunded” if they do not uphold conservative values.
One such specific example of this which Truss used was the Hope Not Hate group being “appallingly funded by the Home Office”. It is worth noting that this is something of a half-truth and that the Home Office has absolutely no monetary link between themselves and any political advocacy by Hope Not Hate. They campaign against racism and fascism and as a result it is deeply telling that Truss would choose to attack the exposure of such a group as “woke” and “unconservative.” When pressed on what “woke” actually meant, Truss claimed that the Equality Act (2010) and the Gender Act (2004) were “major contributors to the country becoming more woke” in an appallingly one-eyed and almost inhumane statement.
By making the case that such acts had made things worse, Truss opens the door to a world of deeply troubling interpretations. Would Britain therefore be better if such acts were repealed? Would people be happier and better off if marginalised groups in society were once again denied basic freedom of expression?
Academia was not the only institution targeted by the sweeping sword of Truss’s attack. She also claimed that the left is using the “capture of the media” to promote their views. The rise of populist paradise X (formerly Twitter) under tech billionaire Elon Musk has now seen up to 53% of US Republicans claiming that X is “mostly good for democracy”—a figure which has tripled in the last two years, directly undermining Truss’s statement.
In the more established national media, BBC Director General Tim Davie has a history of right-wing conservative affiliations, standing as Deputy Chairmen of Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Association in the 1990s. It is therefore difficult to interpret Truss’s statement of media being “captured by the left” as anything more than rather misleading. Why therefore should we listen?
Truss’s statements are easily ridiculed and undermined, and one could make a strong argument not to give a figure like her a platform at all. However, this is directly the point for which Truss argues, yet also against; it is important to listen and take into account opposing political positions. The news is there to inform, rather than to affirm, and as a result, it is crucial to lend an ear to uncomfortable conversations.
Yet it seems that Truss’s medicine for the ills of Western culture is to surgically remove anything and everything which she cannot or more likely will not lend an ear to herself. Having lost her seat in the 2024 General Election, during a 14-year political career which saw her become the Prime Minister with the shortest tenure of just 49 days. Perhaps it is time for Truss to have a look out of the ever-deeper hole which she has resided in before the ground gives way completely.