Why Liz Truss Deserves a Second Hearing

Reflections on Liz Truss's autobiographical ‘Ten Years to Save the West'

We never listened

There is an old Jewish proverb that says, ‘The one who answers before listening, that is his folly.’  It is a proverb that came to mind repeatedly as I read 10 Years to Save the West by Liz Truss.

Few politicians in modern British history have been judged so quickly or so comprehensively.  Forty-nine days in office became the defining headline, eclipsing decades of public service and reducing an entire political philosophy to a single narrative of failure. Whether one supported her economic programme or not, the speed with which the verdict was delivered should concern anyone who values democratic government.

Reading this book left me with one overwhelming thought: perhaps Britain never really listened.

Transfer of influence

I have long believed that one of the greatest challenges facing Western democracies is not simply poor leadership but the gradual transfer of influence away from those whom people elect and towards those whom they do not. Civil servants, regulators, central banks, judicial activism, international institutions, global financial markets and a largely homogeneous media culture all exercise enormous influence over the direction of our nations.

That is not to suggest some shadowy conspiracy directing events from smoke-filled rooms (although that may well be the case). Reality is usually more subtle than that. Institutions develop shared assumptions, shared incentives and shared orthodoxies. When an elected government challenges those assumptions too aggressively, the reaction can be swift and overwhelming.

From my perspective, Liz Truss's removal felt less like an ordinary political defeat and more like a demonstration of how difficult genuine reform has become. Those who describe it as a deep state response are using language that points to this wider concern: that entrenched networks of institutional power can collectively frustrate an elected programme without any single coordinating hand. Whether readers embrace that description or prefer different terminology, the underlying question deserves serious consideration. Who really governs Britain? This is the question that sits beneath almost every chapter of this remarkable book.

Who really governs Britain? This is the question that sits beneath almost every chapter of this remarkable book.

As Christians, we should never be surprised when power concentrates. Scripture repeatedly warns that fallen humanity builds towers, empires and systems that ultimately seek to preserve themselves. From Babel onwards, centralisation has always been one of history's recurring temptations. The biblical vision is different. Government exists under God, not above Him. Kings are accountable. Judges answer to a higher Judge. Nations flourish when righteousness governs authority. That is why politics ultimately becomes a spiritual question long before it becomes an economic one.

Economics, immigration and gender

One of the strengths of Truss's book is that she refuses to separate economics from freedom. Prosperity is not merely about GDP. It is about releasing creativity, encouraging enterprise and allowing families to build secure futures. Bureaucracies rarely create wealth; they generally redistribute what others have already produced.

The Bible never condemns honest wealth creation - quite the opposite actually. Abraham, Job, Boaz and Lydia all remind us that blessing, stewardship and generosity often walk together. Scripture consistently condemns exploitation and dishonest gain, but it also celebrates productive labour and wise investment. In many respects, Truss argues for precisely this kind of society: one where opportunity is expanded rather than managed.

On immigration, she speaks with clarity where many politicians now speak with hesitation. A nation without borders eventually ceases to be a nation. That statement should never be controversial. Every household has a front door. Every city once had walls. Even Eden had boundaries.

Compassion and order are not enemies. The Torah repeatedly commands Israel to love the foreigner because Israel itself had once been foreign. Yet that same Torah also expected the stranger to respect the covenantal life of the nation into which they entered. Biblical hospitality never meant the abandonment of identity. The modern West has often confused kindness with the inability to say enough.

The modern West has often confused kindness with the inability to say enough.

Compassion divorced from wisdom eventually ceases to be compassionate, because its consequences fall most heavily upon ordinary working families and the poorest communities.

Truss’s discussion of gender touches another issue where Christians increasingly find themselves swimming against the cultural tide. Genesis opens with remarkable simplicity: Male and female He created them. That declaration has stood for millennia because it reflects creation itself rather than social fashion. 

To affirm biological reality should never require apology. Nor should it diminish our responsibility to treat every person with dignity, compassion and respect. Truth and love are never opponents in biblical thinking; indeed, they depend upon one another.

Israel and the nations

Perhaps the most compelling chapters of the book concern China. Many Western leaders assumed that expanding trade would inevitably produce expanding liberty. History has not cooperated. Instead, we have witnessed the emergence of an economically powerful authoritarian state that increasingly challenges Western assumptions about technology, security, surveillance and international order. Truss argues that dependence creates vulnerability. Scripture would simply call that wisdom. The borrower becomes a servant to the lender. The principle applies to nations no less than to individuals.

Truss’s analysis of Russia follows a similar line. Peace is preserved not merely through goodwill but through strength. The Old Testament consistently presents peace as something protected by justice and righteous authority, not by wishful thinking. Evil rarely retreats because it is politely asked.

... it does require recognising that Israel continues to occupy a unique place in both biblical history and the unfolding purposes of God. 

On Israel, I found myself nodding throughout. For Christians, Israel is not simply another nation on a geopolitical chessboard. It is the nation through whom God chose to reveal His covenant, His prophets, His Messiah and ultimately His redemptive purposes for the world.  Supporting Israel does not require agreeing with every decision of every Israeli government. No democracy should be beyond criticism. But it does require recognising that Israel continues to occupy a unique place in both biblical history and the unfolding purposes of God. Those who understand Genesis 12 still hear the echo of God's promise: I will bless those who bless you. That covenant has never become irrelevant.

Does the West believe in itself?

What impressed me most in regard to this autobiography, however, was not any individual policy but the larger question Truss asks. Does the West still believe in itself? That question reaches beyond politics into civilisation. Can a culture survive once it loses confidence in its own story? Can freedom endure once objective truth is replaced by subjective feeling? Can democracy survive if unelected institutions become more powerful than elected governments? Can prosperity continue if enterprise is continually restrained by bureaucracy? These are not merely conservative questions; rather civilisational questions.

As followers of Jesus, our first citizenship is always in the Kingdom of God. Yet Jeremiah instructed the exiles to seek the welfare of the city in which they lived. We are called neither to withdraw from public life nor to place our hope in politics. Instead, we are to be salt and light, preserving what is good, exposing what is false, and pointing beyond every earthly kingdom to the reign of Christ. That perspective also reminds us that the deepest crisis facing the West is not economic, constitutional or military. It is spiritual. 

A civilisation does not collapse simply because it becomes poorer. Rather, it declines because it forgets who it is. Europe has consciously and steadily disconnected itself from the biblical worldview that shaped its understanding of justice, dignity, liberty and human worth.  Remove the roots, and eventually the fruit withers.

Rediscovering God

Liz Truss has written an important book because she recognises that something fundamental is happening. Whether one agrees with every policy prescription is almost secondary. She has identified a crisis of confidence that many ordinary people instinctively recognise.

Europe has consciously and steadily disconnected itself from the biblical worldview that shaped its understanding of justice, dignity, liberty and human worth.  

The title says, Ten Years to Save the West. As a Christian, I would phrase it slightly differently. The West will not ultimately be saved by politicians, however courageous or insightful they may be.

It will be renewed only when it rediscovers the God who shaped its greatest virtues. Politics can restrain decline. Only revival can reverse it. I would suggest that perhaps this is the conversation we should have been having all along.
 
Nick Thompson