Liz Truss Resigns as Britain's Era of Brexit Delusion Reaches Its Apex

The United Kingdom is a lot like Nicolas Cage in that era where he was doing 14 questionable movies a year to try to cover for some financial decisions he made while fading out as a movie star. Like Cage, Britain might someday be back. They'd probably be up for poking sardonic fun at themselves if and when they make it. But there is no doubt that the Brits still behave like they're king of the world when they're actually just one of the larger economies in Europe.

Well, they got out of Europe in the belief that they could stand on their own two feet on the world stage, with no need for the perks and power of membership in the united states of the continent. They may deny that the almighty mess they're now in, culminating in the disastrous tenure of Liz Truss, Prime Minister, is rooted in Brexit, but that would be as delusional as their belief they could #Leave and negotiate a better standing for themselves with far less leverage.

After all, Truss's policy was Tory stuff down to the letter. The conservatives settled into the 2010s with a platform of xenophobia and tax cuts for rich people. The economic side of this platform reached its apex in Truss's "mini-budget," a small name for a big plan that broke a small country that's convinced it's huge. The agenda was so bad that on one of the few Mondays in Liz Truss's tenure, Britain's financial markets briefly paused their plunge based on what seemed like rumours that her government was scrapping the plan. Now they really are scrapping it, albeit after it already touched off a run on British currency, sent government bonds into free fall, and earned a rebuke from the International Monetary Fund. In general, it is bizarre to cut taxes for the rich and run up your budget deficit when you have problems with inflation, but few things can stop modern conservative economics once they get into high gear.

Maybe we who reside within the borders of an actual world power should start to feel the fear now. Our own conservatives are champing at the bit should they be washed into power next month on the basis that gas prices are too high. Like Britain's, our right-wingers have no plan to tackle inflation, but they do want to make the Trump tax cuts for rich people and corporations permanent. More than that, they plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage, again, even though refusing to raise it has nothing to do with capping spending or debt levels. All this would do is possibly kick off a global financial crisis. A small price to pay to cut Medicare and Social Security.

You would hope that this laughably bad policy would actually become bad politics like it has in Britain, where the Tories are drowning in the polls. Incredibly, though, it seems that won't immediately matter. There are benefits to the U.K.'s parliamentary system, but the fact that the conservatives can toss their leader out and possibly replace her with...the previous leader who resigned in disgrace, without consulting the voting public, is less than ideal. Yes, the murmurs have already begun to mur that Boris Johnson will stand for re-election as prime minister on the basis that it's a matter of the national interest. Incredible. At least the United States doesn't have a monopoly on clownish narcissists who dress up their own interests as those of the nation.

When I was last over there in May, I was similarly comforted to see an anti-vax protest outside Johnson's then-residence at 10 Downing Street. "NO MORE JABS FOR KIDS," the activists shouted before launching a volley of stuffed animals over the black gate at Whitehall. Our two countries seem to have a symbiosis of crazy in addition to our personal delusions, which for our friends over there include the notion that they are a grand power forever gracing the world's stage. At least we Americans can print the world's reserve currency when we shit the bed. Maybe one benefit of this whole mess is that the British will finally see themselves for what they are: a wonderful people with some tough history who have built the very best place in the world to have a pint while standing on a street corner. God save the kingdom, though let's not revisit the empire. May they someday regain the flair of their National Treasure era, or at least age gracefully into some character work and an occasional cameo on prestige TV.

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