Liz Truss’s Honours List & William Cobbett’s Old Corruption

Liz Truss’s Honours List & William Cobbett’s Old Corruption

Press reports suggest that Liz Truss, who was Prime Minister for 49 days last year,  has drawn up a resignation honours list. It is much briefer than Johnson’s resignation list which is still being reviewed.

Even so, and not unexpectedly, the names on it reveal a high level of cronyism.

Before the 1832 Reform Act which started the long process of establishing the Parliamentary Democracy we know today, there existed what William Cobbett referred to as Old Corruption or ‘The Thing’.

In this pre-democratic political world advancement and honours were handed out not on the basis of merit but rather to reward someone for favours done.

The names on Truss’s list appear to fall very much within this framework:

Mark Littlewood, Head of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which provided the ideological basis for Truss’s efforts to crash the economy last autumn. The two have known each other since Oxford University days

Matthew Elliott, CEO of Vote Leave, he founded the Taxpayers Alliance and worked for Truss before she became PM

Jon Moynihan, a prominent Brexiteer who gave £20,000 to Truss’s campaign to become Tory leader and PM

Truss thinks the above should sit in the House of Lords, one good reason to hasten its abolition

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