Is Liz Truss the British Trump?

Readers must understand how the jargon of political chicanery has corrupted journalism if they are to make sense of the coming Truss premiership. Unless you grasp the slippery, new meaning of ‘pivot,’ media coverage will leave you clueless.

To give you a taste of what is to come try this sentence from the Politico website. Liz Truss may have to ‘pivot away once the battle for members’ hearts has been won’. Pivot? Is our next prime minister a machine part that will bend the body politic with the prevailing wind? Or try this from the Independent: ‘Therein lies the truth about the coming pivot… The only question is how skilfully she makes the transition.’

Euphemism exists to spare the embarrassment telling the truth brings. If you are a right-wing MP or ambitious wonk on the Truss campaign ‘pivot’ is such a useful word. Far better to say ‘we need to pivot from campaign mode to governing mode,’ than to blurt out that ‘now we have their votes we can forget the lies we told to win over Conservative members’.