Liz Truss’s certifiable bat skit

Imagine if you were transported to the end of summer in 2022 and informed the future Prime Minister, Liz Truss, that she would be releasing a book in less than two years. She would probably respond with a curse word, an exclamation point, and a question mark.

Unexpected developments occurred, and Truss, who previously held the position of UK prime minister, has recently released a fresh literary work.

The last time FT Alphaville spoke about Truss's personal story was in February. This was after she wrote a lengthy piece of almost 4,000 words in a Sunday newspaper called The Telegraph.

previously described as a rising star in the Conservative Party. At that time, she was the youngest female MP to be elected to Parliament at the age of 34. She was also the first female MP to represent South West Norfolk, where she won the seat with a comfortable majority in the 2010 election. Truss has a background in economics and served as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2019 before being appointed as the Secretary of State for International Trade. She has played a significant role in shaping the UK's trade policy, including negotiating post-Brexit trade deals with countries outside of the EU. Previously, we mentioned that Truss was seen as an upcoming talent within the Conservative Party. She made history by assuming parliamentary office as the youngest female MP at 34 years old. Additionally, she was the first female MP to represent South West Norfolk, where she won by a substantial margin in the 2010 election. Truss boasts a strong economic background and held the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2019, when she was later appointed as the Secretary of State for International Trade. She was predominantly instrumental in shaping trade policies, including facilitating deals with non-EU nations after the UK's departure from the European Union.

Nestled comfortably in the subtle slopes of a betrayal hypothesis.

Regarding her tenure as Prime Minister, she was quick to point fingers at nearly everyone except herself for the disastrous 49-day period in power.

Has anything happened since then? Not really. Even though Rishi Sunak, who is not very skilled in politics, is still hanging on because of the law, Truss has been travelling all over the world. She has connected herself to the right-wing politics of Trump in the United States. She also wrote a very long essay called "Ten Years to Save the West" which expands on her previous arguments. The essay was released today.

The media trek has commenced and has already generated attention-grabbing titles such as "Truss endorses Trump" and "Truss advocates for UN's elimination". Lady Truss has also been quoted during this tour.

At times, I tend to express myself in a manner that is not easily understandable.

Alphaville got a hold of a copy of the book with the expectation of discovering some intriguing financial topics to discuss. However, we were mistaken. Hence, what is there to comment on?

Naturally, it's a simple matter to highlight the insincerity. To exemplify, within the beginning, Truss composes:

The way we talk about politics can be pretty silly. Instead of focusing on important ideas, we often get caught up in gossip about people in power. People like to point fingers at the media for this, but really it's the politicians themselves who are to blame. They go along with this way of thinking because they want to be popular in the moment. So instead of making decisions based on what's best for everyone in the long run, they just follow whatever the trendy opinion is at the time.

...and proceeds to add a section called "Freedom, Fairness, and Woke Culture". Concerning this subject:

The western society has become misguided. It is imperative that we become aware of the obstacles that lie ahead, otherwise, we are in danger of falling behind and ultimately losing.

Truss is suggesting that the Western world needs to become more aware and socially conscious.

Throughout time, we have observed an expansion in both the involvement and dimensions of government.

…from the Prime Minister who carried out this action.

Sometimes, Truss approaches a moment of realization that is very risky, like when she shares her experience of working as a lower-level minister in the Department for Education during David Cameron's time as Prime Minister.

Prior to my appointment to the government, I had expressed in a collection of brochures from various organizations, my plans on how we can revolutionize the system by abolishing limitations and enhancing our criteria. This only highlights the risks of creating brochures as real-life situations can be much more complicated.

There's a lot more we could say (believe us), but it's important to clarify that Alphaville deals with markets, economics, and finance - not politics. Thus, we'll briefly discuss the economic matter at hand.

Truss often mentions that her main goal is to expand the company. This is not a particularly contentious objective.

Regrettably, her method was comparable to this scenario: envision a group of individuals trapped in a hot and congested room. All the inhabitants yearn for the windows to be loosened, but they are secured by intricate locks. Whilst the individuals strive to decipher the mechanism of the locks, Liz ventures to toss a chair through the window. The chair rebounds and strikes her on the face.

As previously mentioned in the mini-Budget, Truss and her political group have managed to reach the right decisions regarding the direction but have faced several difficulties in fully comprehending the situation.

There's no part in 'Ten Years to Save the West' that illustrates this more than a section from chapter two called "A Hostile Environment" which involves a word play about the Home Office's notoriously racist and family-disrupting immigration policies.

In this section, Truss expresses her disdain for eco-friendly practices and policies (the ones related to climate change, not the modeling compound Kneadatite). She argues that these efforts, such as enforcing environmental regulations and making public displays of corporate social responsibility, only serve to facilitate the spread of socialist agendas, corruption, and animal kingdom domination, particularly that of badgers.

The subject of her blog post is about her efforts as a representative of South West Norfolk to improve the A11 road by expanding it significantly.

The completion of the project was significantly postponed and the overall cost rose dramatically due to various environmental concerns and necessary actions taken. Specifically, the construction team was obliged to construct "bat bridges" to facilitate safe passage for bats crossing the road.

Indeed, the A11 boasts of having 'bat bridges'. Check out this image of one such crossing in Cornwall to get a clearer idea of its structure.

Bats move like Scalextric cars without eyes, using sonar to navigate and keep themselves on track along natural landmarks like hedgerows and the edges of forests. This helps them travel to places where they can find food.

The basic idea behind bat bridges seems like a good one: if you have to construct a road that interferes with the bats' travel route (which is called "severance"), it would be beneficial to try to lessen the disturbance.

It's understandable if you want to prevent bats from getting run over by cars. However, it's a challenge to keep track of how many bats get killed on the roads since they're tiny and tempting prey for bigger predators.

In principle, building an elevated bridge seems to be the answer. The hanging cables aim to establish a connection between the usual flight path of the bats, joining them together over the highways by giving a consistent guide for sonar-based direction.

The dilemma lies in how the bats disregard the structures - bat bridges are presently deemed as ineffective, with The Observer labeling them as a major failure in one of nature's preservation attempts earlier this year.

Regarding the Broadland Northway in Norfolk, which is near but not within Truss's constituency, just under half of the bats seen flew close enough to the bridges to qualify as users. This information can be found in Appendix A found here.

The statistics indicated that there wasn't much contrast between the quantity of bats that employed the 5m category gantry and those that didn't (48% and 52% respectively). This showcased that nearly half of the bats that crossed over made use of that particular gantry.

The report is giving a positive message, saying that since the monitoring was done in low light conditions, it is possible that some bats were not detected.

It's a regrettable mistake, and a costly one - the A11 six bridges from Barton Mills in Suffolk to Thetford in Norfolk are said to have a price of £350k based on reports from the area. This seems to support Truss's pragmatic approach, which prioritizes spending wisely.

Regrettably, she proceeds to write:

It goes without saying that bats have never been spotted on these bridges. After all, bats have the ability to fly!

Is Liz Truss under the impression that bats were meant to physically climb the bridges? Does she assume that environmental experts believed that bats usually land next to roads and then walk across them? Is she under the impression that nobody else had thought of the solution of bats simply flying over? If this is the case, can she see the similarities between how she got this issue correct despite misunderstanding the problem and how she got her ambitions as PM correct despite misunderstanding the problem? Is it possible that Liz Truss doesn't think much at all?

By the way, if you said "no" as your response to the previous inquiry, you would be mistaken. The truth is, in chapter 11 of the book, it becomes evident that the philosophy of bats is a major focal point.

I am a person who enjoys having casual conversations and exchanging ideas, but when I was the Prime Minister, I didn't have much chance to do so and even if I did, I wouldn't have had much free time.