Introduction: Ditty
Liz Truss is a patsy
Fund manager patsy
It wasn’t much more than a taunt, a ditty really. The sort of thing you’d imagine school children chanting in the school yard. Despite largely ignoring it, the phrase had been knocking around my head for months. I assumed it would be forgotten.
Liz Truss had other ideas. The forty-five second kamikaze Prime Minister kept returning with unapologetic articles and speeches, placing the blame for her catastrophic tenure on lefty deep state forces. It takes a unique mind to claim to be at odds with the deep state, while nominating lifetime peers to The House of Lords.
Chapter Two: Mean Sonics
Wants to be a Maggie
But she’s just a patsy
Given the light hearted electronic pop production, it’s no surprise the word most often employed to describe ‘Liz Truss is a Patsy’ is ‘fun’. Delve deeper under the shiny happy packaging, however, and you’ll find lyrics as unapologetic as Liz Truss is in her new book. The track depicts a former Prime Minister who is as clueless as she is delusional. It is, by some margin, the meanest project I have ever created.
Chapter Three: Trickle Down
Cut the top rate of tax
The poor can pay for that
Liz Truss likes to paint herself the disrupter, the anti-establishment figure, but cutting the top rate of tax is hardly a revolutionary idea. It’s forty years since Ronald Reagan introduced his low tax “trickle down economics” vision of the West. A forty year period that has seen zero growth for the American middle class. Liz Truss’ economic policies are “trickle down economics” by any other name. To present cutting the top rate of tax as anti-establishment, is akin to presenting Robocop as anti-law enforcement.
Chapter FOUR: Vandalism
When the sums don’t add up
Don’t think, just bluff
The left, more often than not, attacks the right over morality, when we should be attacking their incompetence. Whether you believe Liz Truss’ assertions about a deep state conspiracy or not is immaterial. As the Prime Minister, she was expected to properly anticipate and navigate the various obstacles that stood in her way. Her failure to do so, resulted in comprehensive economic damage that the people of the UK will have to suffer for years to come. Liz Truss’ time as Prime Minister was not just one of abject failure, it was an act of vandalism.
Chapter Five: Freefall
Fire sale or market crash
Low low prices go fast
Stable markets make for small profits and small losses. Unstable markets make for larger profits and larger losses. A market in freefall, as precipitated by Liz Truss’ mini-budget, can make for massive profits, providing you have the financial capacity to ride out the storm. None of which is, in of itself, illegal [though credible arguments can be made to the contrary].
Chapter Six: Not Our Place
No one knows who made cash
It’s not our place to ask
Given the severity of damage caused by Liz Truss’ mini-budget, you’d expect a public enquiry into what went wrong. You expect there to be a profound sense of duty, on the part of those who represent the people, firstly to prevent this from ever happening again, and secondly, to establish if there was any financial impropriety.
This, however, entirely underestimates the woeful state of paralysis festering at the heart of the UK establishment. You’d think the House of Commons, the people’s house, would be the default place for such questions to be asked. You would be wrong. The divine right and pronounced class system of old, casts very long shadows over our constitutional monarchy. Put simply, it is not our place to question our betters, our ruling class.
Conclusion: Outrage
Liz Truss is a Patsy
She's just a Patsy
Every time I put a track of political themes out into the world, I wonder why I bother to do so. It is difficult enough for grassroots music to be heard, without piling on the problematic response to music of protest. It is entirely understandable that radio stations, blogs, playlists and podcasts alike would refuse to feature music concerning such an inherently polarizing subject matter. Equally, it is entirely understandable that people would rather not listen to music that amplifies the problems of the world instead of drowning them out.
As is the case with all creative people, I am motivated by any number of factors. Nevertheless, there are particular commonalities of motivation that reoccur across the body of my work. ‘Military Industrial Complex’, ‘Putin’s Got a Gun against Your Head ', and now, ‘Liz Truss is a Patsy’ were all compelled into existence by a deep rooted sense of outrage. An outrage that would not be silenced in me. An outrage that would find its way to the surface, either by creative act or pointless argument on social media.
‘Liz Truss is a Patsy’ is out now on all platforms. Download, stream, like, save, playlist, and share. Not for me, for Liz.
From Ditty to Declaration: The Story Behind 'Liz Truss is a Patsy'