Our high ten picks of the week

As Prime Minister, Truss would immediately face hard choices. How would she manage a restive Parliamentary Party – most of which didn’t vote for her? 

Paul Goodman

“A structural weakness in her campaign is that she is telling party members what they want to hear – rather than preparing them for the hard times that Britain faces.”

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Sunak’s failure of imagination. He didn’t think that he would need to define himself to Tory members. So it’s now very late to stop his opponents doing it instead. 

Paul Goodman 

“He will have believed he had no need to define himself more clearly when his poll ratings were high. So now other people are doing it for him.”

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‘Trussonomics’ sounds good. But it does not recognise the dire economic situation we face. 

William Atkinson

“The Foreign Secretary’s proposals most resemble Anthony Barber’s 1972 ‘dash for growth’, pouring fuel on the fire of an economy already racked by monetary expansion and a looming energy crisis.”

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Sarwar is right – the SNP need to be exposed, not ignored 

Henry Hill

“Tories need to learn from the past: putting the problem out of mind is what squandered the victories over devolution in 1979.”

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Tories need to face down producer lobbyists and set British farming free

Daniel Hannan

“Food security comes not from growing everything yourself, but having the most diverse supply network you can maintain.”

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Has Truss’s classical liberal vision just run head-first into the Red Wall? 

Emily Carver

“Her u-turn on regional pay for the public sector shows how difficult it will be to take on the ‘Blob’ holding Britain back.”

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Will levelling-up survive Johnson’s exist?

James Frayne

“Levelling-up can only work if the Prime Minister takes it so seriously they’re prepared to see most policy areas – or at least a good number of them – through the prism of it.”

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The costs of the green belt are getting impossible to ignore – and politicians are behind the curve. 

Anthony Breach

“Far from protecting our most beautiful landscapes, it lays a noose of industrial farmland around our most productive cities.”

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“I am campaigning as a Conservative, and will govern as a Conservative from day one” 

Liz Truss MP

“The Foreign Secretary makes her pitch to ConservativeHome readers as ballot papers begin to arrive for the Conservative leadership election.”

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“I didn’t get into politics to say what sounds good. That means sometimes taking the difficult road, landing the less popular message, telling the truth.” 

Rishi Sunak MP

“The former Chancellor makes his pitch to ConservativeHome readers as ballot papers begin to arrive for the Conservative leadership election.”