John Oliver Points Out New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss Has Gotten a Bit of a Free Pass on Her BS This Week

Last week, UK Conservative Party leader Liz Truss took over as Prime Minister after Boris Johnson stepped down amid a COVID-19 “Partygate” scandal and sprawling government crisis. On the most recent Last Week Tonight, John Oliver ripped into Truss, noting that she’s basically gotten a free pass this week as everyone’s too distracted by other British drama to fully notice her ineptitude.

Oliver played a clip of a recent interview with the woman he calls “Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue” as well as “dollar-store British Leslie Knope.” The clip is pretty typical of Truss’ brand of conservative inanity, as it features her railing against a sort of strawman socialism.

UK residents are currently in the middle of a masive energy crisis. People’s utility bills are skyrocketing and Truss says she acknowledges that’s a problem, but also won’t do anything to get the energy companies to sacrifice their immense profits in any way.

“I don’t think ‘profit’ is a dirty word,” she says in the clip. “The fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Oliver cut in. “Look, I’m just gonna say this, and you may not like it, but it doesn’t make it any less true: The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became prime minister. Because for at least a week, she’s not going to get justifiably destroyed for answers like that.”

(image: Carl Court/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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