WITH the coronation of Liz Truss approaching, I had a look back through my files to see if I could find any clues to what Truss would do as PM.

Truss is trying to give off Thatcher signals, but her crass cosplay doesn’t seem very convincing.

Truss tried to hit her Iron Lady notes after the England women’s team Euro 2022 victory, claiming she would “channel the spirit of our Lionesses” and beat Keir Starmer, whom she branded a “plastic patriot.”

But it is hard to find evidence that Truss will be any less plastic in her patriotism. Looking through my notes, I could see that many of the times I came across Truss it was when some dodgy tax haven was buying the drinks so she could entertain the crowd.

Truss was elected in 2010, but the first time I came across her in real life was in 2014, speaking at the Conservative Party conference fringe at a meeting sponsored by the States Jersey — Truss was introduced as a “fast-rising Tory star” as she spoke alongside a Jersey minister in front of a “States of Jersey” banner.

Jersey’s minister enthused about how his offshore island was a “capital warehouse” sheltering investment money in its tax haven. Truss used the event to promote free-market politics in her wooden way, declaring she was “proud of our support for free enterprise, proud of our support for the profit motive” and demanded “more competition, more markets, more freedom” and “removing the red tape” to get growth.

Even the Tory conference delegates thought Truss sounded like a tax-haven enthusiast, help-the-rich, avoid-the-rules type rather than a “patriot.”

One delegate complained that “If we are going to sell capitalism to the country everybody has to feel they have access, but a lot of people still feel they are pressing their noses against the windows.”

Another said the “perception is that London and south-east England are growing, but the rest of the country isn’t and that CEOs are taking multi-million pay rises.” Truss brushed these challenges aside with some giggles and jokes with the guy from Jersey.

The last time I saw Truss in person, the pattern repeated itself. In 2019 I saw her speak at a Tory conference rally organised by the Spectator, but “sponsored” — paid for — by the Cayman Islands. Using the Cayman cash, the Spectator served its own brand of gin, so the speeches were made to a load of red-faced Tories on their way to being half-cut.

Thanks to their cash, the Cayman Islands’ top lobbyist spoke before Truss, praising his tax-haven island celebrating how “over 60 per cent of the world’s hedge funds” are based in the Caymans, because of the secrecy and tax-free system. Truss — who was then trade secretary — was asked about the Cayman example, where “corporation tax is zero, personal tax is zero” — was that a model for Britain?

“I certainly think that as we leave the EU, Britain needs to be a low-tax, free-market leader in the world,” she answered.

So that’s where we are heading, under a guise of “patriotism” — not just having closer relations with tax havens, but actually emulating them.

The record seems to be Truss is always happy to perform for an offshore tax avoiding lobby, as long as it is paying for the drinks to win over the crowd. It feels a lot more spiv than Tory nationalist.

There are Thatcherite elements, but it feels some distance from formidable mix of real Thatcherism, where the free-market politics were bolstered by a combination of law-and-order stances, “Victorian values” morality for the plebs (but license for the insiders) and an aggressive — but not completely reckless — foreign policy. With Truss we get the free-market slogans and the “patriotic” noises, but in a wooden form.

The second question that leads to a lot of head scratching among political observers is, what is Truss’s actual ministerial record? When Thatcher became Tory leader, her ministerial experience was four years as education secretary. In that role she pushed through some notable right-wing policies — like ending free school milk.

Truss has had nine years as a minister, yet for all her frequent right-wing sloganeering, it is hard to point to one right-wing policy which is “hers.” Four years in office and we already knew “Thatcher the milk snatcher,” as she was nicknamed, but nine years on and Truss has made little mark.

Environment secretary, justice secretary and foreign secretary, but no real policy trail. If you look hard, you can find bad stuff — the Environment Agency cuts that made it easier for water companies to spew out filth, letting the probation service privatisation to go on a bit longer before it completely collapsed, resuming arms sales to Saudi Arabia. But this is all run-of-the-mill Tory stuff. They are not her policies — not flagship free-market reforms she hammered through.

So, Truss has the Thatcherite slogans and has picked Thatcher costumes from the dressing-up box. It is tempting to think she will be all talk and no action, but that is probably complacent. Truss will be prime minister, so she will have the powers of state and will use them against us.

However, she hasn’t really shown either much determination or strategy in her politics. Even in her leadership campaign she adopted, then quickly dropped, an amateur Thatcherite “regional pay” policy as soon as there was pushback on the idea that cutting healthcare workers’ pay in Hull would fix the economy.

I think we can expect a Truss government to lurch from vicious attack and slash and burn cuts into retreats and softer, but ineffective policies. A wise right-wing government fights tactically, picking fights it can win, using divide-and-rule.

I think a Truss government might accidentally do some of that but will be a lot more erratic. The only question then is how much room the Labour opposition gives it by its own lacklustre approach.