The guardian UK

2022 - 9 - 9

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Looking at the state of Britain from the US, for once I feel very glad to ... (The Guardian)

It was an unfamiliar feeling of relief: whatever may be wrong with America, at least no one is looking to Liz Truss to solve it, says Guardian columnist ...

The Washington Post [sought cheerfully](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/06/liz-truss-boris-johnson-queen/) to present her as a corrective to Johnson, a happy transition from “a prime minister known for colorful metaphors and a loose relationship with the truth” to “one who offered unadorned bullet points for dealing with the country’s looming economic crisis”. If US coverage of Truss had a through-the-looking-glass feel, figures attesting to the scale of the national crisis in Britain snapped things back to reality. [described as](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/europe/liz-truss-uk-prime-minister.html?searchResultPosition=7) “a party stalwart, hawkish diplomat and free-market champion” with a “practical, unfussy style [that] could appeal to Britons after the circuslike atmosphere of the Johnson years”. From her record, clearly, she has the gravitas and integrity of a Weeble. In the US, where Britain’s influence dwindles hourly, seeing Truss’s appointment splashed on the homepage of the New York Times triggered a brief ping of excitement: oh, look! One after the other, American media organisations summarised Truss’s task as one of reckoning with “ Whatever may be wrong with the US, at least no one is looking to [Liz Truss](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/06/liz-truss-says-uk-will-ride-out-the-storm-of-cost-of-living-crisis) to solve it. Over on NPR, [analysts asked](https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111595703/what-broke-britains-economy): “what broke Britain’s economy?” [overruled Roe v Wade](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-abortion-summary-supreme-court), or in the wake of yet another school shooting, the choice to live in this country when there are better alternatives seems at best eccentric, at worst actively mad. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman; Britons could only laugh hysterically on Monday and rock back and forth. That someone of Truss’s abilities should be in charge at this dire moment of British history makes her seem, in defiance of political physics, even worse in some ways than her predecessor. It is a common refrain among foreigners living in the US, one that comes round like clockwork whenever something bad happens: what are we doing here?

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Property investor accused of shutting down criticism over £10000 ... (The Guardian)

Samuel Leeds's lawyers sent accusing letter to sister of soldier who killed himself but they deny he is stifling criticism.

He used clips from Leeds’s videos, relying on the exception in copyright law for “fair dealing”, which includes use for criticism and reviews but Ellisons disagreed. The campaign regularly included threats of violence and wishing our clients dead and included racist comments against our client’s wife.” She said the volume of legal threats suggested Leeds wanted “to shut down public commentary and to send a clear message to others not to comment on social media for fear of being sued”. The letter, which Jones described as a “scare tactic”, accused her and other family members of involvement in a campaign of “defamation and harassment”. The letter warned Jones about contact with Andrew Burgess and other people involved in a Facebook group concerned with Leeds, who are together being sued for more than £6m by Leeds for alleged harassment and defamation. Ellisons initially offered to send the Guardian a schedule of alleged defamatory comments but later declined to do so.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

The political legacy of Queen Elizabeth II – Politics Weekly UK (The Guardian)

As Prince Charles becomes king, the Guardian's John Harris is joined by the columnist Gaby Hinsliff and Gavin Barwell, an adviser to the former prime ...

But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. Support The Guardian

Explore the last week