Our program. Ten years to save the west. Former Prime Minister liz truss on fighting the global left, please welcome heritage president dr. Kevin roberts. Thank you and thanks for joining us. Person those of you who are joining online, welcome as well, it is such an honor. Host any, head of state, former head of state. Its a particular honor as you might imagine. If you remember the Heritage Foundation owns fondness and great friendship with Lady Thatcher to the woman we think walks in Lady Thatchers and that is former Prime Minister liz truss has become one of my great friends. Perhaps of my closest friends across the atlantic. And youre in for a real treat, having read ten years to save the west, this wonderful book that is being released in United States now, i can tell you that for those of us who, of course, remain about the american and british, but also understand in the short term, perhaps even the medium, that both our countries have real challenges this is a must read book and tell you a couple of reasons why of ms. Truss and my great friend and colleague dr. Gardiner will have a wonderful conversation about this. But from this adopted texans point of view, my greatest frustration with washington and london is not, of course, the american or the british people, but the fact that where there is concern tration of power, it is always used as a cudgel. That power is always used as a cudgel against americans and individual brits. And this book is a diagnosis of how that came to be. What we need do to fix it, and really a call to arms, a call to political arms of what we need to do. And in short, just to give you little summary and obviously the former Prime Minister will be much more eloquent than i. Its all about sovereignty. Its all about returning that power from whatever institutions accrued that and have over centralized that authority back to the people. And i think those of you who maybe occasionally wake up a little about the present, we at heritage did so this morning, but were still undeterred. We will fight for another day five years from now, ten years from now, 50 years from now. We do so of the principles that not only liz writes in this book, but dare i say that has personified in her long service, not just to the british people, but very importantly to free people around the world. And so im going to welcome her here to the stage momentarily. But let me just say once again, ms. Truss, not just on behalf of all of us at heritage, but on behalf of the entire states of america, thank you for service to freedom and sovereignty and to this very special friendship that our two countries hold. Please join me in welcoming her. Well, im delighted to be here. The Heritage Foundation for the official United States launch of ten years to save the west and the Heritage Foundation now under the leadership of Kevin Roberts and my great to be here also with no gardiner features significantly in the book for the first time in 2015. When i seek to go to the Heritage Foundation, im warned against it by the british ambassador, kim darroch. He says to me, youve got to be wary of this organization. Theyve spoken out against obama. Theyve even been critical of Prime Minister cameron. Are you really sure that you want to go and see them . And i said, yes, i am sure, because im a conservative and there are conservative think tank in the United States of america, our closest ally. So so eventually, eventually, i prevail because i am a determined person. The call from the embassy dropped me off two blocks away from the heritage so that the british would be sitting outside the building. Now, i was back in heritage in 2019 when, as the newly appointed trade secretary, i was determined that United Kingdom was going to strike a trade, deal with the then president , donald trump and. I gave a speech at heritage and i said, the time is now quoting the old Reagan Campaign about the fact that needed to get on with this trade deal now that, of course, created massive consternation back home in the United Kingdom because the apparatchik in number ten downing street did not want to do a trade deal with the United States, with President Trump. And i outlined in my book the fact that that deal would have happened. That deal would have happened if it wasnt for that resistance in. Now why am i launching ten years to save the west in United States as well as in the United Kingdom . Well, i like to think of the United States of america as britains greatest invention, albeit albeit slightly, an advantage invention. And you know, if you look at our history for macnicol carter to the bill of rights, to the american constitution that we have developed and perfected democracy. And if you look at what is going on in our societies. First of all, the brexit vote back in 2016 and then the election, President Donald Trump later year, you can see the same desires of our for change and the same desires for those conservative values and sovereignty. And if you look at the battle for conservatism now and the frequency with which we get new Prime Ministers in, the United Kingdom, and the frequency with which you get new speakers of the house here in the United States. We could see again that there is battle for the heart and soul conservatism on both sides of the atlantic. And i think battle is very important because lets be honest, we have not been winning against the global left. If you look at the history, the turn of the millennium, the left have had the upper hand. And its not the Old Fashioned who used to argue about the means of production and economic. Its the new left who have insidious ideas that challenge very way of life, whether its about climate extremism that doesnt in Economic Growth, whether its challenging the very idea of a man and a woman, a biological sex, whether its about the human rights culture, thats embedded into so much of us, that makes also unable to deal with illegal immigration. Those new ideas have been promulgated by the global left and they have been successful in infiltrating quite a large proportion of society and a large part of our institutions. Lets just look at the state of economics. You you know, im a supply sider. I know that it works. We it work under reagan and thatcher. And yet weve seen the domination and of change in economics in recent years bloated size of government, huge in both of our countries on the immigration and rights culture. Look at what is going on now on American University campuses is what is not safe anymore to be jewish or the streets of london where a jewish man could not cross the road during yet appalling protest or the fact that we cant seem to deport Illegal Immigrants either your southern border or the small boats that are crossing the channel or take wukari another bad neomarxist idea developed from and all those crazy postmodernists in the 1960s. The idea biological sex is not a reality. We now have President Biden introducing regulation plans around title nine, which mean that girls could see biological in their changing rooms, in their locker rooms, in their school restrooms, and not be able to do anything about it. And if they complain about it, they could be the ones guilty harassment. How on earth can that be happening in our or the climate extremists who arent with just stopping coal fired power stations here in america. Lng terminals are being built. Fracking in the United Kingdom but want to go further whether its imposing electric or castles, heat pumps or extra taxes on the public meanwhile, our adversaries in china are building coal fired power stations. Every week i see that is economic disarm. Ament in the middle of what is a various serious threat to the west, how is it ended up that after the turn of the millennium, despite the fact that we have many conservative intellectuals and politician, why have our institutions has so much of our Public Discourse shifted to the left . Well, first of all, to conservatives have not been making argument. Now i call them conservative in name only chinos. I know in america you call them, you call them rhinos. But these in name only, rather than taking these ludicrous ideas instead of tried to appease and meet them halfway halfway. Why have they done this . Well, first of all, they dont want to look mean they dont want to look like theyre against human rights. They dont want to look like theyre against the they dont want to be mean to transgender people. So theyve allowed those argument rights to affect the views of what is right and wrong. But its also cynical than that. You know, if you want to get a good job after politics, you want to get into the corporate boardroom. There are a group acceptable views and opinions that you should hold and most of them are on that list. If you want to be popular and get invited to a lot of dinner parties in washington d. C. Or london, the reviews on that list that you should hold and people have chosen dinner parties over principle. But the other i think weve missed on the conservative side of the argument, and i put my hands up to this is the rising power of the Administrative State, the fact that power which previously lay in the hands of democratically elected politicians like the more they can be voted out of office, is now in the hands of socalled independent bodies whether its central whether its government agents or whether its the Civil Service themselves. And what were seeing in bureaucracy in the United Kingdom, i think here in the United States as well is a growing activist class of Civil Servants who have views on transgender ideology or climate or human rights, which they are keen to promote in their roles. I saw this hand and one of the key points book is about is my battles i had with that institution or mindset and theres a phrase that we use in britain called consent and evade. Quite often the officials will be very polite on the request, but it will take a very long time to do. If its Something Like helping deport Illegal Immigrants or sort out the rwanda scheme, what if something that they like, like dealing with Climate Change that will be expedited and i think its very difficult. People who havent worked in government to understand just how cumbersome and how tricky like it has become. And i dont know if, thats a product of the modern era. If its product of the online society, it is very, very now to deliver conservative policies. Now, i did many jobs in, many different government departments. I was in the justice, the environment department, the education, the treasury. I was in trade, i was in the foreign and i faced battles against activist lawyers, against environmental police, against left educationalists. But what i saw when i ran be Prime Minister in 2022 is i saw i had opportunity to change things because that was surely the apex of power. Okay . I hadnt been able to change as environment secretary or trade secretary, but as Prime Minister, surely that was the opportunity me to be able to really change things. Now theres a bit of a spoiler alert about book. It didnt quite work out. I ended up being the shortest serving british Prime Minister as a result of trying to take on these forces and the particular thing that i tried to take them on was the whole issue of our economy. Now, britains economy has relatively for a long period of time. Our taxes are a 70 year high. We are spending 45 of our gdp on the government. And what i wanted to do is i wanted to get our growth rates and start dealing with Massive National debt by cutting taxes, by restraining public spending, and by getting on with supply side reforms like fracking. And we put this in a mini budget. Little did i know that the night before that mini budget was announced, the house by the chancellor that the governor of the bank of england would announce that he was selling 40 pounds billion of government bonds. And not in raising Interest Rates by as much as the market expected. The second thing i didnt know was that we had a tinderbox in the financial markets, liability driven investments, that the uk was uniquely exposed to and that were very to changes gilt rates and Interest Rates. And i go through the whole story in my book, but to cut a long story short, the governor of the bank of england and, the Economic Establishment in britain, successfully shifted the blame onto our economic policies, even though to this day i still believe they were the right policies and they would have resulted in higher growth in the United Kingdom. They were able to shift the and furthermore the office of budget responsibility is a bit like a supercharged version of the Congressional Budget Office leaked to the press that there was a 70 pounds billion hole in our plans. Therefore putting fuel on the fire of what was already quite a jittery market and at my heart, im a patriot. I couldnt sit there in number ten allowing things to melt down. I had to reverse the policies in order to create that stability and ultimately i had to stand down from my job and i a lot of questions from the press about. What was what was going on . What did i do wrong . I have not seen the governor of the bank of england or the officials in the Economic Establishment held to account. And i think weve got a big problem when a leader with a democratic mandate is not able to deliver a set of policies that would improve the countrys and yet the unelected officials who effectively undermined that policy go unquestioned. It wasnt just british institutions that had a go my policy it was the imf who didnt criticize it on financial reasons. They criticized on the grounds it was unfair. Now, why is relevant to you . What elected politicians decide in britain a joe biden criticize my policy from an ice cream parlor oregon and. He you know, he said that is cutting the top of tax was wrong even though the top rate of tax in britain after my proposals was still higher than the top rate of tax in the states and i think the fact that these International Bodies got involved in the pile on is very significant because i think this shows a resistance not just in the british Economic Establishment but in the international Economic Establishment to these kind supply side policies that would actually make our economies dynamic and help in our fight against authoritarian regimes. So i come today with a warning to the United States of america. I fear the same forces will be coming for. President donald trump if wins the election this november, there is a huge resistance to progrowth supply side policies that will deliver economic dynamism and help reduce debt. What the International Institute ions and the Economic Establishment want to is they want to see higher taxes, higher spending, a more big government, a more they do not want to see that challenged. And weve already heard noises from the Congressional Budget Office and elements of the united market about. What the Financial Stability situation. Say. What have i learned from my experience . What have i learned my time in . I have learned that we are facing a really quite challenging forces of the global, not just in terms of the virulent activists making extremist arguments, but also the power they hold in our institutions. And that leads me to believe that. What conservatives need is what i describe as a bigger bazooka. Now, what do i mean by a bigger bazooka. Well, first of all, i mean that we need really strong conservative infrastructure to be able to take on the left. You they are wellfunded. They activist. They have many friends in high and we need strength in depth in our political operation. Thats why im working on a new Political Movement in the uk called popular conservatism, which is about bringing in more activists, more candidates, more potential legislators, more who can actually in the trenches against, the left in the ideological warfare that we now face. The second thing we need to do is we need to dismantle the Administrative State and are lots of people i speak to who say its just because know you ministers arent tough enough. You know, if only you were a bit bold in taking on things, you know, if only you had a bit more political, you would be able to deliver. Those people are not right until