This is what Liz Truss needs to do next

All this radical economic supply side reform is both mind-boggling and anxiety-inducing. Never mind the energy bill, the food bill and the mortgage rate; you’re now furtively watching the bond market, having to remember that seeing it go up is a bad thing. The armchair epidemiologists have been well and truly replaced with the armchair economists – and it’s stressing us all out.

This collective sense of dread and panic is a problem for the PM. Information overload is the enemy of politicians, especially when they have lost all control of the message. Policies and political communication work best when the output is simple and digestible by a mass audience. And it’s why, however much Liz Truss tries, her economic plan has lost all credibility. The more she explains it, the less credible it is. It’s time for a new plan.

Firstly, her pathway to redemption can only come from acknowledging her failure. She has to stop her planned tax cuts and say she will bring them in when the economy is stronger. Politically, her experiment will be over: what is Liz Truss without the tax cuts, after all? But her short-term survival depends on being dynamic – not digging in. The public need to feel their concerns are being heard, not that they aren’t appreciative enough of her energy price interventions.

To calm the beast that is the market, she will have to throw it a pound of flesh. Unfortunately for Kwasi Kwarteng, that means him. A change of policy requires real leadership at the Treasury; someone who can soothe the fractious relationship with the Bank of England and give the civil servants a sense of purpose and direction that isn’t totally at odds with their advice.

The PM needs urgently to bring someone into the role who is not an obsequious loyalist – someone who can assert their authority and reassure the country that they will not take unnecessary risks with the economy. A quick replacement will send a signal to people that she is taking their concerns seriously.

With her ideological fervour at an end, the PM will have to refresh her purpose. What is she there for? Well, to avoid mutiny followed by a general election, she has to deliver on the manifesto of 2019. That means a relentless focus on delivery – the country needs to return to sustainable growth; but it has to be done alongside fixing public services that have been constrained by rising costs and poor management.

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There is a lot to do and with the clock ticking, perhaps it’s advisable that she get on with the “boring” admin tasks of the government which never appeal to a politician trying to make a name for themselves – but we need a period of dullness if there is any hope of rebuilding credibility in this administration. Showing by doing has always been the most successful method of political communication, not endless debates about matters that are of no concern to the public.

Her political position on most things is idiosyncratic and hasn’t been sensibly pitched. It’s caught us by surprise and created panic. She has to come to terms with the reality that being PM doesn’t mean you get to decide, it means you hold the balance in complex decision making. It’s why communication – of what you’re doing and why – is critical to the success of your policy.

Perhaps everything that comes out of Whitehall should be easily summed up in a single sentence. This test of communication would be open to accusations of dumbing down, but if you can’t communicate simply and straightforwardly then you can’t communicate at all. The critical skill of good communication is the ability to listen, too; so here’s hoping that Truss finally tunes in to the chorus of disapproval and acts accordingly.