Liz Truss is living proof that politicians are not 'all the same' – Scotsman comment

The decision to close one of Scotland’s most important art galleries until next year, amid rising costs and lower visitor numbers, is but the latest sign of the growing economic storm facing the country.

The Master of the Universe by Eduardo Paolozzi is among the works on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) (Picture: Jill Johnston)

Modern Two in Edinburgh – home to work by Scottish sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, regarded as a pioneer of Pop Art – will close for the rest of the year, apart from arranged visits, with more than 40 staff leaving under a “voluntary exit” scheme. The National Galleries of Scotland’s director-general John Leighton said it was facing “a funding challenge the like of which I've never before witnessed or imagined”.

The news comes after the collapse into administration of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Filmhouse cinemas in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and their plight is one that many organisations in the cultural sector and the wider business world, particularly restaurants and pubs, will recognise.

Soaring energy costs have been hitting businesses even harder than families and, as people look to make savings so they can turn on the heating or cook a hot meal, many firms have seen their custom fall. It seems certain that there will be more high-profile closures to come over the next few months, along with the demise of smaller businesses and groups.

In such crises, it is the job of government to do everything in its power to ensure the damage is mitigated if it cannot be avoided. Yet the current UK Government’s mishandling of its “mini-budget” actually made our situation worse. And now the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, looks set to usher in a new age of austerity with sweeping public spending cuts to add still further to the country’s woes.

This may be necessary to restore the government’s credibility with the markets, to regain lost credibility by balancing the books, which should always have been a given. However, it raises the question of how much extra austerity the public will be forced to endure simply because of Liz Truss’s bad decisions.

That said, amid this depressingly bleak outlook, there is a whisper of a silver lining to be found in the puncturing of an age-old urban myth, a line uttered by those who mistake cynicism as a substitute for wisdom. After Boris Johnson and with Liz Truss still in office, if not in power, it should be obvious to all that it really does matter both which party and which candidate we vote for. Never again can it be said that “politicians are all the same”.