Britain | Lettuce pray

On shame, Liz Truss and the turnip Taliban

A local group is trying to eject the former prime minister from her seat

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss attends the 'Popular Conservatives' conference.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Norfolk

It has been a difficult few years for Liz Truss. First she crashed the British economy. This was painful for her. (“I could hardly sleep,” she writes in her recent memoir.) Then she became the shortest-reigning prime minister in British history (she felt “angry and frustrated”). Then there was that nasty business with the lettuce (“puerile”). To add to her woes, in the middle of her premiership, the queen died. As Ms Truss, ever alive to the emotional needs of the nation, wrote in anguished italics: “Why me? Why now?”

Explore more

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Truss v the turnip Taliban”

France’s centre cannot hold

From the June 29th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Britain

Labour sweet-talks the public sector

The race to become leader of Britain’s Conservatives

An exhausted party seems to think that it doesn’t have to change


How deep is Britain’s fiscal “black hole”?

Rachel Reeves sets out her first big decisions as chancellor


Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s new Lord Chancellor

The new justice secretary is both progressive and religious

How King Charles III counts his swans

A ritual that pleases conservationists and annoys the birds

Britain’s army chief fears war may come sooner than anyone thinks

Could the army cope without more money and troops?