In the end, Liz Truss did not outlast a wilting lettuce.
The question was all over British social media.
Who would survive longer: the United Kingdom’s prime minister,
Liz Truss, or a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf life of just 10 days?
By Thursday, at lunch time, Britain had its answer. It was the lettuce.
This year has been a great one for lettuce, at least in Britain.
Its market value soared amid a cost-of-living crisis and record inflation.
And now one has done what many Machiavellian politicians have failed to
achieve — a takedown of a sitting prime minister.
The gag began with an Economist article calling Truss
“The Iceberg Lady,” predicting that her political expiry date
would come imminently — quicker than the time it takes for a head of
lettuce to go bad. After all, Truss’s government had sent the markets
reeling after a misfired attempt by the Conservative Party leader to
radically reorient the government’s economic agenda by slashing taxes
without saying how the decision would be paid for.
An internet meme was born.