Liz Truss bowled into Downing Street last summer with a promise to rip up much of what her predecessor Boris Johnson had done. However, one goal remained: she insisted, as Johnson had done, she could deliver a free trade deal with India by Diwali in October.
Whitehall officials were dismayed, therefore, when they received the latest set of demands from Indian negotiators. It was not that Delhi was asking too much, rather that they were not saying what they were asking at all.
