Britain has a new prime minister in Liz Truss, who journeyed Tuesday to Balmoral, Scotland, for her first official audience with a queen who prefers not to travel these days but still is constitutionally required to invite commoners to form a new government. The unusual location far from London was fair enough, given that the aged monarch was meeting the 15th prime minister of her 70-year reign.
Truss’ predecessor, Boris Johnson, also made the journey to Scotland to tender his resignation. Impish character that he is, Johnson’s farewell address was notable for his likening himself to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the virtuous Roman farmer and statesman whose name was memorialized in Ohio’s Queen City and whose leadership was seen as a calling from the people, not a consequence of personal ambition.
“Like Cincinnatus I am returning to my plow,” Johnson said Tuesday, surely aware that Cincinnatus returned to power a second time, plow conveniently set aside.
