'It's harder to think of a worse start to a job than the one Liz Truss has just had'

I had a couple of weeks off just after the Queen died, not as any mark of respect but because we have to use it up by the end of the year.

When I left, the country was still in that odd stage of shock and I thought it would be OK to disappear for a bit. Nothing much would happen, things would be a bit subdued, politics would gently flicker back into life. How did that work out for you?

What a couple of weeks that was. Over before it really started. All of a sudden all those weird rumours about Truss being so bad that the government would collapse and Boris would sweep back in began to look vaguely credible.