Imagine, for a moment, becoming haunted by the shadow of a salad vegetable. Not an exciting salad vegetable, like a radish, or even a suggestive salad vegetable, like a courgette. Just a plain old common-or-garden lettuce. Since her historic 49-day tenure as prime minister, Liz Truss’s comparative lettuce has refused to wither. What began as a witty idea in the Economist and then a front-page picture in the Daily Star (“Which will last longer?” the paper asked, as her disastrous mini-budget imploded, “Liz Truss or this lettuce?”), a simile designed for a 24-hour lifespan has turned into something of a lifelong companion. Lettuce Liz is one of those political nicknames, like “Two Jags” Prescott and John “Grey Man” Major, which will not budge. The fit is too snug.
This week, the satirical Left-wing political collective Led by Donkeys followed Truss to a promotional event for her punchily titled new book, 10 Years to Save the West, to Beccles Public Hall in Suffolk, orchestrating a public prank which has so far amassed five million online views. Just as Truss began to gift her inquisitor an endorsement for Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, a banner unfolded in front of the black screen behind her. That pesky lettuce, a familiarly modest, day-old iceberg, with crossed-eyes. Underneath, in bold capitals, the legend: “I crashed the economy.”
