One of the axioms of communication is that nobody ever had a communication problem who didn’t have a real problem. Liz Truss and her diminishing band of supporters have been trying to argue that her political problems are really just flaws in presentation but they are kidding themselves. The mood of the Conservative Party, as its delegates gather in Birmingham for their annual conference, is grim. Ms Truss has a serious problem and so does the party she leads. Her problem is that many of her MPs already want her gone. Their problem is that their habit of ditching leaders is starting to look ridiculous.
There is no doubting the economic scale of what has happened — an immediate run on the pound followed by a £65bn emergency intervention by the Bank of England because pension funds did not have enough cash after interest rates rose sharply. Close to 1,000 mortgage products have been withdrawn from the market but, in her weekend interview round, the Prime Minister was still insisting that cutting the top rate of income tax would accelerate economic growth.
