It started as a tabloid prank last Friday: a competition to see which would last longer, a supermarket lettuce or Liz Truss’s career in Downing Street. Carried live on YouTube under the title “Which wet lettuce will last longer?” it went viral around the world, prompting earnest debates in both pubs and studios as to how long lettuces can actually last outside a fridge. As her premiership disintegrated before our eyes, however, there was only ever going to be one result—Iceberg 1 Truss 0. That was confirmed on Thursday, six days later, after Truss announced outside No. 10 that she’d phoned in her resignation to King Charles and would step down as prime minister as soon as a replacement could be chosen. As the Economist magazine had predicted, in an article which sparked the Daily Star stunt, Truss did indeed have the “shelf-life of a lettuce”—or almost.
