In the end, Liz Truss did not outlast a wilting lettuce
Liz Truss #LizTruss
LONDON — The question was all over British social media. Who would survive longer: the U.K.’s prime minister, Liz Truss, or a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf-life of just 10 days?
By Thursday, at lunch time, Britain had its answer. It was the lettuce.
This year has been a great one for lettuce, at least in Britain. Its market value soared amid a cost-of-living crisis and record inflation. And now one has done what many Machiavellian politicians have failed to achieve — a takedown of a sitting prime minister.
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The gag began with an Economist article dubbing Truss “The Iceberg Lady,” predicting that her political expiry date would come imminently — quicker than the time it takes for a head of lettuce to expire. After all, Truss’s government had sent the markets reeling after the misfired attempt by the Conservative Party leader to radically reorient the government’s economic agenda by slashing taxes without saying how the decision would be paid for.
An internet meme was born.
The Daily Star newspaper’s YouTube account even launched a live stream. For six days around-the-clock, internet users watched the leafy green smiling at the camera, adorned at one point with googly eyes and a blond wig.
The newspaper declared on its front page: “Lettuce Liz on Leaf Support.”
After a deep endive in her popularity rating in recent weeks — at one point even approaching Vladimir Putin-levels of unfavorability among the British public, Truss’s chances against the vegetable seemed low.
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A week of self-inflicted political wounds ultimately morphed into an irreversible death spiral, leaving many social media users unsurprised by the result.