This must be the moment to root out the C-listers and crackpots who have dominated the Tory party ever since Brexit
Blink, and history could easily miss her. For all the crazed drama of the last few days, Liz Truss will be remembered by generations to come as little more than a surreal footnote in British politics. She’ll go down as our six-week leader, outlasted by an iceberg lettuce thoughtfully given its own webcam by the Daily Star, yet contriving almost to break the economy even in that short time.
Now barely 24 hours after declaring herself a fighter not a quitter, she has quit and started the mother of all fights. The Conservative party has accelerated what was already a thriving debate about who should succeed her, and is seemingly following the post-Brexit rule that no matter how bad things are, someone can always imagine a way of making them worse. Enter the rage-inducing, blood-boiling, utterly implausible (and yet never quite implausible enough for comfort) threat of a Boris Johnson comeback. Enough, for God’s sake, is enough.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
