With an unlikely war cry of “Lettuce! Lettuce! Lettuce!”, social media users set about the aftermath of Liz Truss’s resignation with gusto. The Daily Star’s live stream of whether a lettuce could outlast her time in office was a strong cue for jokes.
“We now go live to 10 Downing Street.” pic.twitter.com/ZdF9UgF4KK
— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) October 20, 2022
The lettuce pretty much overshadowed everything.
flatmate has just asked me whether i think the lettuce voted leaf or romaine in the brexit referendum and im frankly furious at how funny i found it
— Ben Smoke (@bencsmoke) October 20, 2022
You know you’ve made a mess when the icons of 1990s indie are making puns at your expense.
The fact that Liz Truss didn’t last as long as the lettuce highlights the issues within the government, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg
— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) October 20, 2022
But while the lettuce loomed large, let us not forget the role that tofu played in ousting Truss’s government.
Braverman lost to tofu, Truss lost to a lettuce, vegans having an amazing week tbf
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) October 20, 2022
With apologies to media colleagues currently trying to put together video clips packages, even before Thursday’s developments, people had speculated that “Who was prime minister when Queen Elizabeth II died?” was set to be a pub quiz trivia question for the ages.
Surreal to think that a Liz Truss highlights package could only realistically include:
— Dean Burnett (@garwboy) October 20, 2022
1. Queen died
2. That time she resigned
Some reflected that her CV would turn out to be pretty short and sharp.
> Barges into 10 Downing Street
— CD Seadragom (@seadragom) October 20, 2022
> Kills the Queen
> Crashes the pound
> Refuses to elaborate further
> Leaves
And it turned out there were a lot of different ways that you could slice up the time Truss had been allotted as PM.
Not even 2 calendar months😂🤣😂 not even the length of a standard phone contract, embarrassing
— Georgina Elizabeth (@muse_me_) October 20, 2022
If Liz Truss were to resign today she would match Brian Clough’s 44 days as Leeds manager
— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) October 20, 2022
Anthony Scaramucci has made comparing things to his short-lived time as Donald Trump’s press secretary almost his entire brand.
Liz Truss lasted 4.1 Scaramuccis
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 20, 2022
But it turns out you don’t necessarily have to rely on American measures of political time any more – the Conservatives have been specialising in their own micro-measures.
She was in power for 1.184 Kwartengs.
— Matt Leys (@mattleys) October 20, 2022
She’d even lost the support of the dictionary.
Did you resign from a job after just 44 days? Here are some synonyms for "brief":
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) October 20, 2022
abrupt
short
terse
abbreviated
brusque
pithy
succinct
Truss is still technically prime minister until the Conservative party elects a new leader, meaning that direct comparisons with David Blaine’s 44-day stretch suspended in a glass box aren’t statistically accurate. But some people had the real question:
Well, that lasted just one day longer than David Blaine spent living in a box over the Thames without any food. Wonder which one of them had more fun.
— Laura Reynolds (@scribbling_lau) October 20, 2022
As well as the lettuce, there also appears to be a limited shelf-life for the political stocking-filler book that Keir Starmer referenced at PMQs just Wednesday. He had mockingly asked whether “out by Christmas” was the publishing date or the title of the book about Truss. Some speculated it could become quite the collector’s item.
"The political biography equivalent of Prince's Black Album, it was pulled from release at the 11th hour but has been widely bootlegged by fans..." pic.twitter.com/zsvXZ8Zcw1
— Spooky C Taylor 💀 (@stuartctaylor) October 20, 2022
This tweet, which had aged as well as a lettuce from August would, began to get humorously shared again.
You can sense the palpable despair of most of the broadsheet punditry as it dawns on them that Liz Truss is in all likelihood going to be Prime Minister and will probably go on to smash Keir Starmer in the general election.
— Media Guido (@MediaGuido) August 3, 2022
There were, though, implications for the new monarch.
On current pace, King Charles could surpass his mother’s record of 15 prime ministers before the end of 2024
— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) October 20, 2022
There was also a feeling that somehow, some of the best British traditions just weren’t what they used to be.
Watching a Prime Minister’s resignation speech doesn’t feel historic anymore, just business as usual. They’ve even ruined that.
— Will Howells (Zoohacker Remix) (@willhowells) October 20, 2022
We feel sorry for Alan, who had already gone hugely viral with a tweet in the last 24 hours which is now factually inaccurate. His four-month-old son could well be on for living through five chancellors, four home secretaries and three prime ministers by next Friday.
My son has lived through four chancellors, three home secretaries, two prime ministers and two monarchs.
— Alan McGuinness (@Alan_McGuinness) October 19, 2022
He's four months old.
But most of all we feel sorry for George Canning, who was in office for 119 days before dying of tuberculosis, and who just lost the main thing anybody remembers him for.
George Canning rn pic.twitter.com/BD5yZIU3kA
— Conor Pope (@Conorpope) October 20, 2022
