The dirty dozen years the Conservatives have misruled Britain have been painful.
Prices are soaring and wages are falling amid record NHS waiting lists and rising crime.
And now Liz Truss has been installed as PM by the Tories without a general election.
Her praise for her disgraced predecessor Boris Johnson, dumped by Conservative MPs terrified about losing their jobs, sits uncomfortably with reality.
It would be in all our interests for her to be a success but the signs are not encouraging.
Her answers on the economy, energy and the NHS threaten to be a problem when she is promising juicy tax cuts for high earners and big business, while tightening shackles on workers who fight their corner.
With a reputation for dangerously ignoring evidence and pursuing ideological obsessions, if Truss abandons common sense, decency and competence it would make her a continuity Johnson repeating the same old mistakes.
Britain deserves better. Alas, we do not appear to be about to enjoy it.
Flaming cheek
Praised as heroes, the anger of our firefighters is understandable when the Conservative Government is not putting its money where its mouth is.
Plaudits are cheap and a measly 2% wage rise offer will not pay the bills when inflation is more than five times higher at 10.1% – and predicted to soar as high as 22%.
The last firefighter pay strike nearly 20 years ago led to the deployment of troops in ageing Green Goddess machines and we do not want to go back to that scenario.
We urge Liz Truss to play fair with our crews or any strikes will be her fault.
Testing times
Best wishes to former rugby star Kenny Logan, husband of TV presenter Gabby, after he revealed he had prostate cancer.
Men should heed his wise advice to get tested even if, like him, they are suffering no symptoms of the deadly disease.
