Government blood letting.

 Government blood-letting.

It's all getting gory, gruesome and most unseemly. This morning Liz Truss, now the former Prime Minister, must have flung open her curtains or blinds and amid all the maddening chaos of it all, simply taken herself off to a dark, empty room while gathering her thoughts and trying to put everything into some kind of sober perspective. The trouble is that all of those ferocious critics of her Prime Ministerial tenure just won't let it go. Politics is a merciless, barbaric business where nothing that even comes close to sentiment, forgiveness, leniency or any shadow of remorse can sort this one out. 

For a while Truss must have thought she'd landed the kind of dream job that others would simply envy for the rest of their lives. The Tory party, under siege for almost the entire year, were pinching themselves when they elected Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister. She was respectable, positive, always upping the ante, well intentioned and looked as though she'd captured the hearts of Britain. Then the honeymoon period  turned into one blazing row and everything fell apart at the seams quite catastrophically. 

First to be given his P45 and the marching orders out of the back door was one Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now it's common knowledge that any incoming Chancellor should have an accurate head for figures, mathematical calculations, pricing levels all the while juggling with huge sums of money with almost effortless ease. Almost overnight though one mini- Budget announcement from Kwarteng almost brought about a terrifying international incident. He'd well and truly upset the apple cart. 

Before long, there were scenes of anarchy, mass aggression, flailing fists, shoving and elbowing in a way that was simply unprecedented. Of course there were always the jocular jibes, the facetious jokes in the House of Commons tea room and those childish insults that almost bordered on blasphemy. Bad behaviour between both Tory and Labour parties has always been legendary but this was truly appalling. Truss was history, we were repeatedly told, a waste of space, incapable and indecisive and not really knowing what she was supposed to do. 

Poor Liz Truss didn't stand a chance. Events overwhelmed her and her days were numbered. Soon the loyal colleagues she thought she could depend on, were sharpening knives, ganging up on her with menacing intent and then telling her to leave by the back door. The dust may have settled now but now we face the latest episode of this abhorrent freak show. Another Prime Minister will step up to the plate within days and this time though it won't be a long, drawn out and protracted business. 

On social media platforms we were treated to hilarious revolving doors where once a black door at 10 Downing Street once was. The point had been made. Sadly and embarrassingly, Truss was Prime Minister for 44 days, the shortest term in office of all time but we already knew as much and so none of us were surprised. Yesterday though Truss bravely faced the flash of cameras and a savage mauling from those who wanted her to leave as soon as possible. If this had been a high-profile boxing heavyweight match the towel would have been thrown into the ring well before Truss had had time to adjust the microphone.

The trouble is that from a global point of view, the rest of the world probably regards Britain as a laughing stock, the one nation that produces only feckless, irresponsible, incompetent and useless politicians with no backbone. The beginning of the end came when Truss was grilled by the tabloid and broadsheet newspapers about the incomprehensible nature of the mini- Bridget. It is hard to know why the swingeing tax cuts that Kwarteng had just announced hadn't been the ones the nation might have been anticipating.

In fact when the numbers were crunched and the costs analysed, the whole of the country seemed to explode with fury. Once again nothing seemed to add up correctly, the rich became criminally wealthier and the poor working class were left staring into the abyss, worried sick at the frightening prospect of fuel and energy prices soaring through the roof and vital decisions being made about whether to forego essential food and drink. And that's before considering whether they'd have to turn up the heating. 

So what of the future of the United Kingdom in the short term? Across Britain's green and fair lands people are strapping themselves in for one turbulent ride. The end of the world scenario hasn't quite been acted out and we're all in this one together. All that Britain needs at the moment essentially is a Prime Minister who lasts for longer than the six o'clock evening news. At the moment the whole of the Tory cabinet is involved in some rough bout of tug of war. The headless chickens have yet come home to roost but the gut feeling is that sooner or later patience will run thin and nobody will be able to find a solution to a seemingly intractable problem.

Still, by this time next week we should know whether Penny Mourdant, now one of the favourites to win the Tory leadership contest, Boris Johnson, dare we say it with a straight face, or Rishi Sunak finally emerge with the top job. A week in politics may have seemed a long time to those who think along those lines but longevity in the role of a Prime Minister now seems a distant memory certainly in recent years. We all wish the next occupant at 10 Downing Street well. The journey begins here and you'd better get it right because the comedy script writers are ready and waiting.