Liz Truss is back, and her delusion knows no bounds

It is not necessary here to plunge into the depths of the delusion shown by the seven-week wonder on her recent tour of far-right America, other than to say that having variously blamed her downfall on Kwasi Kwarteng, the “anti-growth coalition”, Remainers at the Treasury and lefties at the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility, Truss is now laying it all squarely on a “deep state” full of trans and environmental activists, as well a the “usual suspects” in the media and the corporate world. Oh, and the International Monetary Fund, and Chinos (her term for Conservatives In Name Only, proving that she can’t even do acronyms well).

Like OJ Simpson, her hunt for the real killers of her career goes on without Truss ever once looking in the one place where the answer is to be found: the mirror.

But what can you expect of a woman who launches a new movement she calls “Popular Conservatism” while simultaneously being the least popular politician in the country? The YouGov tracker has her net favourability rating at -54, while Rishi Sunak’s is a mere -27. Imagine not only being less popular than even Sunak, but TWICE as unpopular!

Yet as she trots through the USA with her brave face, her brass neck and her head full of mince, Truss – who voted Remain in 2016 before changing her mind when we lost – has never sounded more like a true Brexiteer. Talk to Nigel Farage, who appeared on a panel with Truss during her American jaunt, and the failure of Brexit is the responsibility not of him and his mates but a Rishi Sunak government which is socialist in all but name. Talk to Suella Braverman or Jacob Rees-Mogg and it is civil servants with a “Remain bias” who are culpable. Talk to Kemi Badenoch – when she is not distracted by imaginary negotiations with Canada – and the rap lies partly with the Biden administration and its refusal to sign a trade deal with the UK. The four words in the English language that Brexiteers hate the most are: “Sorry, it’s my fault.”

Yet there is another way. Earlier this month, Kwarteng – who has mainly toiled in obscurity since his self-inflicted demise – announced he was stepping down at the next general election. Since he and Truss imploded, sending mortgage rates soaring and the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years, he has largely observed a very welcome silence, emerging only to make admissions like: “People got carried away, myself included. There was no tactical subtlety whatsoever. Where we fell woefully short was to have a tactical plan.”

When will Truss – or Farage, Badenoch, Braverman and Rees-Mogg, or any of them – find the honesty to take a deep breath and say something like that about Brexit and themselves?