British media outlets and social media users are comparing Prime Minister Liz Truss to a head of iceberg lettuce after some predicted that her tenure as the United Kingdom’s leader would fail to outlast the vegetable’s shelf life.
“However long she now lasts in office, she is set to be remembered as the prime minister whose grip on power was the shortest,” wrote The Economist of Truss on Tuesday, criticizing the prime minister’s economic leadership.
“Take away the ten days of mourning after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and she had seven days in control,” the article stated. “That is roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce.”
British tabloid The Daily Star quickly seized onto The Economist’s characterization of the Conservative Party leader, beginning a livestream of a head of lettuce purchased from grocery store Tesco for 60 British pence (the equivalent of about 70 American cents) next to a picture of Truss.
“Will Liz Truss still be Prime Minister within the 10 day shelf-life of a lettuce?” the caption of the live YouTube video reads.
The Friday edition of The Daily Star boasted the headline: “Most urgent political question of the year…Which wet lettuce will last longer?”
Beneath the question were pictures of a head of lettuce and Truss’s head, as well as a subtitle claiming that bookies are offering odds of 6-1 that the vegetable will last longer than her remaining time in office.
The Economist’s article cited climbing gilt yields, or interest rates paid on British government bonds, as evidence of financial instability resulting from Truss’s leadership.
“The Bank of England has twice widened its emergency bond-buying programme to try to prevent a spiral of forced selling of assets by pension funds,” the article reads.
In a Twitter poll posted by The Daily Star, 96.8 percent of 665 voters predicted that the Tesco lettuce would outlast Truss’s time as prime minister.
The lettuce gag continued on Saturday as a livestream of the Truss image and the head of lettuce persisted, this time adding a blonde wig to the vegetable to emphasize the parallel between the two.
“Tip of the Iceberg: How long can wet lettuce Liz romaine?” Saturday’s Daily Star front page was headlined.
It continued: “WET lettuce Liz Truss has axed Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng but won’t admit she’s past her sell-by date,” referencing Truss’s firing of Kwarteng, the British finance minister, on Friday amid turmoil in the country’s financial markets.