Truss stop

AS IT TURNS OUT, the chief mouser at 10 Downing Street was harbinger indeed. Liz Truss has resigned as British prime minister after 45 days. Just last week, British media picked up on the apparent distaste for Ms. Truss of Larry the Cat, feline in residence at the PM’s digs. Now, Conservatives will elect a new party leader and PM, and we’ll see how Larry takes to the new blood.

PM Truss’ resignation capped a wild week in British politics. The top treasury and homeland security ministers were ousted, the chief and deputy chief Conservative whips reportedly resigned only to rescind their resignations, and Tory whips allegedly bullied MPs into supporting a fracking vote on the floor of Parliament that quickly turned into spectacle.

The Spectator’s Matt Purple encapsulated the drama in high fashion, noting the Brits’ week-long face plant but pointing out one important thing: At least they don’t have to wait four years to start over.

“Truss was never a saint or a sun god; she was merely the current leader of the Conservative Party. Ho hum. No ‘Hail to the Chief’ required: political power in the UK is far more desacralized than it is here. And once Truss became a liability, once the pound and the polls went south, she got the boot.

“Contrast that now with our presidential system. Short of impeachment or the ballyhooed 25th Amendment, Americans have no instrument for ousting our presidents. If we elect Joe Biden, we’re stuck with Joe Biden, even if Joe Biden keeps gaffing ahead the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, even if it’s not entirely clear Joe Biden is running the country. The head of politics is also the head of state. We both elect him and pay for him to live in a palace.

“This can lead to a kind of masquerade feeling, where everyone in government smiles and pretends everything is normal even if their boss is saying things like ‘Let me start off with two words: Made in America.’”

Mr. Purple raises some excellent points. Meanwhile, the Brits’ seventh PM in 15 years is on deck.