Britain | Bagehot

Liz Truss and the power of perkiness

What the trade secretary’s popularity says about today’s Tories

LIZ TRUSS’s fellow MPs tend to treat her as a bit of a joke. A dull speaker in a profession that values powerful rhetoric and a relentless self-promoter in a world that relishes cutting people down to size, after seven years in cabinet she only holds the lowly job of trade secretary. “Cringe-making”, “insubstantial” and “a robot with a bit missing” are just a few of her colleagues’ brickbats.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The power of perkiness”

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