This Side of the Pond

Well, that was quick. Hot on the heels of losing the longest-reigning monarch in British history, we have a new record-holder for the shortest-serving prime minister and someone new in charge of the UK for the second time in two months – it’s enough to give you whiplash.

Liz Truss was doomed from the start, but few could have predicted she’d only last 45 days in the job. George Canning, the man who held this dubious record before her, managed five months – and he didn’t really step down so much as keel over during a bout of pneumonia (it was the 1820s, after all, when a paper cut could still b...