The silence that reveals everything about Liz Truss

The moorings that tie the rulers to the ruled are breaking in the UK. You can hear them snapping during the Prime Minister’s silences.

On Sunday morning, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked Liz Truss a question any democratic leader should be able to answer. Truss and her Chancellor’s folly had sent yields on ten-year guilts up to 4.3 per cent. It had forced the Bank of England to announce an emergency £65 billion bond-buying programme. It had threatened pensions and the finances of mortgage holders.

‘How many people voted for your plan?’ asked Kuenssberg.

Silence. A silence long enough for viewers to believe that concerns of democratic legitimacy had not bothered the Prime Minister in the slightest until that moment.

And then a baffled answer that justified their worst suspicions.

‘What do you mean by that?’