Was Truss doomed to fail on day one?

‘I’m sorry for the damage and the loss. It was a scary time, and I’m sorry for that.’ Kwasi Kwarteng’s contrite apology on TalkTV last night was a striking contrast with the confidence, excitement and ambition which he and others exuded on taking up their new posts in Liz Truss’s government exactly one year ago today. Back then, there was talk from the likes of Truss’s chief of staff Mark Fullbrook about it being a ‘seven year premiership’. Yet it ended up being over in just seven weeks. How did it all go so wrong, so quickly?

By the time the new prime minister walked up Downing Street to make her speech on that wet Tuesday afternoon, the course of her government had been set already. The economic climate had worsened throughout the summer leadership race, as Truss and Sunak slugged it out around the country.