By Boluwatife Adedokun
A lettuce from Tesco in a blond wig has been awarded the winner of an eccentric competition after outlasting Liz Truss’s tenuous grip on power.
The lettuce won after a webcam was set up by the lettuce on October 14 to detect if it would have a longer shelf-line than the prime minister.
In her speech,Truss — who is eligible for a taxpayer-funded, lifelong allowance of 115,000 pounds ($129,000) a year — said she would remain in office until a successor was chosen. “Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said, a day after declaring in Parliament, “I’m a fighter, not a quitter.”
During the Prime Minister’s confirmation of her departure on Thursday, lunchtime, a plastic gold crown was placed on the now browning leafy vegetable. The write ups changed from
“Day Seven: Will Liz Truss outlast his lettuce?” to “The Lettuce Outlasted Liz Truss”. The national anthem was played to mark the lettuce’s triumph, and champagne was poured.
The lettuce was bombarded with messages of congratulations, in a chat box beside the video. They included: “Lettuce Rejoice”, “Lettuce being having you”, “Lettuce for PM”, “Lettuce 1 Truss 0”, “Truss sunk by an iceberg”.
The Daily Star’s stunt was inspired by the Economist, which earlier this month quipped that Truss’s tenure in Downing Street threatened to be “roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce”.
The lettuce-cam attracted global media attention as a symbol of the rapid disintegration of Truss’s government and the ridicule it faced.
France’s News 24 asked: “What do British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s political mandate and a head of wilted lettuce have in common, you might ask? They both have an expiry date.”
“Now Liz Truss even has to fight a head of lettuce in the fight for her political career,” the German tabloid Bild reported.
The Washington Post said comparing Truss to a lettuce was “the butt of quintessentially British jokes”.
New York Time noted, “Lettuce can generally stay crisp for about seven to 10 days – though that’s typically the lifespan of refrigerated lettuce, not a head that’s been sitting out on a table and wearing a wig.”
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Also, Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev also congratulated the lettuce. Writing on Twitter he said: “Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce.”
