It looks like 2022 will be the year of at least three prime ministers for the UK. The country’s current leader, Liz Truss, tendered her resignation on Thursday, making her the shortest-serving British prime minister in history.
Truss’ premiership has been a wild ride for the country. During her 44 days in office, the queen died, multiple cabinet ministers were appointed and resigned, and a mini budget announcement caused the rapid fall of the pound, leading to criticism from both President Joe Biden and the International Monetary Fund.
Sensing that Truss’ days in office might be numbered, the British tabloid the Daily Star set up a livestream of a fresh lettuce on Oct. 16 to see whether Truss would still be in office by the time the lettuce fell apart. The average shelf life of a lettuce in the UK is 10 days, so while it doesn’t necessarily look at its most appetizing, the lettuce has indeed outlasted Truss.
The Daily Star is treating this as a “celebration,” having campaigned for Truss to resign over the past week. Meanwhile, it’s milking the lettuce’s moment in the limelight by putting it on Cameo, the service that allows you to buy video messages from celebrities. Given that the lettuce has only around four days left before it will need to be thrown in the bin, it seems like this side hustle will have a limited impact on the Daily Star’s annual earnings.
The Conservative Party, of which Truss was leader, will now elect a new leader by Oct. 28, meaning there should be a new prime minister in place by the time of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt and the G20 Summit in Indonesia next month. They will be the third Conservative prime minister of 2022, after Truss and Boris Johnson, who Truss replaced in September.
The new prime minister will need to be able to outlast an onion (around two months) if they still want to be in office by 2023. There’s a chance that this might not be possible if a general election is called in the meantime. With this a distinct possibility, it’s still too early to say for sure what vegetable the next leader’s time in office will be comparable to.