It's Time Someone Told Truss She's Not President Of The UK

Listen, no one wants to start their column with a quote in Latin. This isn't The Spectator. I'm not some 174-year-old man sitting in an armchair having port for breakfast, about to argue in favour of something related to Brexit or possibly the Roundheads.

- Marie Le Conte

Well, not yet at least - you never know what life has in store for you. Still, I'm afraid I must start this piece with the words that have been rattling around my head for the past month whenever I have read or heard anything about the way Liz Truss is handling her premiership. It is - and I must apologize once more - a Latin phrase. It's primus inter pares. Primus inter pares! It will not leave my brain. It means (if you are less insufferable than I am) "first among equals".

According to the internet, which can be trusted on these things: "The political title 'prime minister' originally meant that its bearer was the foremost minister of a ruling monarch, and so merely primus inter pares among government ministers or the cabinet rather than head of government."

Or, to be more concise: this isn't France. There is a prime minister in Britain - Liz Truss, you may have heard of her - but there is not a president. This is a parliamentary democracy. Truss derives her power from her ability to command a majority in the House of Commons, as the leader of the largest party in said House. Nothing more; nothing less.