In days gone by, Conservatives used to be in favour of conserving things. Liz Truss, whose political identity was formed during the tumult of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, is in a hurry to challenge orthodoxies, overhaul institutions, and generally shake things up.
“There are things I very much care about conserving,” the foreign secretary said, looking out over the City of London skyline to the Surrey hills beyond. “The natural environment we have — protecting endangered species.”
A Truss premiership might offer the prospect of a quiet life for great crested newts, but the minister whom Boris Johnson calls “the human hand grenade” is primed to detonate at the pinnacle of British politics.