UK prime minister Liz Truss' waning power brings political plots, and jokes

Powerless, humiliated, labeled a ghost prime minister and compared unfavourably to a head of lettuce this is not a good week for Liz Truss.

Britain's prime minister was scrambling to recover her grasp on power Tuesday after her economic plans were ripped up and repudiated by a Treasury chief whom she was forced to appoint to avoid meltdown on the financial markets.

Truss remains in office, for now, largely because her Conservative Party is divided over how to replace her.

In a bid at business as usual, Truss held a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and met lawmakers from rival Conservative factions, arguing that keeping her in post can provide stability, even though she has had to ditch almost the entire prospectus on which she was elected party leader just six weeks ago.

Chastened but defiant, Truss acknowledged Monday that mistakes were made but insisted she would lead the Conservatives into the next national election.

Few believe that. Britain's lively, partisan press is unusually .