Truss may be trying to steady the ship, but many have fled already

What will happen next? It feels impossible to predict. If the past 24 hours in Birmingham are anything to go by, none of it will be good, writes Marie Le Conte

Truss told a joke to an audience who should adore her and it fell flat (Getty Images)

This time last year I was at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester and I typed this: “Writing a column on Westminster isn’t entirely unlike meeting a friend for a catch-up, in that you ideally need at least one thing to have gone wrong in the recent past to really make it worth it.

“No one wants to turn up in a bar and announce that absolutely nothing has happened to them since the last meeting.”

I am currently typing this from Birmingham and, to stretch that metaphor, would like you to picture me practically tripping over myself to get a margarita, sit down and tell you about my weekend.