Liz Truss spoke as a PM in denial, watched by a party that knows she’s a failure | Frances Ryan

The PM is plugging on while the Tory party implodes around her. It might be funny if we weren't about to feel the aftershocks

Watching the Conservative party self-destruct after 12 years of near-untouchable power while the economy tanks is akin to seeing your racist neighbour's house flood with sewage. It's delightful schadenfreude - until you realise that stink is heading straight for you. If there is one positive to the Tory party conference this week, it is that these people have been at least temporarily contained. A kind of Alcatraz for Eton alumni. I would say how much damage can they do?" locked in a conference hall in Birmingham; but based on the last few days, this group would see that less as a question and more as an active challenge.

Enter the levelling up secretary, Simon Clarke, who kicked off conference by touting a new age of austerity in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Britain had, Clarke said, been in a fool's paradise" for too long with a very large welfare state", which must come as news to the people queueing in the utopia of their local food bank. Early figures suggest public services will see cuts of up to 18bn a year, while benefits are being lined up for real-term cuts.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist