A prime minister must get the big calls right. On the cost of living crisis, Truss got it badly wrong | Gaby Hinsliff

She takes office with a screeching handbrake turn on her flagship policy - how can anybody ever trust her judgment now?

It should have been Liz Truss's moment of triumph, her chance to bask in the glory of a whooping crowd.

Yet victory, when it came, felt curiously flat. Gone was the bouncy, confident, shoot-from-the-hip Truss who emerged over two long months of hustings, after a wobbly start. When Britain's new prime minister rose to the lectern to embrace a narrower win over Rishi Sunak than expected - narrow enough to make you wonder if he could even have won, had he played it differently - the old, slightly flat, stilted speaking manner was back. In Truss, that's a sure sign of nerves. Perhaps only now does she feel the weight of what lies ahead.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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