LIZ TRUSS'S fellow MPS tend to treat her as a bit of a joke. A dull speaker in a profession that values powerful rhetoric and a relentless self-promoter in a world that relishes cutting people down to size, after seven years in cabinet she only holds the lowly job of trade secretary. "Cringe-making", "insubstantial" and "a robot with a bit missing" are just a few of her colleagues' brickbats. Yet this month she topped Conservative Home's monthly Cabinet league table for the fifth time in a row. With 89 points, she beats the highly regarded chancellor, Rishi Sunak (79 points), by a length and the prime minister (61 points) by several. The league table reflects the opinions of party activists, who matter in Tory politics not just because they make key decisions (Boris Johnson was selected as prime minister by a constituency of 160,000 party members) but also because they both create and reflect wider currents of opinion. What is it about Ms Truss that the Conservative grassroots finds so endearing?
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