Liz Truss, cartoon Mrs. Thatcher, takes power in U.K.

Lionel Barber is former editor of the Financial Times. He is the author of "The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times."

Britain, which once prided itself on political stability but increasingly looks like Italy, has just welcomed its fourth prime minister in six years. Liz Truss, the new incumbent, faces a daunting in-tray that ranges from a domestic cost of living crisis to uncertainty over Britain's place in the world.