SOME say Liz Truss has had a terribly hard start to her stint as Prime Minister, what with the Queen upping and dying and everything.

But it could be argued the new PM has been let off lightly, particularly if you believe that Prime Minister’s Questions is the most taxing (pardon the expresh), even hellish, event that a British leader has to face.

She’s only faced one since coming to power. The second week’s was cancelled for the official sorrowing. And, yesterday, Liz was at the United Nations in yonder New York, telling anyone who’d listen that we can only defeat Putin by lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

So, that was another PMQ’s off. Furthermore, the Commons is supposed to be in recess for three weeks from tomorrow for “conference season”, so we’ll be well into October before Liz has to get down and dirty again with Labour leader Keir Starmer on the floor of the House. Even then, don’t be surprised if it’s cancelled in favour of karaoke or a pub quiz.

Yesterday, in lieu of the spectacle and spittle of PMQs, we saw the bizarre spectacle of MPs lining up individually to swear true allegiance to the new King, his hairs (as one genuinely said) and accessories (as, sadly, none did).

Some insisted on a King James Bible upon which to ululate, others a New or Old Testament, none to my disappointment The Lord of the Rings (undoubted choice of your correspondent should he ever be elected).

Meanwhile, 3549 miles away, Liz was hobnobbing with the great and the good, such as Sky Television. She told them she’d welcome being unpopular if giving bankers more money meant attracting really talented people to the sector rather than just poorly motivated layabouts who’d do shoddy work in return for a few measly millions.

Elsewhere, her planned tax consolations for the wealthy and corporations were interpreted as “trickle-down economics”, the theory that, once the big beasts of business have wined and dined, the gravy from their bibs will ooze or seep down to the lower orders.

US president Joe Biden, due to meet Liz last night as I write, has already said he’s “sick and tired” of this woo-woo bilge, opining tetchily: “It has never worked.” Correct. Give that man a coconut.

Mind you, we must hope it was a Freudian slop whan a chap on the radio said that, in contradistinction to Liz, Biden preferred a system that built “from the bottom down”. How low can you get?

A highpoint of Liz’s visit to New York was to be her address to the UN’s General Assembly last night (our time), telling them, according to an advance briefing note from Number Ten: “We want people to keep more of the money they earn, because we believe that freedom trumps instruction …”

You tell ’em, gal. Eh? Hang on. Instruction? I don’t know if that’s a misprint.

At any rate, I’m not quoting any more of that advance note in case by the time you read this it transpired that Liz decided to throw away her script and sing “I will survive” instead. However, even that sentiment might sound optimistic, with Putin psychotically bumping his gums again.

Yesterday’s UN General Assembly was the first against the backdrop of a large-scale war of aggression in Europe, with various nutters on Russian telly demanding Britain be nuked. Certainly, the loony antics of Russia’s TV celebrities put Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield skipping the Queen’s coffin queue into perspective.

And, PMQs or no PMQs, you could say a crackpot authoritarian regime threatening to nuke Britain is rather a difficult situation to inherit on becoming PM.

Besides, avoiding PMQs appears to have worked for gaffe-prone Liz. According to a poll published yesterday by Redfield & Wilton Strategies – aye, thaim – more voters believe she’d be a better Prime Minister than Sir Keir.

Which is odd as the same poll sees labour backed by 42% of voters compared to 34% for the Tories. Conclusion: Britain wants a Labour government led by Ms Truss. Stranger things haven’t happened. You must also factor in that personal approval ratings in these polls start from a very low, even negative, base. Thus Liz’s personal approval rating had risen by four points: to three.

Whether she will retain the love, relatively speaking, of the lieges after she next encounters the forensic mind of Sir Keir at PMQs remains to be seen. She cannot avoid it forever. She must show that she can survive in a right proper hullabaloo, one that would probably reduce Putin to a quivering wreck.