The vanishing Ghost PM and other horrors on crisis-ridden Downing Street

Image of the week: Writing on the wall

It’s been one of those weeks in Westminster: screeching U-turns, crisis-mode statements flanked by Union Jack flags, feverish references to the Conservatives’ 1922 committee (the party’s gatekeepers for leader confidence motions) and headlines that can barely do justice to the turmoil.

It was a week when Liz Truss’s approval rating sank lower than the UK rate of inflation, the cover of a yet-to-be-published flash biography on her “journey from schoolgirl revolutionary to Britain’s new prime minister” was augmented online with joke “reduced to clear” stickers, and Sky News presenter Kay Burley was among those firmly stationed outside 10 Downing Street to deliver the latest on each fresh humiliation.

Tuesday saw normally supportive newspapers stick the knife in, with the Daily Mail opting for a classic “In Office, But Not in Power” headline and The Sun splashing on an image of Truss with her eyes closed and a devastating three-word assessment for the season that’s in it: “The Ghost PM”.

New chancellor Jeremy Hunt, meanwhile, looked to be having the absolute time of his life — almost as much fun as the media. Then things really descended into chaos. What kind of chaos? “Total, absolute, abject chaos,” according to ITV News anchor Tom Bradby, while BBC political editor Chris Mason went for the succinct “rolling chaos”.

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Truss, contrary to her assertion in the House of Commons, turned out to be a quitter not a fighter. That might be just as well. Next!

In numbers: Emotional issues

41%

Percentage of wealth managers who identified “making impulsive decisions” among the top three mistakes made by their clients, according to a survey of 150 European wealth managers by behavioural finance experts Oxford Risk.

30%

Over-confidence was the third most cited clients’ mistake, behind the second-placed “evaluating investment returns over too short a time period”. Emotions and personality are “at the root of most common mistakes wealth managers see”, it said.

29%

People who are wealthy enough to have wealth managers sometimes indulge in “comparing their returns to other investors” — an inconvenient habit from wealth managers’ perspective and also the fourth most-cited “mistake”.

Getting to know: Irenic Capital

New York-based Irenic Capital Management, founded by Adam Katz and Andy Dodge, “believes companies should be run with an ‘owner’s mindset’ in which management teams and directors are focused on creating long-term sustainable value”. The “philosophy” section of its website continues: “We work with companies to ensure that operating activities, capital deployment and management incentives are all aligned to produce durable results for the company’s owners.”

One thing the Irenic fund happens to own is a $150 million stake in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, a company that was last spotted mulling a proposal, submitted by Murdoch, to merge with Fox Corp, the other wing of his empire. Irenic, however, has other thoughts on its mind. It wants News Corp to explore splitting its property listings unit from its media and publishing assets and is reported to have “engaged with the Murdoch family” on the matter.

This is not shaping up to be one of the more interesting episodes of Succession, to be honest, but don’t completely write it off.

The list: Female currency

The US treasury has been busy minting 25c coins that feature a series of pioneering women on the tails side, with first president George Washington keeping his place on “heads”. So who is being immortalised in quarter form?

1. Anna May Wong: The first Chinese-American movie star (1905-1961) was much discriminated against in her time, often losing roles to white peers in “yellowface”. She will become the first Asian-American to be featured on US currency when a quarter bearing her image goes into general circulation on Monday.

2. Maya Angelou: The writer, performer and activist (1928-2014) was the first to grace the American Women Quarters series earlier this year and was shown with her arms uplifted before a bird in flight and a rising sun — images inspired by her poetry.

3. Dr Sally Ride: The astronaut, physicist and educator (1951-2012) is best known for being the first American woman in space. She flew two missions on board the space shuttle Challenger, the first in 1983, and was later part of the presidential commission investigating the cause of the disaster that befell the shuttle in 1986.

4. Bessie Coleman: A quarter due for issue in 2023 will depict Coleman (1892-1926), the first African American and Native American woman pilot. She became known for performing “loop-the-loops” and figure-eights at air shows before being killed in a practice flight piloted by someone else.

5. Maria Tallchief: Another 2023 quarter will show the first American prima ballerina (1925-2013) in ballet pose. Tallchief saw her career take off at the Ballet Russe company in New York in the 1940s, resisting pressure to change her Native American surname to something more Russian-sounding.