Opinion: Liz Truss doesn't know when to stop, writes Labour Group leader Shaz Nawaz

Fans of the hit television programme “Happy Valley” are in mourning this week: the chief writer behind the show, Sally Wainwright said that last Sunday’s episode is the end.

The same was stated by the lead actress Sarah Lancashire.

It’s the mark of a good show that the audience is left hungry for more; however, knowing when to stop is also a sign of wisdom.

How I wish that the word “wisdom” could be applied to our Conservatives.

Liz Truss clearly doesn’t know when to finish. She blamed the catastrophes of her time on the “left wing economic establishment”.

I didn’t realise that the free market, which the Tories have gone out of their way to suggest is the source of everything good, was inherently “left wing”.

What Truss is saying is that it’s left wing to look at her plans, realise there was no means to pay for them, and then lose confidence in what she was doing. If having common sense is inherently left wing, all right then.

What is disquieting is that apparently many Tories agree with her. The Daily Telegraph was under no obligation to run her self-pitying essay. It is unlikely they would have published it if they thought people, in particular their hardcore Tory readership, wouldn’t be interested.

Clearly, some are. They want to escape from reality into a place where there are no practical limits to their theoretical framework.

From a Labour point of view, this is interesting. It was Theresa May who famously stated there was no such thing as a “magic money tree”. This apparently only applies if you want to pay public sector workers; if you want to indulge in tax cuts that are not paid for, go ahead, at least until the “left wing” free market stops you.

I think we’re all a bit tired of people not knowing when to stop. If we think about some of the most revered figures in our history, they reached a point when they stopped and handed over, for the good of the nation and its institutions.

I recall when Prince Philip, having turned 96 years old, decided to retire from public duties. Some tabloids seemed to believe this was the end of the world.

However, Prince Philip had been in the public eye and working for a variety of causes for decades. He decided to stop, and he was right to do so.

Her Majesty, before she passed, had been transitioning responsibilities to (now) King Charles. She too knew when to stop.

Carrying on for the sake of carrying on simply isn’t always the best nor most effective idea.

But locally and nationally, we have Tories who haven’t got any new ideas, who seem reluctant to abandon fantasies that don’t work, just carrying on.

Exhaustion has set in.

We have had over two decades of the Tories running Peterborough; we have had over a decade of them running our country.

As they won’t stop voluntarily, it will be down to the electorate to tell them time is up.

It’s been a long time coming.​​​​​​​