The Daily Star‘s lettuce has outlasted Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The lettuce’s week-long live cam showdown with ailing prime minister Truss captivated the nation and made headlines in journals as august as The New York Times.
Following its victory, Daily Star parent company Reach offered Press Gazette the opportunity to ask the lettuce anything we wanted.
Unable to type, the lettuce’s spokesperson was Daily Star editor-in-chief Jon Clark.
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Reach says the live feed of the lettuce has had around 1.7m views, and its popularity is such that this afternoon Star editors have been doing broadcast interviews with news outlets as far afield as New Zealand.
Press Gazette asked who came up with the idea for the lettuce, how it related to the Star’s other recent irreverent content, whether the lettuce planned to build on its political momentum and whether it will be honoured at the end of its life by being eaten.
Press Gazette also asked whether the Star had made any money from the lettuce cam or if it had received any sponsorships through, for example, the conspicuous appearance of Greggs and Marmite in-frame – but did not receive a response to those queries.
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Clark’s answers on behalf of the lettuce are below:
Who came up with the idea?
“Deputy editor Denis Mann spotted a line in The Economist about the shelf-life of a lettuce and mentioned it to me at the start of the day. We instantly saw the potential of pitting a real lettuce (60p from Tesco) against Wet Lettuce Liz Truss to see who would outlast the other. The video team threw their all at it and Lettuce Cam was born.”
The lettuce appears to be housed in the home of a Reach senior social video editor.
Was the lettuce a natural follow-on from the jovial front pages the Star does?
“We have been dipping our toe into politics for a few years now and Lettuce Cam was an extension of our fervent belief that our elected leaders are a joke.”
The New York Times raised eyebrows earlier on Thursday by characterising the Star as “left-wing”.
“We really believe that we have a duty to prick the egos of people who have forgotten what their real role is – whichever party they belong to. We also say we are not anti-Tory or anti-Labour… we are anti-idiot.”
What will happen to the lettuce at the end of its life? Will the Star give it a sort of viking burial by eating it?
“We have no plans to eat Lizzy Lettuce as that would be cruel after all she’s done for us.
“She is currently weighing up her options and is thinking of either going into politics full time or she may instead become a full-time lion tamer. We will keep you posted.”
[Read more: Daily Star editor interview: Dominic Cummings ‘was taking the piss out of every right-thinking person’]
[Read more: How press coverage may have helped Liz Truss into Number 10]
Picture: Youtube screenshot
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