Liz Truss was greeted by an ominous “thick fog” as her plane circled Aberdeen Airport ahead of her trip to Balmoral as she became the new prime minister.
And it’s with that omen the short-lived Tory leader opens her new book – the grandly titled Ten Years to Save the West.
It’s a book in which Ms Truss spends much of her energy railing against left-wingers, environmentalists, the “deep state”, and just about anyone except herself.
But it all seems to start with a memory of her trip to the north-east, and a meeting with the Queen in Balmoral.
In an portent of the turmoil that would follow, her landing was delayed as heavy clouds in the sky meant her plane had to circle the north-east airport instead.
Ms Truss, who perhaps aptly describes herself as a woman in a hurry, said she was “impatient to get going”.
Had she known just how little time she would get in Downing Street, the ill-fated Tory leader would have perhaps savoured the moment just a little bit more.
‘Pace yourself’, says Queen
The former prime minister says she was given a rather prescient piece of advice by the Queen during their brief chat at Her Majesty’s Balmoral residence.
“Pace yourself,” was the monarch’s advice.
Ms Truss might have done well to listen.
Just three days later Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96, leaving Ms Truss as the political leader of a nation in mourning.
“Why me? Why now?” were the immediate thoughts of Ms Truss.
She would soon not be the only person in Britain questioning why she had ever been given any political power.
Winston Churchill, who was in power when the Queen ascended to the throne, famously won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Any hopes Ms Truss has of becoming the latest prime minister to pick up that accolade are about as slim as her chances of returning to 10 Downing Street.
Climate change policy – always a heated topic in Scotland’s energy-rich north-east – comes in for plenty of ire from Ms Truss.
The former Tory leader reveals she made attempts to stop Glasgow from hosting the COP26 summit in 2018, when she worked in the treasury.
Michael Gove brands Truss ‘Grinch’
Senior Tory Michael Gove, who was born and raised in Aberdeen himself, branded her the “Grinch who wants to stop Christmas”.
That jibe will seem rather fitting for families in the north-east who had to endure the consequences of Ms Truss’ disastrous economic policies months before the festive season.
Britain’s political parties have regularly battled it out to portray themselves as having the strongest environmental credentials.
Nowhere is the debate more important than in the north-east, given uncertainties over the transition from oil and gas to renewables.
But in the view of Ms Truss the fight to reverse climate change has gone too far, at the expense of other, important topics.
Instead she warns there is too much “alarmism” when it comes to saving the planet, and claims the movement is driven by the “radical left”.
Ms Truss is pretty scathing on many of her own colleagues when it comes to environmental policy as well.
Climate fever
She claims senior Tories were gripped by “climate fever”, desperate to ban plastic straws and get selfies with activist Greta Thunberg.
Yet one Aberdeenshire businessman manages to escape the righteous anger of Ms Truss – former US President Donald Trump.
Ms Truss reckoned his shock election in 2016 might be good for Britain by forcing her party to adopt more conservative policies.
Just pages later, Ms Truss criticises those who dismissed Brexit and Mr Trump as “populist” by saying “political parties need to be popular”.
Presumably the ex-Tory leader has not reflected on her own dismal approval ratings or her party’s seemingly irreversible slump in the polls.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, also MP for Moray is not referenced once by his party’s former Westminster chief, he may be relieved to find out.
Indeed, any political newcomers reading her memoirs would be none the wiser as to the existence of the Scottish Conservatives.
Given Mr Ross was initially a supporter of Ms Truss’ disastrous mini-budget that sent the economy tumbling, the omission may be a blessing.
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