In securing her position as leader of the Conservative Party Liz Truss spoke with fervent determination and committed to overturn the existing orthodoxy which was about the distribution of wealth and not its creation. Her overriding commitment would be to “growth, growth, growth”. And the way to secure that would be by reducing taxes and regulation which was choking entrepreneurialism.

Those that challenged her approach were quickly labelled the anti-growth camp. A camp which has grown to include Treasury mandarins, most of the economics profession, the Bank of England, the IMF a range of think tanks, obviously all the opposition parties, indeed, now one feels left out if not included in the anti-growth camp.

Leave aside the fact that few, if any, have said they are anti-growth. “Growth, growth, growth”, like “education, education, education” and “health, health, health” are slogans few people take exception to. Questioning whether low tax and light regulation lead to such growth, and also if it does whether it results in all boats floating is not the equivalent of being anti-growth. However, that is for another time.

The cack handed first steps toward implementing this break with orthodoxy has created widespread concern and a sharp focus on how the PM is going to resolve a problem of her own making.

She now has to explain how she is going to fund the debt created by the promises she has made. That is going to be tricky. She is caught between, on the one hand, the rock of investor demands, and on the other a series of hard places in voter and party members raised expectations.

Investors will not be bothered whether the funding of debt is through increases in government income, (higher taxes), or cuts in government expenditure, (austerity 2.0). One thing is certain, it is unlikely they will give much credence to the growth fairy. Unlike the long suffering British public they care nothing for the promise of jam tomorrow.

However, there are conflicting and powerful constituencies opposing or promoting both of these options. The public, and a large part of the Conservative Parliamentary Party will be very concerned with a second round of austerity when public services are already struggling. On the other hand, a large part of the Conservative Party membership and her close libertarian supporters within the party will not want to see tax increases.

Her strategy has not got off to a great start, to put it mildly. However, over the next few weeks as she wrestles with this dilemma it is set to become a whole lot more fractious. The only bright spot is that her claim she would be resolute in the face of opposition is not looking strong.

To misquote her hero, “U-turn if you want to. I’ll turn whenever I have to!”