Surely, we're at the lettuce stage, probably well beyond it. Back in October 2022, British tabloid the Daily Star livestreamed an iceberg lettuce next to a photo of then UK PM Liz Truss in an experiment to see which would last the longest. The lettuce won.

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Truss quit as PM six days into the Daily Star's live stream, before the lettuce had even begun to wilt. Sussan Ley has outlasted Truss as Liberal leader by months. Truss only managed 49 days in the top job; Ley has clung on for nine months.

But the odds on her outlasting a lettuce from today are long. Very long. Word around Parliament House is that she only survived Tuesday's party room meeting because key Liberal senators were in Senate estimates hearings and unable to attend.

The short odds are on a spill this week, so the reorganised party under Angus Taylor can front the March sitting of Parliament without the distraction of leadership speculation. What was grumbling last week has become a subterranean roar after the latest Newspoll showed the Coalition primary vote at 18 per cent and Ley as the most unpopular major party leader in 23 years.

That unpopular party leader in 2003 was Labor's Simon Crean, who resigned in December 2003, making way for Mark Latham, who led the party for two years. Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd followed in short order. Parties clobbered at elections and relegated to the opposition benches tend to change leaders like underpants. Just ask Alexander Downer, who lasted eight months compared to Ley's nine.

I'm not a betting man, especially when it comes to politics, which can throw up the totally unexpected - souffles that rise twice and Lazarus with a triple bypass come to mind.

But I can't help thinking Angus Taylor, given his woeful performance as shadow treasurer and his missteps in government, might also be an interim stand-in while the other conservative waiting in the wings, Andrew Hastie, shores up his leadership credentials.........

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