Nato members, IT woes, and more than a little Liz Truss – take the Thursday quiz

The Thursday quiz has had its mind fair boggled by Liz Truss and her attempts to stay relevant. Since losing in the general election she has issued a statement after the king’s speech, rocked up at the Republican national conference, and even got history rewritten, all while being a former MP. It is her birthday tomorrow, so, as an early present, the Thursday quiz decided to help her retain her impression she is a public figure, and centre the quiz on her. To keep with the theme, just like Liz’s tenure at No 10, it is a bit shorter than usual. Guess well!

The Thursday quiz, No 170 – former MP Liz Truss week!

1. What is former MP Liz Truss's first name?

   1. Kate

   2. Mary

   3. Elizabeth

   4. Rose

2. Former MP Liz Truss famously posed in a tank when she was visiting Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. When did Estonia join Nato?

   1. 1994

   2. 1999

   3. 2004

   4. 2009

3. Contrary to cruel social media rumour, last week was not the first day Liz Truss worked in Microsoft IT support. Which company was at the root of Friday's global computer meltdown?

   1. CrowdStrike

   2. CloudFlare

   3. CrowdTangle

   4. SparksMael

4. At the 2014 Conservative conference, former MP Liz Truss sparked internet joy by declaring "in December, I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets". Which quadrant of China is Beijing in?

   1. North-east

   2. South-east

   3. North-west

   4. South-west

5. Unlike Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, Liz Truss can probably ride a bike. So can the winner of this year's Tour de France. Who was he?

   1. Hermann Zaroff

   2. Jonas Vingegaard

   3. Remco Evenepoel

   4. Tadej Pogačar

6. Former MP Liz Truss briefly lived in Warsaw as a child. Which iconic post-punk band were briefly called Stiff Kittens and then Warsaw before settling on the name they would become famous with?

   1. Joy Division

   2. The Buzzcocks

   3. Echo and the Bunnymen

   4. Siouxsie and the Banshees

7. Former MP Liz Truss also lived in British Columbia for a while. Where is British Columbia?

   1. New Zealand

   2. Namibia

   3. Canada

   4. Australia

8. Former MP Liz Truss co-authored a book called Back to Black. When was Amy Winehouse's second and final studio album, which was also called Back to Black, released?

   1. 2003

   2. 2006

   3. 2009

   4. 2012

9. Before losing her seat as an MP, Liz Truss published a book called Ten Years to Save the West. But what is the book that Donald Trump's VP pick JD Vance is famous for?

   1. Rustic Happenstance

   2. Hillbilly Elegy

   3. Backwoods Rhapsody

   4. Hubristic Nonsense

10. Former MP Liz Truss did a degree in PPE. Of course she did. What does PPE stand for?

    1. Physics, Particles and Electronics

    2. Philosophy, Politics and Economics

    3. Political programme for economists

    4. Pride, Prejudice and Envy

11. As a former prime minister Liz Truss may one day expect to end up with a place in the House of Lords, where you can't get voted out by your own constituents like she was. One of these is the real name of someone in the House of Lords. Which?

    1. Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot

    2. Jasset David Cody Ferdinand Ormsby-Gore Holt Methuen

    3. Roger Lucius Plantagenet Cary Edward Pootle Bootle-Wilbraham

    4. Dogface Dingbat Hermann Hermann Ronald Ron Ronaldly Bush III

12. Former MP Liz Truss was the final British prime minister to serve under Queen Elizabeth II. The first was Winston Churchill, who was in office when she came to the throne in 1952. How many prime minister in total served under Elizabeth II, all of them for more than 49 days except Truss?

    1. 12

    2. 15

    3. 18

    4. 30-50

Solutions

1:B - She was born Mary Elizabeth Truss on 26 July 1975, 2:C - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia all joined on 29 March 2004, 3:A - Oooops, 4:A - It has a population of 22 million, and isn't even China's biggest city. It is up in the north-east corner of the country, 5:D - His Tour de France victory comes directly after he won the Giro d'Italia, and nothing in the world can stop him now, 6:A - The choice of name is often put down to being inspired by the track Warszawa on David Bowie's Low album, 7:C - British Columbia is a province on Canada's western seaboard, with Vancouver one of its most well-known cities, 8:B - Winehouse released the album in October 2006. She died at the age of just 27 in 2011, 9:B - It was adapted by Netflix in 2020, 10:B - She studied PPE at Oxford and made quite the fuss about the college she went to, 11:A - We are not a serious country, 12:B - Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson all came before former MP Liz Truss

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had more fun than Liz Truss did on election night!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers there is no point emailing the quiz master, because he is away today, so why not sit back and enjoy watching Liz Truss lose her seat instead?