crisis? what crisis?
An infamous misquote from the days of the first winter of discontent, the then Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan’s words have never felt more relevant than they do today. “I’m not looking forward to next week” was one senior Conservative aide’s thought this weekend and their concern certainly proved warranted. A bad week appears to be a trend of the past several years. “It’s pretty depressing, whichever way you look at it,” says another former front-bench minister.
Surprisingly, there is no agreement in the Tory party as to what, or who, is to blame for the current malaise. Those loyal to Rish! point the finger at the behavior of Cruella Suella and her pantomime ugly sister, Nadine ‘she’s not behind you’ Dorries. Those against cite his failure in pushing through vote-winning tax-cuts and capitulation to the soft-left wokerati of the party. Another justification doing the rounds is it’s mere midterm blues and that it’ll all be-alright-on-the-(general election)-night sometime next year. Whatever. Those supposedly in-the-know fully appreciate that this strategy of denial is unlikely to work.
Logically however, it’s not going to be partygate-brexit-trussonomics or some-such catastrophe that’ll see the end of this charade, it’s going to be the performance against their own five rules that will pave the way for this government’s eventual removal. Rish!’s promise to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting-lists and stop the small boats will be his undoing. Poor performance against the majority of these measures will irreparably break the bond of trust with the electorate. Sunak’s claim to be both Dr Competence & Mr Change will finally be blown asunder.
Back in 1979, James Callahan ominously predicted that “There are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.” That time is upon us. Notwithstanding, it will be remain a bitter and close-fought contest to the end, but Rish!’s fate is already sealed, and I think he knows it.
