Saturday 15 July 2023
Sunak and the Blob
Fred de Fossard has a worthwhile Critic piece on Rishi Sunak and his inability to make an impact on the Blob.
Sunak drifts towards irrelevance
The PM seems to have no ambitions beyond not being Liz or Boris
In mid-June, Robert Peston posted a curious tweet:
Rishi Sunak’s closest allies are telling the PM that Boris Johnson is definitively finished after today’s judgement, and that therefore he can govern in his own image with more confidence and without having to look over his shoulder in fear of the ex-PM’s disapproval. “Boris is irrelevant now” said a minister. “Rishi has 18 months to pursue his own agenda. He should use it”.
As any reader can tell, there is little evidence of this confidence and verve emerging. Last week, Tim Shipman painted a picture in the Sunday Times of a despondent Prime Minister, who feels his bargain with the world was not coming as good as he had hoped. Hard work and appearing competent are not the only ingredients required to run a country.
The piece is worth reading as another angle on what looks like political drift but isn't. Sunak's inability to make an impact is his inability to reform the stranglehold of vested interests which prevent him from making that impact. This in turn is his inability to make voting worthwhile. Or his unwillingness to make it worthwhile.
Perhaps he actually has no desire to reform the state anyway. When questioned about the failures of the Tory party to overcome the blob in the administrative state, the Prime Minister said he did not even recognise the blob as a concept. Despite endless evidence of taxpayer-funded charities and activists working with obstructionist officials to subvert an elected government’s policy on everything from immigration and crime, to education and Brexit, the Prime Minister does not see it. Just as a fish cannot see water, so Sunak and many of his ministers cannot see the blob from within.
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4 comments:
What real incentive has He got?
Does he have a dream of making the country better for the natives?
Has he any chance of impressing his fellow Conservatives with his legacy?
Has he any chance of getting on the Miranda Blair golden speech circuit, being Sec Gen of NATO/OTAN, or UN.
Nah. Just settle down and live off in-laws dosh.
I suspect that Rishi Sunak was accepted as a 'safe pair of hands' compared to Boris Johnson or Liz Truss.
I suspect that Sir IKEA was accepted as a 'safe pair of hands' compared to Jeremy Corbyn or some other headbanger.
Whatever you call them, the Blob, the Borg, the Clerisy, The Powers That Be, they are the ones that call the shots. Your votes don't really matter - you have been assimilated.
It's "drift" in the sense that there is a powerful current of different vested interests which will take the country in a particular direction unless something is done to counteract it. And it definitely appears to be different interests, rather than one big conspiracy. Sunak promised a lot, and was clearly ambitious - remember how he revealed the "Ready for Rishi" leadership campaign the same day Boris quit? - yet he is clearly not up to the job.
Unless, of course, he thinks that drift is the job.
Doonhamer - that's been my question too - as a rich man, what's his incentive? Nothing much from what I see.
DJ - yes, a safe pair of hands is their safe pair of hands, not ours.
Sam - he certainly gives a strong impression that he does think that drift is the job, definitely not reform.
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