If electoral politics was a combat sport, the British election of 2024 would have been a bloodbath. The Conservative Party or Torries, which had run the show for the last 14-years were effectively wiped off the map, as the opposition Labour party ended up with 63 percent of the seats in parliament or 412 of the available 650 seats in the House of Commons. The Labour Party had already reached the mark needed to form a majority (326 seats) way before the Torries passed the 100-seat mark.
The nicest thing that
could be said of the whole evening, was the fact that the defeated Prime
Minister, Mr. Rishi Sunak, gave a very eloquent concession speech, where he
graciously acknowledged defeat and took responsibility for the loss. Mr. Sunak
came into power as the first Prime Minister of Indian Origin, leaves it as the
leader who brought about the party’s worst ever electoral defeat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPdpemrGmg8
Brexit was a form of
Jingoistic suicide, where the UK threw away its greatest advantage of being the
entry point for foreign investment into the EU. Furthermore, goods and services
which had once traveled across national borders with ease, started cramming up
at borders.
While Brexit captured
the headlines, there was also a slew of austerity measures, which ended up
cutting funding from those who needed it most and somehow enriching those who
didn’t need it.
Mr. Sunak was not
blameless in any events. He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the man in
charge of the money under Boris Johnson. Whilst he acted to produce measures
that helped lessen the impact of Covid, his schemes came about it in such a manner
than ended up creating that most wonderful of third world problems – graft.
As a communicator, Mr.
Sunak was often out of touch. His wealth was often a subject of controversy and
whilst he was graceful enough to acknowledge mistakes during his defeat, one
can only say that he might have gained far more sympathy from the public had he
acknowledged past mistakes at the start of his tenure.
In a way, the tragedy
of Mr. Sunak is that he was a symbol of the good things about the country. He is
the son of migrants who made good. He’s been educated in the world-class institutions
that not only produced great minds in the UK but from around the world. In his
personal life, the man has steady marriage and family life or as my youngest
brother said – “remarkably boring.”
Yet, instead of being
the “aspirational” story, Mr. Sunak proceeded to pander to some of the worst
qualities of his various predecessors. Mr. Sunak was smart enough to see that
his predecessor, Ms. Liz Truss was on the verge of tanking the economy with “fantasy
economics.” Yet, instead of coming in with a “clean” team, Mr. Sunak proceeded
to keep some of Ms Truss’s worst performing members, or specifically returning Ms.
Suella Braverman to the Home Office. Instead of getting to the root of the migration
problem, an administration filled with children of migrants went to war against
people who like to work, thus benefiting illegal people smugglers.
Mr. Sunak had the good
fortune of coming in when expectations were low. In fairness, he did calm the
bond markets with his reputation for knowing economics. However, instead of
trying to undo some of the worst mistakes of his predecessors, Mr. Sunak chose
to continue them, thus compounding reasons for the electorate to send his party
into the political wilderness and ending his life in politics. Perhaps, now
that he’s out of power, Mr. Sunak, could do well to write books acknowledging
his mistakes thus creating a legacy.
1 comment
So how do you think you want to solve their immigration problem?
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