OUT TO LUNCH
I watched the TV footage in sheer disbelief last week as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stood at a lectern outside 10 Downing Street in the pouring rain and announced the general election date as the 4th July. By the time poor Rishi had scuttled back like a drowned rat into 10 Downing Street his well tailored Savile Row suit (I’m guessing that someone worth around £650 million according to The Sunday Times rich list doesn’t buy off the peg from Burtons) looked more like a glistening leather jacket.
Apart from the sudden downpour Sunak also had to contend with leftie heckling from the gates to Downing Street and a boombox playing the Labour anthem ‘Things can only get better’ by Northern Irish band D:Ream (no, me neither). In these days of modern technology how difficult would it have been to set up a lectern in the newly decorated press room in 10 Downing Street and beamed the glad tidings of an election date to the hoi-polloi via a giant TV screen erected outside number 10?
But given Sunak’s determination to appear live outside number 10 and his unwillingness to look at the cloud formation above (the rain stopped soon after) one can only wonder why a flunky from the PM’s office didn’t rush out with a very large umbrella and hold it over him while he spoke. Is he that unpopular with his own staff? Or were they worried about a possible sudden lightning strike?
The rain soaked announcement and the drenched and bedraggled PM who slipped back into number 10 pretty much sums up the current state of the Conservative party as Rishi Sunak apparently has the lowest approval rating of any prime minister since records began. Perhaps standing in the pouring rain should be charitably seen as some esoteric act of spiritual cleansing on his part. Or maybe, just another example of the omnishambles that the Tory party has become.
Not surprisingly the rush for the exits began a few weeks ago with some Conservatives crossing the floor of the house and defecting to Labour (although they still have to win a seat at the next election) and others simply deciding that they’ve had enough and won’t be standing for re-election on July 4th. With some pollsters predicting that the Conservatives may only win 200 seats on July 4th that leaves a lot of former members of parliament looking for jobs. Unlike first world countries such as South Africa, UK politicians cannot look forward to a life of pampered luxury and free travel once they are out of power.