Most policy areas are toxic for the prime minister, but his education gambit is on a par with my idea of a free cactus for all
Rishi Sunak wanted to say something positive. Being the prime minister, he must have thought, has to amount to more than acknowledging a terrifying array of looming crises. When asked what you hope to do with your time in office, you’ve got to give a more inspiring answer than “cope”, even if you’re fortunate in following a leader who didn’t even manage that.
What would be a clear, constructive, positive, yet achievable, initiative? Nothing fun at this bleak time – any whiff of levity could be accused of trivialising people’s suffering. And nothing that sounds expensive. Also nothing that sounds too leftwing, what with the Tory right calling Sunak a socialist for failing to cut taxes. But nothing that sounds too rightwing either, what with the Labour party being so far ahead in the polls.
