would have a field day with Evelyn Waugh, the satirist of pre-war England and the carefree aristocrats who ran it modern conservative party, Sometimes it seems like he already has. equate between Rishi SunakThe current Prime Minister of Britain, and Paul Pennyfeather, the hapless protagonist of “Decline and Fall”, Waugh’s first novel.
Pennyfeather is an upright and aloof theology student at Oxford who returns to the fictional setting of Scone College one evening just as the Bollinger Club, an elite drinking society, is beginning a night of mayhem. Pennyfeather takes off his trousers and runs the length of the quadrangle. He is sent down the next day for indecency. From there, things only get worse.
Mr. Sunak is not a failure. all his life He has been top of the class from Winchester to Oxford to Stanford and City, with hardly a foot wrong nor a nose out of joint. Civil servants comment on his ability to swallow briefing notes whole. But much of his agenda – reducing inflation, tackling NHS waiting times and reforming maths teaching – is unremarkably sensible. He has an accident. And he is surrounded by allies whose decisions harm him.
The past few days have outlined this pennyfeatherish pattern. On 20 January Mr Sunak received a second “fixed penalty notice” from the police, a feat without precedent in higher office, for forgetting to wear a seatbelt while filming an impromptu video clip in his limousine. The first of these smaller fines came when Mr Sunak was chancellor and attended Boris Johnson’s birthday celebrations in Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 rules. He, like Paul, was in celebration after arriving early for the scheduled meeting.
Although Mr Sunak came to office promising to restore confidence in the government, the prime minister appears unable to avoid the Bollingeresque chaos that regularly besets his party. The biggest current scandal surrounds Mr Sunak’s successor as chancellor, Nadim Zahawi, whom he appointed chairman of the Conservative Party.
On 21 January, Mr. Zahavi, who had a successful career as a businessman before entering parliament, admitted that he had settled with the authorities over unpaid taxes. Mr Zahavi said the tax authority had found him to be “reckless and not intentional”, tax-law jargon that Waugh may well have enjoyed. Mr Sunak has asked his ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to investigate; It is unclear whether Mr Sunak simply has the political capital to fire him.
The broken glass left behind by his predecessor is still causing trouble. On 22 January the Sunday Times reported that BBC chairman Richard Sharp had been involved in brokering undisclosed loans of up to £800,000 ($990,000) to Mr Johnson while he was prime minister, and shortly before Mr Johnson appointed him was recommended. broadcaster. Mr Sharp has denied arranging any type of financing. Mr Sunak insisted the appointment was “harsh”, but Mr Sharp referred himself to the BBC for an internal review and William Shawcross, commissioner of public appointments, is also investigating how he came to get the job. .
Mr Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street has brought stability to the government but has not improved Tory polling. The party is seen about 20 points behind the Labor Party. Voters don’t hate Mr. Sunak; There is little to hate in the character he resembles. Yet his inability to bring his party to power leaves him at risk of appearing weak and, worse, unlucky.
© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.”
From The Economist, published under license. The original content, in English, can be found at www.economist.com.”
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