Rishi Sunak is the unlikely name on the nation’s lips this morning. Just a month ago he was a somewhat unknown Chief Secretary to the Treasury; when Sajid Javid fell on his sword, Rishi was catapulted into the limelight. He has been groomed for it, of course. Married to a billionaire’s daughter and alumnus of Winchester, Oxford and Goldman Sachs, Rishi is to the manor born.
As we become used to the regular pronouncements from Boris and his henchmen-experts (shades of Falklands) and the media pick over the speed of response, efficacy of advice and the latest infection and death figures from home and abroad, those of us at home have little else to do but observe the blackly comic merry-go-round.
Boris is doing OK, I suppose, despite my feeling that he seems rather detached from his own press conferences. He is, of course, aided by the rather articulate medical and science heads, Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance. Save for chucking in the odd bit of vocab with which the proletariat would struggle with (..sedulously..), Boris seems content to stumble through the 5 o’clock show deferring to left and right. Yesterday it was Rishi’s turn to shine. Indeed he did.
Despite Corbyn’s carping about what had escaped the Chancellor’s attention, the Johnny-come-lately to No. 11 did as good a job as could be expected. His speech-writers clearly wanted to big him up. The ‘I’ certainly had it…’I can announce, …I’ll provide…I am making available..’ and so on. It was almost as if his hedge fund was doling out cash to the plebs. In the darkest hours of the 2nd WW dear old Winston managed the third person so much better. We certainly did fight them on the beaches. We never surrendered.
The social and political historians and analysts will forensically sort through the detail of what is happening to us. The media search each day for an edge, an angle to scrape up a criticism or controversy to keep the air waves alive with tension. I turned to a 2015 TED talk by Bill Gates in which he accurately predicted that the next big challenge for the world would be a pandemic. Amongst several sharp insights he suggested that investment in readiness was both essential and well-known to us. We pump vast sums into defence capabilities so as to mobilise at the drop of a hat. Some countries invested wisely in epidemiology and a degree of preparedness. Look at South Korea. Their testing exceeds that of any country of its size and larger. 5200 per million inhabitants compared with the US, 74 per million. Our figure is approaching 1000 now but we remain slow in this respect. Bill Gates was ahead of the game.
Of course there are positives to take out of this dire situation. A reassessing of values, a recognition of our interdependence, looking after others as well as ourselves. There is much to commend a wartime spirit but words don’t put food on the table, nor cash in the coffers. Rishi will do what it takes and that is the right response if he can follow it through for the long term. Strange that George Osborne tightened all belts post 2008 and now the war chest is being wrenched open by another Tory Chancellor. The main agenda remains the desperate attempt to keep the death toll down. We’re a long way off the Harold MacMillan’s famous (misquoted) second person pronoucement ‘You’ve never had it so good.’ Follow the advice. Better to trust the medics than the media.
simplysorro 