What flavour of government have we here? Amid this week’s drama at the eviction of Suella Braverman, there has been too much talk of a U-turn back to the “centre”. The sound and fury of her poison-pen letter and the ranting from her backbench supporters accuse Rishi Sunak of abandoning true Conservative values. The resurrection of David Cameron as foreign secretary is heralded, for reasons beyond comprehension, as an indication of Rishi Sunak’s new moderation.
Next week will show if this is anything more than a vacuous shift in style: chillaxing Cameron always got by with a breezy Etonianism that disguised the true brutality of his austerity project. But the substance of any government is judged by how it gets and spends the nation’s money: character is exposed in Treasury numbers. Next Wednesday’s autumn statement will be the great reveal of its priorities, values and political nature.
