Philip Collins
(Picture: Daniel Hambury)Politics in government, when it is done properly, is meant to be boring. The process of change is glacial and not an especially interesting spectator sport. It is a mark of how badly the Conservative party has recently been conducting its politics that it has not managed to be boring since the distant days of Theresa May. Now Rishi Sunak is pledging that his time in office will be dull. Sadly, he’s likely to be wrong.
Two prime ministers ago, it was Boris Johnson’s regular accusation in Parliament that the Labour leader Keir Starmer was boring. Johnson said it so often, and descended into such chaos himself, that Starmer began to take the description on as a kind of compliment. It wasn’t long, though, before his colleagues tired of Mr Johnson’s brand of charismatic leadership and sought a prime minister who was less of a party animal. They failed, though, to achieve the boring stability they professed to want. Liz Truss, with the inspired help of her then-friend Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the markets and lasted a mere 44 days during which she kept on being interesting by accident.
