The first rule of starting a culture war is that you have to look like you believe in your cause. British politics has unusually low standards for charisma — Nigel Farage is a “personality” in politics, but not, it turns out, when you put him among actual celebrities on a reality TV show. But still, someone like Farage could pull off a tantrum over the Elgin Marbles. Sunak can’t. And this, in part, is because you don’t believe he believes what he is saying.
He’s just not convincing in the part. It is something to do with the persona on which he rose to power: the public responded to this sensible technocrat, who would at least not make the splashy errors of his predecessors. When Sunak started criticising “lefty lawyers” and talking about the need to make “radical decisions” in line with “common sense”, observers tended to assume this wasn’t the real him. The act reached pantomime levels this week when Sunak abruptly cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister — prompting various colourful responses from the Greek side.
