It was never going to be pretty. Even if school buildings hadn’t been found to be collapsing all around us, the first prime minister’s questions of the new session was always likely to be brutal for Rishi Sunak. The government’s attempts to seize control of the news agenda over the summer had backfired badly. Small boats week, NHS week and crime week had all left ministers trying to explain why nothing was going as planned. It was as if the idiots had taken over the asylum. Which of course, they have. Only the idiots are left. To be a halfwit in the current Conservative party is a status symbol. Most are far dimmer than that.
Sunak’s problem is that almost everyone has long since given up listening to him. There was a brief period after he replaced Liz Truss when a few people kept half an ear open to him but that window has long been closed. Now he’s just an irritant. White noise. A man programmed to be a very basic form of artificial intelligence whose only output is to take the country for mugs. RishGPT. The words tumble out in an entitled nasal whine but everyone has zoned out. Life is too short. People have given the Tories more than enough chances already. Time’s up.
