“Rishi Sunak is a man in a hurry,” briefs his Downing Street press secretary. Yes, indeed: Tory prime minister No 5, your time is nearly up. But not just yet. If he is serious about “change”, about “broken politics” and “long-term” policies, he could still leave a legacy many will thank him for.
He pitched his speech as a serious man, mainly full of policy, with less of the culture war absurdities and seven-bin silliness he has allowed advisers to inject, injuring his reputation for earnestness. It was odd to make cancelling Britain’s only symbolic construction project his big announcement, but it was a serious decision with no obvious political upside. Ditto a raising of the legal smoking age and A-level reform. None of this looks like a coherent political philosophy – but nor does it look like the recent litany of crude electioneering designed to just draw dividing lines between the Tories and Labour.
