Sunak refuses to even utter the word crisis. But how else to describe his first 100 days?

‘True, Rishi Sunak was dealt a bad hand, but look how badly he plays it.’ Sunak speaking during PMQs in the Commons on 1 February. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK PARLIAMENT/AFP/Getty Images

After the mayhem, after Liz Truss blew up the economy, the only way was up. Things could only get better – or so you would have thought. But Rishi Sunak’s 100 days to steady the ship have left him and his party clinging to a life raft.

Yesterday the half a million public servants out on strike were largely backed by voters unwilling to see the pay of nurses, teachers and the rest fall behind inflation and below the private sector.