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If things had been different, Rishi Sunak might have topped off his trip this week to the G20 summit in Bali with a quick dash back to Sharm el-Sheikh for the final hours of Cop27. But gone, sadly, are the days when getting a climate deal over the line was top priority for world leaders. Now they prefer to show up for the opening ceremony and then leave. It’s safer to grace the platform when there’s only hot air and the moral high ground at stake. And besides, Sunak has a diary clash tomorrow. He and Jeremy Hunt don’t have time to save the planet. They have to try to save the Tory party.
Like a couple of cleaners wading around in the aftermath of a bloodbath, the prime minister and his chancellor have been warning everyone for weeks how messy things are going to be in their autumn statement. Cut spending. Raise taxes. Raid pensions. Everyone is going to have to make sacrifices. Nothing is off the table. Nothing, that is, except identifying (and punishing) the architects of the chaos.
Admittedly, this particular crime scene was carnage, so apprehending the villains was never going to be easy – particularly after the most obvious culprit fired her co-conspirator and then fell on her sword. Even the cleaners could see that the Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget was the most immediate cause of the “eye-watering choices” now facing them.
Lurking in the background were the unprecedented global conditions prompted by the war in Ukraine. Not to mention the failure to insulate our homes against rising energy costs. “These are tough times for people everywhere,” wrote Hunt in his latest constituency column.
