Same Old, Same Old

Another day, another Prime Minister.  You have to hand it to the Tories, they really are succeeding in making a mockery of our system of parliamentary democracy.  While Rishi Sunak was, of course, quite correct in asserting that a general election isn't required to change PMs as people elect don't elect an individual as PM, but rather elect MPs to a parliament which, in turn, effectively selects a PM on the basis of who can command a majority, this mechanism is meant to ensure stability and continuity of government in the event that sitting PM has to stand down.  Indeed, in the past, when the PM has changed mid-term, it has generally been because of ill health, national emergencies or has been pre-planned.  But we've just had three Prime Minister's in quick succession as a result of forced resignations because of scandal and incompetence.  The result has been anything but stability, with little continuity of policy and, thanks to wholesale changes of cabinet ministers, no continuity of government.  Just today we had the extraordinary spectacle of someone who had resigned as Home Secretary because they had broken the ministerial code, appointed to the same post just six days later, thereby making a mockery of the idea that breaches of the ministerial code are a serious, potentially career ending matter.

Sadly, this just typified Sunak's accession to Number Ten - despite all his words about correcting the mistakes of his predecessor and steadying the economy, the reality is that all he can do is reshuffle the same old faces who have already failed to deliver.  Braverman, Gove, Raab, Williamson - they're all back, despite having resigned or been sacked by one of the two previous PMs.  Their return is symptomatic of the fact that the Tories have run out of ideas, with their current ruling ideology leaving them no room for radical change.  They can't admit that the biggest millstone around their (and the rest of the country's) necks is Brexit, because it is a policy entirely of their own creation and to do so would be to admit that they were wrong both in the concept and its execution.  So, while I agree with Sunak that, constitutionally, there is no need for another general election in order to give him, personally, a mandate to serve as Prime Minister, the fact is that this administration has clearly run its course.  It has no answers for the problems facing the UK, it simply offers more of the same.  Let's be honest, we never really came out of that first spate of 'austerity', inflicted by David Cameron - I don't recall any economic recovery, at least not one felt by ordinary people, following it.  Indeed, any faint hope of such a recovery was strangled at birth by the May/Johnson 'Hard Brexit'.  Consequently, it seems clear that it is time the electorate were given an opportunity to make a choice on the issue, via general election, regardless of whether one is due or legally required.