General election 2024 (Britain): Sunak throws the dice : “Drowning Street” plus “Things Can Only Get Wetter”

Thursday 23 May 2024, by  KELLAWAY Dave

Dave Kellaway reacts to Rishi Sunak’s surprise call for a July 4 general election

  Contents  

• Why has Sunak gambled?
• Racism and Reform
• The Labour corporate bandwagon
• Fighting alternatives

From Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF) link :

https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article70844

Sometimes the beginning contains the end. ‘Drowning Street’ and ‘Things can only get wetter’ were among the headlines in the newspapers the day after Rishi Sunak’s announcement of the July 4^th general election. He hoped for gravitas and drama that could somehow jolt the polls. Instead, he stood there getting completely pissed on. His voice was drowned out by an anti-Brexit protester broadcasting the 1997 Blair anthem, Things will only get better. It is almost as though his team hung him out to dry (or rather to get drenched). Was there really no staffer who knew that the police cannot stop you playing loud music at the bottom of Downing Street? Nobody to even hold an umbrella for the leader? All this expresses his isolation and the dire state of the Tory party as well as a complete lack of political nous.

A few minutes later you had Keir Starmer looking composed and prime ministerial in front of not just one, but two Union Jacks. He gave an intelligible, brisk speech summed up in the word on the rostrum – Change. Labour is not really going to change much but it does not look like it will lose the marketing campaign. Sunak’s excruciating performance was a bit like watching West Ham smashed last week – you knew the game was up when Man City’s Foden scored within two minutes. Nobody doubted the inevitable, City was going to win the league. Images count in elections where most voters get their news from the TV and non-print media.