Rishi Sunak’s election announcement last Wednesday was such a farce that people could be forgiven for ignoring what he said.
The rain gave the prime minister a soaking ("Drown and Out,” blared the front-page of the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror), and his words were indeed frequently drowned out by the sound of Labour’s 1997 election anthem, "Things Can Only Get Better," blasted by a member of the public. Sunak’s insistence that Labour could not be trusted to plan for the future was undercut by his own failure to plan for an umbrella. Yet what he said matters because it prefigures the themes that he will focus on during over the next six weeks of campaigning.
One remark was particularly interesting: Sunak said that the election is taking place at a time when "the world is more dangerous than it has been at any point since the end of the Cold War.” Vladimir Putin is waging war in Ukraine and will not stop there. Islamic extremism is on the rampage across the Middle East. China is looking to dominate the 21st century by stealing a lead in technology. The electorate has a clear choice, Sunak said, between a prime minister who has proved he can take tough decisions and a leader of the opposition who dodges difficult choices.