Britain Shrugs: By the end of this week, Rishi Sunak will likely be the angriest man in Britain

One of my favourite minor characters in The Simpsons is Frank Grimes. 

Grimes, despite his hard work, his misfortune throughout life, is constantly met with bad luck and knows no value of reward for his efforts or his struggles.

Actually, the harder Grimes works, the more he appears to suffer - and in fact, as a result of his perpetual suffering, is left feeling rather bitter, entitled, resentful and arrogant towards those he feels unworthy or undeserving of their rewards because they do not toil as hard as he does, and suffer less - in his view. 

In a previous article, I pointed at the fact that Rishi Sunak appears to be attempting to coax voters back to the Conservatives - after a particularly bleak 12 to 18 months for the beleaguered party - with a series of big announcements and policies.

The problem that Sunak has been having, however, is that the Conservatives’ standing in the polls remains largely unchanged despite these big announcements. Like Grimes, despite his best efforts, Sunak is suffering. The Conservative Party - as a brand - is suffering even moreso. 

The reason being that ultimately, all three times over the course of three weeks, with each of Sunak’s big annnouncements, Britain merely shrugged with ambivalence. Where it didn’t shrug, it was distracted by other matters.