Losing his grip: the continuing death spiral of the Conservative Party
Watching the Prime Minister's speech to the CBI on Monday was certainly a departure from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's disastrous speech to the same audience last year when it was derided after focussing too heavily on Peppa Pig.
But not by much.
Rishi Sunak has a style of public speaking that appears to emulate that of a children's TV presenter - a kind of disingenuous and pained enthusiasm that must come from his role as Chancellor having to explain complex equations in the style of a ‘Numberblocks’ powerpoint to the inept former Prime Minister.
But if you watch his speech, Sunak speaks about ‘innovation’.
Innovation - a word synonymous with ‘innovation’ like ‘progress’ - is not necessarily a ‘bad’ thing; however, it comes with caution if, for example, you fail to understand your voters.
When Sunak speaks of ‘innovation’, he speaks of NHS operations being performed by robots and complex, bureaucratic decisions being left in the non-existent, digital hands of AI.
Modern? Innovative? Absolutely - but try telling that to the minority [11%] of Conservatives that deride similar innovations like solar power and seem to be the kind of people Sunak is trying to appease.
The problem here - as it was for Labour in 2019 - is that there is a risk of terrifying voters with ‘too much progress’ - however much progress is needed; however ‘great’ progress may be.
One imagines behind the stage at the CBI speech there was some seasoned SpAd with his head in his hands muttering, ‘I told him not to but he did it anyway - the majority of our voters are over 60 and he’s reassuring them about the future of their healthcare by saying it’s in the hands of robots? Is he insane!? Has he been on the phone to Silicon Valley again!? For Chrissake…’
The latter point [about speaking to people from Silicon Valley to consult on innovative ways to privati… I mean, help - HELP! - the NHS] is entirely plausible.