Now wash your hands

I do hope King Charley 3 didn’t shake hands with Liz Thick this morning when she collected her P45. Look what happened to his mother. The Tory rigmarole goes on, but for now there will be a pause. Like anybody who enters No. 10 Rishi Sunak will convince himself that his words at the lectern in Downing Street will be borne out through the sheer force of his willpower. Gordon Brown had similar ambitions, but the job overwhelmed him too. A PM ideally needs 10 years to make a difference, but that is not always a desirable outcome. Much has been said about Sunak’s ‘coronation.’ Labour has taken umbrage with this but has signally failed to recall Gordon’s coronation. ‘Coronations’ are not such a rare event. John Major, Jim Callaghan, Alec Douglas Home and dare I say even Winston Churchill never entered No. 10 on the back of a general election. These in-term transitions are quite a feature of our first past the post election system and the stability it provides. Along with five years of a Tory/Lib Dem coalition which helped bring the country to its knees (or ankles, depending on your view of the UK economy).