For much of his two-year run as Britain's Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has been a star.

Times have changed, writes @harrytlambert.

newstatesman.com/politics/conse…
In January, Rishi Sunak was the only popular politician in the UK, bucking the near-universal trend for a politician to become more widely disliked as they become better known.
In early February, at the height of partygate, he appeared to hold Boris Johnson’s fate in his hands — and decided not to act.
This week, however, after one of the most widely-panned budgetary statements since George Osborne’s “omnishambles” in 2012, Sunak’s star appears to have finally fallen.
On Wednesday, the cosmetic tax cuts Sunak announced were duly cheered by the Tory benches.

That apparent success soon unravelled. The accompanying Office for Budget Responsibility report was damning.
Rishi Sunak’s Britain was, it wrote, heading for “the biggest fall in living standards since ONS records began in 1956”.
Those on Universal Credit are losing 9 per cent of their income until benefits are increased in line with inflation later this year, pushing many into poverty.
Grillings in the media by Sky and the Today programme, have exposed how unusual the pandemic had been for Sunak.
The decisions he is making are tougher than during the pandemic — Rishi Sunak has to disappoint someone now.
It is not clear, in any case, that the Chancellor has a clear and compelling vision for the type of state he wants to craft.
By attempting to balance the books, fund the state and lower taxes when only two out of the three are possible Sunak risks satisfying no one.
What Sunak lacks is clarity of mission. Read more about the Chancellor’s turbulent week here.

newstatesman.com/politics/conse…

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More from @NewStatesman

Mar 26
Are office meetings a waste of time?

The biggest study so far shows companies should ditch them almost entirely to improve productivity and happiness, writes @willydunn.

newstatesman.com/business/work/…
Researchers persuaded 76 companies, each of which employed between 1,000 and 100,000 employees and worked in 50 or more countries, to take part in their study by switching to at least one meeting-free day per week.
For a company, the organisational problem of meetings is that they usually only benefit one person.

The most common meeting structure is one in which junior employees do the work of providing information to a manager, then wait and watch while others do the same.
Read 12 tweets
Mar 25
From George Washington fighting for the Americas to today’s hero, Zelensky, leaders continue to rise from the ashes of history.
newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/03/…
Zelensky, a leader on the periphery of Europe, fighting against impossible odds with Western commentators comparing him to legendary figures of the past with some even willing to risk global war to support him. He is the essence of charisma.
🟥But charisma is a more complicated phenomenon than is often realised. Charisma always resides, at least in part, in the eye of the beholder.
Read 13 tweets
Mar 25
With Putin engaged in ominous nuclear sabre rattling since the eve of his invasion of Ukraine, a debate has been raging among nuclear experts over whether and when he might make good on his threats. newstatesman.com/security/2022/…
Although most experts agree that the overall risk of nuclear weapons being used in this conflict remains low, one of these scenarios appears more likely than the other.
If Putin’s objective is the occupation of at least some parts of Ukraine, it is hard to see how the use of a nuclear weapon on the country serves his interests.
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Mar 24
Tony Blair and the actor who played him, @michaelsheen, talk “wokeness”, national identity, and what Blair has in common with Jeremy Corbyn.
newstatesman.com/politics/a-dre…
Michael Sheen and Tony Blair discuss the roots of his desire to change Britain.
Blair: "Take the best qualities of Britain - open-mindedness, tolerance, innovation - and try to give Britain a different narrative that would allow it to think its best days are ahead of it.”
Do you think Britain is stuck in the past?
Read 10 tweets
Mar 24
The Chancellor’s obsession with political gameplaying was at odds with a changed public mood, writes @AndrewMarr9. #SpringStatement2022

newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…
Neither the House of Commons dramatics, nor the political theatre of a promised tax cut, saved Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement from being savaged by right, left and centre.
First, says @AndrewMarr9, if you are going to pull a rabbit from a hat, make sure it’s a real, live and twitching rabbit, and not the airy promise of a possible bunny in two years’ time.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 24
National character is a slippery eel; the moment you think you have a grip on it, it’s gone. Its essence is fleeting; its shape shifts ­constantly and yet you know it when you see it, even if each person sees something different.
newstatesman.com/politics/a-dre…
That is true of all nations and yet feels particularly true of Britain.
In the absence of a constitution or a bill of rights we have no foundational documents to refer to, beyond the Magna Carta, which was not even written in English.
Read 13 tweets

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