Monty Python fans may remember the ‘Election Night Special’ sketch, writes Lord Frost. A parody of the clumsy election reports of the time, it satirizes the party debate by turning the election into a contest between the “Sensible Party” and the “Silly Party” (with its offshoots the “Silly” and “Very Silly” parties in the fringe).
At times in recent weeks it has felt like this election has played out in real life. The “sensibles” of all parties regarded Boris Johnson as a hopeless fool and thought that Liz Truss was not much better. Now there seems to be widespread relief at the installation of what is clearly a sane government, with capable ministers, effective communicators and family policies rooted in unexciting conservative truths.
I admit that I largely share that relief. The country needs to get out of the confusion of last year and have time to catch its breath.
Once Truss’s position became untenable, Rishi Sunak was clearly the right man for the job. His job, for now, anyway, is to calm the frenzy, build a program that has something for all wings of the party and get the Tories to attack Labor once more, an attractive task given the thinness of the Labor policies.
Lord Frost: Sunak realizes that the status quo is unsustainable