Three governments in five years

The Guardian editorial had a good point about the Tory government. It noted that in fact:

Unusually, there have been three governments in this parliament. All of them, especially those led by Mr Johnson and by Liz Truss, have provided object lessons in how not to govern well. But Mr Sunak has proved little better.

It is almost incredible to think that Truss, Johnson and Sunak were all in just five years (granted, Truss lasted only 49 days). These were terrible, terrible leaders. Worse still, they were in office at a time when, on foot of Brexit and at a time of pandemic, serious leadership was necessary. It’s not that they failed to meet those challenges – they weren’t capable of doing so. 

As the headline on the piece goes:

five years in which Britain’s leaders showed they were not up to the job

The last parliament wasn’t great either:

This parliament’s prorogation is not shamelessly illegal, as Boris Johnson’s lawless attempt to end its predecessor was five years ago. But that is just about all that can be said in its favour. In almost every respect, this has been as shoddy and as discreditable a period as British government has had to endure. There can rarely have been a parliament that comes to its end as unmourned as this one.

Interesting postscript too to the editorial:

Unusually, there have been three governments in this parliament. All of them, especially those led by Mr Johnson and by Liz Truss, have provided object lessons in how not to govern well. But Mr Sunak has proved little better. By coincidence, the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, was being quizzed on Thursday by the Hallett inquiry on the Covid pandemic. His evidence painted a picture of a dysfunctional government and of political leaders and advisers who were simply not up to the job that the crisis required. Since 2019, they as individuals and the government system that they created around themselves have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Good riddance to them all. But Britain deserves so much better.

In any other polity one would hope that a party so visibly incapable of governance – and not simply for the last five years but the preceding nine – would have little or no support. Though in the current age that’s not a given. Two polls over the last 48 hours (for Techne and More in Common respectively) suggest Labour on 45% and the Tories on 19% against Labour on 44% and the Tories on 27%. It will be interesting come the elections results to see which is the more accurate pointer to the outcome.