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Rishi Sunak has a choice: address the wreckage that Covid is wreaking, or tell a clamouring Britain we can go back to normal
Let’s rewind to last June. The first lockdown – the one the glossies decreed was all birdsong and banana bread – is coming to an end, and Piers Morgan is very taken with one particular member of the cabinet. He tweets a photo of Rishi Sunak with the message: “I wish this guy was Prime Minister … He’s in a totally different league to Boris Johnson or any other Govt minister.” To which one might respond that, in any parade of suitable occupants of No 10, Huckster Johnson would trail far behind even Joss Stone dressed as a 7ft sausage.
No matter. Ever the cool statesman, Morgan has summed up the national mood. The chancellor is the one unalloyed star of this shower. Even the BBC paints him as Superman before deciding that is a mite too much. This is the bejewelled backdrop against which Sunak will present his budget on 3 March. Continue reading...