When Lewis Carroll¡¯s Alice says she can¡¯t believe impossible things, the White Queen gives the smart politician¡¯s reply: ¡°I daresay you haven¡¯t had much practice. Why, sometimes I¡¯ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.¡±
Rishi Sunak, the U.K.¡¯s pragmatic new prime minister, doesn¡¯t believe impossible things either. However, a number of powerful factions within the ruling Conservative Party want several contradictory things ¡°before breakfast¡± ¡ª and even more of a challenge, before the next general election in two years¡¯ time.
The prime minister is being forced to fend off attacks within his party while a Labour opposition under Keir Starmer, reinvigorated by a 20-point lead in the opinion polls, savages the Tory record since 2010. He has enough material to go on ¡ª real disposable income is set to drop by 7.1% over the next two years. All things being equal, that spells electoral doom for the party in power for the last 12 years.
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