What has British Prime Minister Rishi Sonak lost and found in a year?

When Rishi Sonik was invited to form the government by King Charles last year, he had no illusions about the tough challenges ahead. His first challenge was to restore order to the public finance system after the collapse of the ‘economic policy’ of the short-lived incumbent Liz Truss and her Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarting a month earlier.

Liz Truss and her emergency chancellor Jeremy Hunt had rolled back some of the most damaging measures, but current finance ministers Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sonk now had to prepare for a new autumn budget to stabilize the situation.

Any attempt to assess the successes and failures of Rishi Sonik’s first year must begin with his success in stabilizing the markets. The Labor Party took advantage of the economic chaos to sell the message that Liz Truss had ‘destroyed the economy’ and caused lasting damage to the country, but interest rates were still rising around the world and the Hunt and Sonnick team Did a good job limiting the current results.

What else did Rishi Sonik do better?

As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rasheed Sonic’s relationship with the European Union, particularly his friendship with European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, helped him achieve three victories.

He managed to rewrite the Northern Ireland Protocol, which the European bloc insisted could not be reopened, to resolve many of the issues left over from Boris Johnson and Lord Frost’s negotiations. .

So far Rishi Sonic has branded the ‘Windsor Framework’ as a result of some products being labeled ‘Not for EU’ in Northern Ireland supermarkets, but he has returned the Democratic Unionist Party to regional government in Belfast. I failed to add.

Sonic then signed an agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron to step up surveillance of French coasts to reduce the number of small boats crossing the English Channel. It’s unclear how much of a difference the deal has made, but the number is down slightly from last year.

Finally, the UK has rejoined the European Union’s scientific cooperation program ‘Horizon’, which is undoubtedly in the interest of both parties.

Which tasks did not go well?

In January, in an ill-conceived political move, Rishi Sonik set out his five priorities for the coming year, which only managed to draw attention to a few failures. The 12 months aren’t over yet, but the five promises he made are going to spell trouble for him. Among them, his promise to halve inflation, even if it is fulfilled, will be a mere statistic (ie 5.3% inflation in December) and suggest that inflation is much lower than expected. is more

The train of progress is slowing down. Debt is still growing. Waiting lists in the National Health Service continue to be on the brink of crisis. The doctors’ strike has worsened the situation, but there is no point in the Prime Minister blaming them. And the (refugee) boats have not been stopped either.

Meanwhile, other public services are also in a bad state. The social care system is unstable. The criminal justice system is overwhelmed by court cases and prison overcrowding. The strikes have destroyed the railway system.

What about long-term decisions for a brighter future?

Rishi Sonik tried to change the theme at his party conference this month, claiming that he had taken the tough decisions for the long term that his predecessors had failed to do. Resetting net-zero targets for carbon emissions and scrapping the next phase of the high-speed train project SH2 shows prudence or a lack of ambition, but it depends on what you think. However, when people come to vote, they are unlikely to distinguish much between the two.

And there are some changes to the smoking ban and A-levels that will take years to implement.

What do the public opinion reviews say?

The Conservative Party was 26 points behind Labor in opinion polls shortly after Rishi Sonic took office. This difference has now reached close to 18 points.

But Rishi Sonik’s personal popularity has declined. He got off to a reasonably good start, unlike the Labor Party or opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer, but he is well ahead of the rest of the Conservative Party.

According to the British data collection organization ‘YouGov’, a year ago 25% of citizens expected him to be a good or great prime minister, but now only 11% think so. . The number of those who called them bad or terrible increased from 29 percent to 50 percent.

Yet if the elections are held on or after October 24 next year, he is now halfway through his prime ministerial term, with plenty of time to improve his performance.