He will succeed Rishi Sunak to carry the British ship out of the storm? That’s the million-pound question the United Kingdom is asking itself today, as the end of a nightmare year for King Charles’s subjects draws near. The economic crisis associated with political uncertainty, with the record of the shortest government in British history, have sparked union fights that seemed like a memory and reopened the debate on Brexit, a process that six years after the referendum is still far from being completed.
But 2022 will be remembered in the history books of the UK, and beyond, for Elizabeth’s death at the age of 96, who died on 8 September at the Scottish residence of Balmoral. It is estimated that four billion people watched the solemn funeral of the queen on TV, who more than any other world personality represented an entire country with her face. Her death, even for non-lovers of the crown, will remain an epochal fact that will mark the royal family forever.
But those who hoped for a reconciliation of the Windsors with the disappearance of Elizabeth were disappointed. In fact, the year closed with the new ones controversy between Harry and Williams fueled by the Netflix series starring the dukes of Sussex. A heavy climate, barely lightened by King Charles’s invitation to Harry and Meghan to participate in the official coronation scheduled for May 6th.
It doesn’t blow the best air at Downing Street. Indeed, this year will be remembered as the one that put the tombstone on the famous English political stability. Three Tory premiers followed one after the other. From BoJo to the billionaire Rishi Sunak, passing through the disastrous interlude of the Truss government, number 10 has seen a coming and going of leaders.
For Sunak, who in September had suffered a crushing defeat in the runoff election for the leadership of the party from Liz Truss, the ‘new Thatcher’ effectively ousted by her own party after the markets soundly rejected her ‘mini-budget’, it was a matter of revenge. But for ‘the maharaja of the Yorkshire Dales’ – as he is nicknamed – the son of East African parents of Punjabi origin, the mission is arduous. Rule an uncontrollable party and in crisis in the polls and pull Britain out of the shallows of a financial crisis that has already sunk the previous government.
For the first time in history, and ironically at a time when many Britons are grappling with record soaring inflation, soaring mortgages and devaluation of the pound, the prime minister has more fortune than his family real. And it is precisely on the economy that Sunak’s political future will be played. The situation appears very critical, as evidenced by the recent strike by nurses over wage issues: the first in the history of their union (National Health System). The UK has already entered a recession and forecasts for next year are not rosy. According to the latest OSCE Economic Outlook, GDP will drop by 0.4% due to what will be the worst performance among the G20 countries excluding Russia.
“If Liz Truss’s mini-budget focused on ‘acrobatic’ uncovered tax cuts almost exclusively for the benefit of the richest, Rishi Sunak has not only pulled the handbrake to ease the tension on the financial markets but has made a real The new budget law will in fact be characterized by ‘tears and blood’ which foresee an increase in the tax burden hand in hand with cuts in public spending”, underlines the ISPI researcher, Davide Tentori.
The economic difficulties experienced by the United Kingdom have recently reopened a debate on relations with the EU, forcing Sunak himself to specify that his government does not intend to back down from Brexit. In the background, the Northern Irish question still remains open and the specter of Scottish independence reappears, despite the ruling of the British Supreme Court denying another referendum.
As if that weren’t enough, the weather was also inclement across the Channel. Snow and ice swept across the island as on rare occasions, blocking City airports and slowing transportation nationwide. And it’s not over. Even football was shipwrecked and with it the dream of bringing the World Cup back home after 44 years. After an excellent start in Qatar that had heralded a journey to the final, the Southgate national team had to surrender to a skyrocketing penalty from its captain Harry Kane. Not in any game. Across the field were the hated French cousins.
