.jpg)
THE RIGHT WING POLITICS OF FEAR
Rishi Sunak warns UK faces 'some of the most dangerous years yet' in desperate pitch to voters
Rishi Sunak will brazenly attempt to pitch himself as the leader with the 'bold ideas' needed to 'change society for the better' after 14 years of Conservative rule
Rishi Sunak will say the public faces a stark choice as the country 'stands at a crossroads' (
Image: PA)NEWS
By
Ashley Cowburn
Political Correspondent
THE MIRROR
12 May 2024
Rishi Sunak Sunak will warn in a major speech the UK faces "some of the most dangerous" years yet in a more volatile world.
In a desperate pitch to voters ahead of the general election later this year, the PM will say the public faces a stark choice as the country "stands at a crossroads". He will brazenly attempt to pitch himself as the leader with the "bold ideas" needed to "change society for the better" after 14 years of Tory rule
The PM will say on Monday: “Over the next few years, from our democracy to our economy to our society – to the hardest questions of war and peace – almost every aspect of our lives is going to change. How we act in the face of these changes – not only to keep people safe and secure but to realise the opportunities too – will determine whether or not Britain will succeed in the years to come. And this is the choice facing the country.”
He will add: “I have bold ideas that can change our society for the better, and restore people’s confidence and pride in our country. I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty. I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet most transformational our country has ever known.”
No10 said he will use the address to look ahead to the next five years - despite polls showing the Tories are facing a historic wipeout later this year.
But Labour's national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden said: "Nothing the PM says will change the fact that over the past fourteen years the Conservatives have brought costly chaos to the country, with this being the only Parliament in living memory where people’s standard of living will be lower at the end of it than the beginning."
Rishi Sunak Sunak will warn in a major speech the UK faces "some of the most dangerous" years yet in a more volatile world.
In a desperate pitch to voters ahead of the general election later this year, the PM will say the public faces a stark choice as the country "stands at a crossroads". He will brazenly attempt to pitch himself as the leader with the "bold ideas" needed to "change society for the better" after 14 years of Tory rule
The PM will say on Monday: “Over the next few years, from our democracy to our economy to our society – to the hardest questions of war and peace – almost every aspect of our lives is going to change. How we act in the face of these changes – not only to keep people safe and secure but to realise the opportunities too – will determine whether or not Britain will succeed in the years to come. And this is the choice facing the country.”
He will add: “I have bold ideas that can change our society for the better, and restore people’s confidence and pride in our country. I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty. I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet most transformational our country has ever known.”
No10 said he will use the address to look ahead to the next five years - despite polls showing the Tories are facing a historic wipeout later this year.
But Labour's national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden said: "Nothing the PM says will change the fact that over the past fourteen years the Conservatives have brought costly chaos to the country, with this being the only Parliament in living memory where people’s standard of living will be lower at the end of it than the beginning."
He added: “Even as the Prime Minister speaks, others in his party are positioning themselves to replace him. The only way to stop the chaos, turn the page and start to renew is with a change of Government. The Conservatives can’t fix the country’s problems because they are the problem. Another five years of them would not change anything for the better.”
The speech comes as Keir Starmer also gathers Labour's newly expanded team of mayors on Monday after stunning victories in the local elections earlier in May. The Labour leader will say boosting regional growth will be "top of the agenda" and will feature in the party's general election manifesto.He said the plan will "draw on the expertise and ideas of Labour mayors who know their communities best" and "set the 'gold standard' for delivering local growth".
He added: “With our sleeves rolled up and plans already being developed before a general election, Labour will be ready from day one. We’ll turbocharge growth across our towns, cities and regions, put more money in people’s pockets and improving living standards across Britain."
The speech comes as Keir Starmer also gathers Labour's newly expanded team of mayors on Monday after stunning victories in the local elections earlier in May. The Labour leader will say boosting regional growth will be "top of the agenda" and will feature in the party's general election manifesto.He said the plan will "draw on the expertise and ideas of Labour mayors who know their communities best" and "set the 'gold standard' for delivering local growth".
He added: “With our sleeves rolled up and plans already being developed before a general election, Labour will be ready from day one. We’ll turbocharge growth across our towns, cities and regions, put more money in people’s pockets and improving living standards across Britain."
'People have got used to living in a happy world - the UK faces threats we haven't had for decades'
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned the next few years will be “some of the most dangerous” the UK has ever seen. This could very well be true but one of the problems is people have got too used to living in a happy world, says intelligence expert Crispin Black
STROKE VICTIM DROOPING MOUTH
The world is getting more dangerous says Rishi Sunak, and Vladimir Putin is one of the threats
13 May 2024
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned the next few years will be “some of the most dangerous” the UK has ever seen.
Mr Sunak today reeled off a list of things voters should be scared of as he made a desperate general election pitch. In a speech in London, the Prime Minister set out the challenges posed by an “axis of authoritarian states” including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
He accused Vladimir Putin of "weaponising" immigration, criticised China for targeting British MPs and warned "aggressive fringe groups" are exploiting uncertainty. He said “At some point in the second half of this year, we will all go to the polls and make a choice, not just about Conservatives versus Labour, or Sunak versus Starmer.
“It will be a choice between the future and the past. Now I remain confident that my party can prevail, not because of our record alone, but because we will be the only party really talking about the future, and not with vague lofty platitudes but with bold ideas and a clear plan that can change our society for the better and restore people’s confidence and pride in our country.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned the next few years will be “some of the most dangerous” the UK has ever seen.
Mr Sunak today reeled off a list of things voters should be scared of as he made a desperate general election pitch. In a speech in London, the Prime Minister set out the challenges posed by an “axis of authoritarian states” including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
He accused Vladimir Putin of "weaponising" immigration, criticised China for targeting British MPs and warned "aggressive fringe groups" are exploiting uncertainty. He said “At some point in the second half of this year, we will all go to the polls and make a choice, not just about Conservatives versus Labour, or Sunak versus Starmer.
“It will be a choice between the future and the past. Now I remain confident that my party can prevail, not because of our record alone, but because we will be the only party really talking about the future, and not with vague lofty platitudes but with bold ideas and a clear plan that can change our society for the better and restore people’s confidence and pride in our country.”
(BOO)
Rishi Sunak warns which seven things will make world more dangerous place in next five years
But, speaking exclusively to the Mirror, intelligence expert Lieutenant-Colonel Crispin Black MBE says Mr Sunak's concerns could well be true - and that the threat could be all the more real as "people have got too used to living in a happy world".
He told the Mirror: "People have got too used to living in a happy world. Russia is once again able to pose an existential threat to Europe and the United Kingdom, something we haven’t had to deal with for nearly 40 years. Who’d have thought back in the 1970s and 80s that we would one day experience intense Cold War nostalgia? What seemed at the time a frightening period, the constant threat of nuclear war; huge Russian armoured formations, poised on the border between then East and West Germany with a good route to the Rhine.
"But at least NATO in opposition fielded powerful forces with both the will and capability to defeat the enemy and some strategic depth in defence. In all probability under US command, we could have held GSFG (Group Soviet Forces Germany as our intelligence reports referred to them) on the Rhine. NATO doesn’t have much in the locker these days and the alliance’s eastern border in the Baltic states is not a good place to fight.
"Of course, the real problem is not Vladimir Putin but the rise of China, his major sponsor. The intention of Western politicians was to bind China into a rules-based club presided over by the United States. The Chinese have never seen it that way. Hardly surprising. When we were top nation (from the victory at Trafalgar in 1805 until the beginning of the First World War in 1914) – we called most of the shots in most of the places, most of the time largely thanks to the Royal Navy. We were forced in 1945 to relinquish our place at the top table to the Americans.
"Few people noticed one Anglophone power handing over to another. Just like us they called the shots and constructed a Pax Americana a continuation of Pax Britannica. But the United States hasn’t called the shots for a while (roughly from the Kabul debacle of August 2021). There is bound to be turbulence as US hegemony fades. I doubt the process will be pleasant.
"Some of the key actors are undoubtedly sinister. But what we are seeing is a natural, if fraught and risky, historical process not an inevitable slide towards war. What can we do? Same thing as we have always done (though usually too late) – Spend more money (lots more) on defence and less on other stuff. Now is the time for guns not butter. Stick close to the United States if we can. Still our most important ally. Pray that our political leaders have some judgement and wisdom. And keep our fingers crossed
"Few people noticed one Anglophone power handing over to another. Just like us they called the shots and constructed a Pax Americana a continuation of Pax Britannica. But the United States hasn’t called the shots for a while (roughly from the Kabul debacle of August 2021). There is bound to be turbulence as US hegemony fades. I doubt the process will be pleasant.
"Some of the key actors are undoubtedly sinister. But what we are seeing is a natural, if fraught and risky, historical process not an inevitable slide towards war. What can we do? Same thing as we have always done (though usually too late) – Spend more money (lots more) on defence and less on other stuff. Now is the time for guns not butter. Stick close to the United States if we can. Still our most important ally. Pray that our political leaders have some judgement and wisdom. And keep our fingers crossed
Rishi the Radical was useless – so he has turned to Project Fear
Sunak is left with no choice but to try to turn the political tide
‘The Prime Minister, it seems, is going to try to scare the country into sticking with the status quo’
(Photo: Carl Court/PA Wire)
And so we are off. This morning, in a room just off Parliament Square, Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun on the general election campaign. In a speech designed to be yet another political reset, the Prime Minister tried out the Tories’ latest pitch – the one, it seems, that they will deploy between now and the election. In short, it’s this: that a vote for Labour is a vote for Vladimir Putin, and that Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to keep your children safe.
To try to convince us all of this, the Prime Minister painted a picture of a world that is increasingly unsafe, with existential threats lurking around every corner. There is “an axis of authoritarian states” trying to undermine our way of life. We face war on several continents, a global migration crisis, and extremists trying to divide us at home. Even those dangerous gender activists and Scottish nationalists should keep us awake at night. Combined, these risks mean we are living through “the most dangerous time we’ve faced for generations”. And, Sunak said, voters must decide who is best placed to protect them from this infernal hotbed of horrors: him, or Starmer.
The Prime Minister, it seems, is going to try to scare the country into sticking with the status quo. It would be far from the first time that a beleaguered prime minister has tried to exploit global crises to secure more time in office: in 2010, for example, Gordon Brown warned the public that the midst of a global economic crisis was, as he put it, “no time for a novice”. Voters gave him short shrift. They surely will with Sunak too.
And yet what other options do the Tories have left? All else has failed. First, Sunak tried hope. He was the man who was going to stabilise the sinking ship and deliver on his famous five promises to show that he had restored good governance. Then, with most of those pledges in tatters, he tried promising more fundamental change. At the Conservative Party conference last October, he claimed Britain had been badly led for the past 30 years and that he would fix that. That didn’t work either: nobody believed that real change could come from a man leading a party that had been in power for half of the period he himself was lamenting.
And so we come to fear, and the Tories’ last hope: that voters’ worry about the future is the only thing that will outweigh their anger about the past. There is some logic to this. Many studies show that, faced with threats, people take fewer risks and more typically opt for the status quo, including political incumbents. According to this thinking, the more fearful people feel, the better the Tories’ prospects. Hence why Project Fear is back.
Will it work? Almost certainly not. Firstly, Labour is no longer vulnerable on matters of national security because it is no longer a party suspicious about Nato or hostile towards our nuclear deterrent. Voters might be uninspired or unconvinced by Starmer but the idea that he is a security threat is about as absurd as the claim that a multimillionaire former banker cloaked in Savile Row suits and Prada loafers is uniquely qualified to keep our children safe. Sunak’s strategy might have worked against Jeremy Corbyn; it will be far less effective against Starmer.
SEBASTIAN PAYNE
Rishi Sunak has one last chance to save his legacy
Then there is the matter of whether voters will take any notice of Sunak’s warnings about the state of the world when for many the biggest risks are much closer to home. The Prime Minister may be right that many people in Britain today feel vulnerable and insecure, but the main threat they face isn’t a nuclear strike or a massive cyber attack – it’s losing their job, being evicted or failing to keep up with the mortgage payments. It’s the mould in their living room, the lack of police in their area or an ambulance not turning up when they need it. And they don’t blame Russian dictators or Iranian ayatollahs for that – they blame the party that has governed this country for the last 14 years. The Tories might not be responsible for global instability but they are held largely at fault for the insecurity that so many are feeling.
There is another problem for Sunak in pitching himself as the continuity candidate: in doing so, he must find a way to defend what has gone before, and embrace a Conservative legacy that only a few months ago he was trying to distance himself from. Back in October, Sunak argued that for 30 years, leaders had “spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it”. Now he says he is “incredibly proud” of the Tories’ record in government.
Good luck to him in making that argument, for he will need it. People can see that things are worse than they were 14 years ago. They can feel the decline. In telling voters that things are actually better than they think, despite all the evidence in front of them, the Prime Minister risks being seen as absurdly out of touch.
You might have seen your mortgage payments double, you might be waiting weeks for a GP appointment, you might be having to endure lawless streets or navigate roads riven with potholes when you drop your children at crumbling and overcrowded schools. But, look, says Sunak, we have third highest growth in the G7! Are you one of the eight million patients on NHS waiting lists, or part of a generation that has seen its hopes of home ownership go up in smoke? I’m sorry to hear it, the Prime Minister will have to respond, but what about the vaccine rollout? And our children will get better at reading! Voters will look on with scorn.
The Tories know that the yearning for change reported in every poll and focus group is an electoral tsunami that threatens to sweep them out of power for a generation. Having tried and failed to ride this current, Sunak is left with no choice but to try to turn the political tide – to convince us that the dire state of the world means it is continuity, not change, that this moment requires.
This attempt to terrify the public into sticking with the devil they know is the last throw of the Tories’ dice – a desperate final bid to cling to power. Rishi the Quietly Competent has been discredited, while Rishi the Radical lasted a matter of days. So now we have Rishi the Fearmonger. Like his previous attempts to turn his fortunes around, it is destined to fail.
Ben Kentish presents on LBC Monday to Friday from 10pm
And so we are off. This morning, in a room just off Parliament Square, Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun on the general election campaign. In a speech designed to be yet another political reset, the Prime Minister tried out the Tories’ latest pitch – the one, it seems, that they will deploy between now and the election. In short, it’s this: that a vote for Labour is a vote for Vladimir Putin, and that Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to keep your children safe.
To try to convince us all of this, the Prime Minister painted a picture of a world that is increasingly unsafe, with existential threats lurking around every corner. There is “an axis of authoritarian states” trying to undermine our way of life. We face war on several continents, a global migration crisis, and extremists trying to divide us at home. Even those dangerous gender activists and Scottish nationalists should keep us awake at night. Combined, these risks mean we are living through “the most dangerous time we’ve faced for generations”. And, Sunak said, voters must decide who is best placed to protect them from this infernal hotbed of horrors: him, or Starmer.
The Prime Minister, it seems, is going to try to scare the country into sticking with the status quo. It would be far from the first time that a beleaguered prime minister has tried to exploit global crises to secure more time in office: in 2010, for example, Gordon Brown warned the public that the midst of a global economic crisis was, as he put it, “no time for a novice”. Voters gave him short shrift. They surely will with Sunak too.
And yet what other options do the Tories have left? All else has failed. First, Sunak tried hope. He was the man who was going to stabilise the sinking ship and deliver on his famous five promises to show that he had restored good governance. Then, with most of those pledges in tatters, he tried promising more fundamental change. At the Conservative Party conference last October, he claimed Britain had been badly led for the past 30 years and that he would fix that. That didn’t work either: nobody believed that real change could come from a man leading a party that had been in power for half of the period he himself was lamenting.
And so we come to fear, and the Tories’ last hope: that voters’ worry about the future is the only thing that will outweigh their anger about the past. There is some logic to this. Many studies show that, faced with threats, people take fewer risks and more typically opt for the status quo, including political incumbents. According to this thinking, the more fearful people feel, the better the Tories’ prospects. Hence why Project Fear is back.
Will it work? Almost certainly not. Firstly, Labour is no longer vulnerable on matters of national security because it is no longer a party suspicious about Nato or hostile towards our nuclear deterrent. Voters might be uninspired or unconvinced by Starmer but the idea that he is a security threat is about as absurd as the claim that a multimillionaire former banker cloaked in Savile Row suits and Prada loafers is uniquely qualified to keep our children safe. Sunak’s strategy might have worked against Jeremy Corbyn; it will be far less effective against Starmer.
SEBASTIAN PAYNE
Rishi Sunak has one last chance to save his legacy
Then there is the matter of whether voters will take any notice of Sunak’s warnings about the state of the world when for many the biggest risks are much closer to home. The Prime Minister may be right that many people in Britain today feel vulnerable and insecure, but the main threat they face isn’t a nuclear strike or a massive cyber attack – it’s losing their job, being evicted or failing to keep up with the mortgage payments. It’s the mould in their living room, the lack of police in their area or an ambulance not turning up when they need it. And they don’t blame Russian dictators or Iranian ayatollahs for that – they blame the party that has governed this country for the last 14 years. The Tories might not be responsible for global instability but they are held largely at fault for the insecurity that so many are feeling.
There is another problem for Sunak in pitching himself as the continuity candidate: in doing so, he must find a way to defend what has gone before, and embrace a Conservative legacy that only a few months ago he was trying to distance himself from. Back in October, Sunak argued that for 30 years, leaders had “spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it”. Now he says he is “incredibly proud” of the Tories’ record in government.
Good luck to him in making that argument, for he will need it. People can see that things are worse than they were 14 years ago. They can feel the decline. In telling voters that things are actually better than they think, despite all the evidence in front of them, the Prime Minister risks being seen as absurdly out of touch.
You might have seen your mortgage payments double, you might be waiting weeks for a GP appointment, you might be having to endure lawless streets or navigate roads riven with potholes when you drop your children at crumbling and overcrowded schools. But, look, says Sunak, we have third highest growth in the G7! Are you one of the eight million patients on NHS waiting lists, or part of a generation that has seen its hopes of home ownership go up in smoke? I’m sorry to hear it, the Prime Minister will have to respond, but what about the vaccine rollout? And our children will get better at reading! Voters will look on with scorn.
The Tories know that the yearning for change reported in every poll and focus group is an electoral tsunami that threatens to sweep them out of power for a generation. Having tried and failed to ride this current, Sunak is left with no choice but to try to turn the political tide – to convince us that the dire state of the world means it is continuity, not change, that this moment requires.
This attempt to terrify the public into sticking with the devil they know is the last throw of the Tories’ dice – a desperate final bid to cling to power. Rishi the Quietly Competent has been discredited, while Rishi the Radical lasted a matter of days. So now we have Rishi the Fearmonger. Like his previous attempts to turn his fortunes around, it is destined to fail.
Ben Kentish presents on LBC Monday to Friday from 10pm
No comments:
Post a Comment