British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Rhetoric To “Change The Country”

As UK polls grow increasingly dark for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – with more than 80% of voters wanting “new leaders” for the government – Sunak’s Conservative Party is promising “reform and change.”

In his closing speech at the annual Tory conference in Manchester, Sunak had to admit that in more than 13 years that the Conservative Party has been in power, promised changes have often remained “rhetoric,” which is why “people are tired of politics, of words, and they are right.”

Sunak’s “cry of alarm” comes a year before political elections, scheduled (barring the possibility of early elections) between the end of 2024 and the first weeks of 2025. There is still “time” for Sunak to convince people to vote Tory again. It won’t be an easy task. According to a disastrous recent Conservative poll by IPSOS polling institute, 90% of British voters want “new leaders” in government. The number of those disappointed with the policies of Sunak and his cabinet rose to 86% in September, including 65% of Conservative Party voters.

Sensing this unsettling atmosphere among voters, Sunak traditionally promised to “change the country” in action rather than in words, while the much-desired changes “will come from the Tories, and certainly not from the Labor Party.”

There are two top priority “changes”: the “pragmatic slowdown” – some call it “populist” – of London’s “green transition” strategy announced on September 20 (among other things, the ban on the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars has been moved from 2030 to 2035); and cuts in funding for some infrastructure projects, including High Speed 2, a brand new high-speed rail line designed to connect London with the north of England, which will now eliminate the key route between Birmingham and Manchester. Sunak promised that the savings – £36 billion – would instead be invested in the transport infrastructure plan with “hundreds of new projects in the North, Midlands, and across the country.”

Finally, there are three fundamental commitments that the Sunak government intends to focus on in the election year: transport, health, and education. In addition to reviewing the HS2 rail project, which is at the center of the dispute between the government and environmentalists, Sunak announced that he “wants to protect the future of the National Health Service” (NHS) and reduce cancer deaths by introducing tough restrictions on smoking and on the use of electronic cigarettes, paying special attention to younger generations. In the field of education, he announced an ambitious project to create in Great Britain “the best school system” in the Western world.