In his first major speech of the new year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the public to hold him to account as he promised to cut inflation, spur economic growth, and finally take back control of the nations borders, yet little was provided in the way of specifics or a timetable to achieve such goals.
Mr Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker who took office in October following the globalist coup that ousted failed PM Liz Truss, decided to make education the main focus of his first major policy speech, despite the country facing multiple crises, including rampant inflation, a green agenda-induced energy crises, and record waves of illegal migrants continuing to land on British beaches.
While the main focus on the speech was a change in “mindset” of the country, the PM said that his government will pledge to half inflation over the coming year, spur economic growth, reduce the national debt, cut waiting lists at the NHS, and introduce legislation to stop illegal boat migrants. However, the speech was lacking in specifics on how exactly the government would achieve such promises.
Sunak said that the public should hold him to account for these pledges, yet, when pressed by the media, the prime minister refused to provide a timetable for accomplishing them, noting that many aspects are out of his control.
“In all of these things, I’ve deliberately not put a specific month… because I don’t think that’s responsible with goals that are so complicated,” he said.
The speech comes just after the annual poll of top UK economists conducted by the Financial Times found that four-fifths of the 101 respondents believe that the British economy will face the one of the worst recessions and the weakest recovery of leading economies.
The inflationary spiral, which does appear to have been triggered, or at least intensified, by the Chinese coronavirus lockdowns and the decision — made at the time by Sunak when he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer — to pay people to stay home and businesses to remain closed, has seen food inflation rise to its highest level in history at 13.3 per cent in December.
To date, the nominally Conservative government has responded to the economic crisis by imposing high levels of tax on the public, justified as a move to bring down inflation. In November, finance chief Jeremy Hunt announced £55 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts which in addition to the £32 billion in hikes the government already announced in October has brought the tax level to the highest since the Second World War. Sunak said that his government would look to cut taxes for working people “as soon as possible”.
In addition to the bleak economic outlook, the government has been unable to deal with the growing public sector worker strikes, with unions representing NHS, railway, ambulance, border force and other workers seeing widespread disruptions during the holiday season.
Another key announcement from Sunak was that he plans on putting before the Parliament a reform to the education system that would see math classes extended for all students until the age of 18. The study of mathematics is currently only mandated until the age of 16, with just around half of pupils between the ages of 16-19 opting to continue their study of the subject.
“One of the biggest changes in mindset we need in education today is to reimagine our approach to numeracy. Right now, just half of all 16–19-year-olds study any maths at all. Yet in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, our children’s jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before,” he said.
“And letting our children out into the world without those skills, is letting our children down”.
While the proposal may have some merit, it has been roundly chastised as tone deaf in light of the myriad of pressing issues facing the country, most of which have come as a result of over a decade of mismanagement by the Conservative party that Sunak leads.
“So Rishi Sunak’s big idea to save the nation is maths until the age of 18! How will quadratic equations help to solve broken Britain?” Brexit leader Nigel Farage questioned.
“How many decades will that take to help our country, Rishi?” asked Reform UK leader Richard Tice. “There’s only one calculation that needs to be talked about: What is the answer when you’ve got a crisis, plus a crisis, plus a crisis, let me tell you, we’ve got a national emergency, we’ve got a country that is broken. That is the answer prime minister, and you don’t seem to have any solutions.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.