Victor Cherubim

Victor Cherubim is a London-based writer and a frequent columnist of the Sri Lanka Guardian

The right of Ukraine to retaliate by attacking Moscow?

Published on

The recent drone attack on a target in Moscow on May 30, 2023, seemed to showcase Ukraine’s increasing ability to strike deep into enemy territory in Russia.

According to the Guardian, President Putin accused Ukraine of engaging in “terrorist activity to provoke a reciprocal response.” However, Moscow did not specify how it would respond.

This drone strike occurred alongside Russia’s fourth wave of aerial attacks on Kyiv in recent days, resulting in the death of at least one person, the hospitalization of others, and the evacuation of a high-rise building in Kyiv.

According to Kyiv, at 11:30 a.m. local time on May 30th, 11 ballistic and cruise missiles were launched, but all of them were successfully intercepted.

The UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, made comments while visiting his Estonian counterpart in Tallinn before the NATO meeting in Oslo, Norway. He stated that Ukraine has the legitimate right to defend itself and project force beyond its borders for self-defense. However, he refrained from speculating on the nature of the drone attack in Moscow, emphasizing that his remarks were more general and not specific to the incident.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky declared that Ukraine was pleased to witness the Moscow drone attacks but denied any involvement.

Amidst the ongoing war of words, heavy fighting continues in parts of Ukraine bordering Russia. As spring arrives and the rivers thaw, the conflict shows no signs of abating. The question of when it will end weighs heavily on the minds of people around the world. Some African nations, including South Africa, as well as the EU nation Belgium, have proposed mediation between Russia and Ukraine. It remains to be seen whether sanity will prevail.

You might be interested in

Noise Cameras

Published on
[Photo Credit: Bernardo Lorena Ponte/ Unsplash]

Speed Cameras have been in use, spotting former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and most recently have been in the news with the revelations on Home Secretary, Suella Braverman” creating” a rumpus and which was put a stop with P.M.Sunak not pursing further action, noting that the Home Secretary had paid the customary fine after the incident.

Noise is according to the UK Government website: “an inevitable consequence of a mature and vibrant society, but can have a negative effect on people’s quality of life, affecting their health and wellbeing.”

Noise-detecting cameras, we are told could be soon used to catch drivers who shatter the peace on roads revving up engines and exhausts. In the case of many, the use of noise cameras to catch those who disturb the sleep of residents is a matter long overdue. Sleep disturbance has been a gnawing problem which something serious had to be done,

The British Government is examining the results of detailed camera tests. Campaigners hope the technology that has been developed will help reduce noise pollution of those who deliberately modify their cars and also motorbikes, as loud as possible to attract more than attention. The Police will soon be able to use the records of noise levels and digital imaging to track and trace the culprits with fines and fixed penalties.

The question is how cheaply and reliably could technology to be used to stop this nuisance?

How does noise levels affect health?

Irresponsible and anti-social drivers are a danger to the public, because they use streets as a “race track”? We are told some night drivers use noise as a “weapon of torture”? This is unproven, but possible.

Chronic noise pollution affects people’s physical and mental health, with links to stress, disturbed sleep patterns and high blood pressure and other complaints. Night time provocation has become part of a “stress causing business” leading to peripheral neuropathy and nerve damage.

What exactly is a Noise Camera?

A Noise Camera also known as an acoustic camera is used to detect loud noises that exceed a certain set tolerable limit.

Noise cameras work in a similar way to speed cameras. Noise cameras are equipped with a microphone, just like speed cameras have sensors and an automated number plate recognition system.

Noise cameras can differentiate an engine’s sound from, say a horn or the radio, by monitoring the sound patterns. There are some drivers who must have their radio as loud as possible whilst driving, day or night to be noticed. This is a psychosis?

The legal sound limit for all new cars is 72 decibels (dB). This threshold will be further reduced to 67 dB from 2026.

It is illegal to modify exhaust systems to boost noise and power in the UK, though this seemingly has not stopped enthusiasts, among others, getting their cars modified to these ends.

Noise sensors don’t record sounds. They monitor the changes in the sound level.

What are some ways Sri Lanka can capitalise on its wealth opportunities?

Published on

One of the easiest ways is to cut expenditure. It is within the power of Sri Lanka’s status as an island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Put simply, it must capitalise on wealth opportunities given our geography, our knowledge and our experience.

Researchers maintain we have not effectively used the pristine culture and traditions of our island in the most vital need of recovery from debt. Development efforts they complain are not mindful of our heritage. We need to ensure engagement in specialist focus areas.

Have we missed the boat or is it that we want to imitate the West, in living beyond our means? What are some ways that we can focus in areas to help us propel economic development in order to reduce our debt?

Here I list some of the focus areas in our attempt at resource mobilisation.

  1. First and foremost, we need to mobilise our tax revenue.
  2. Facilitate access to concessional finance for new investment.
  3. Direct more attention to private investment.
  4. Reduce remittance cost of migrant Sri Lankan labour.
  5. Effectively train people to manage our debt.
  6. Curb illicit financial flows.
  7. Capacity building.
  8. Promote digitalisation.

Can we immediately address our needs before resource mobilisation?

We have not addressed the importance of “Risk Management”.

We are prone to nature’s risks like flooding, landslides, disruption to coastal flooding,

availability of fresh and drinking water, agricultural production and biodiversity. Need,

I say more, about man’s share of the environment with the animal kingdom, or the less spoken about accidents on roads and highways, due to negligence of man.

Having a Disaster Management Ministry or Department is not sufficient? We have an urgent need to plot the path of large scale disasters of the future and have plan A ,B and C. These large scale disasters lead to serious loss of life, to damage to infrastructure that sets back our incremental developmental process and our way out of debt?

Natural disasters cannot be prevented but an advance plan or programme of risk management has to be effectively managed. Investment in the present will ensure fewer resources are required in the future to respond to such unplanned disasters? In short, we need risk reduction measures as part of strategy of development.

We need more than risk management, we need to bolster our resilience to economic shocks, like what we have recently economically experienced? This is particularly significant on our utter dependence on imports of many essentials, of food and materials which we have grown accustomed. Our disproportionate reliance on tourism and exports of our planation commodities is well known. However, what is not well known is the captive market of women workers.

Women form part and parcel of casual or seasonal jobs in the tourist trade and migrant work.  They are left without safety nets given the informal nature of work and especially without any or much social protection.

The high cost of sending remittances from abroad limits their potential to contribute to sustainable development. The Government must have a plan, a commitment to reduce transaction costs for migrant remittances to less than 3%. It is prohibitive as the market is trading at 10% at present? Need I say, technological advancements can reduce transaction costs? Setting up “Fintech” businesses will greatly facilitate transfer operations and reduce costs?

Most of all we need not only mobilise private investment in “Sri Lanka Inc” but ensure these resources are aligned to the country’s development objectives.

I would suggest we need to levy a “Special tax for compensatory claims for Women undergoing poverty”. This is gender equality in a sense.

Further, our greatest asset is the use of our geographical location in the Indian Ocean. The strength of the maritime transportation system, such as maritime tourism, fisheries and maritime piracy prevention has just been realised, as a wealth opportunity. We need to promote sustainable coastal shipping, rather than overcrowded roads and railways. This service has the benefit of the development of low carbon, cost effective and cheaper coastal transport systems.

A feature that has been ignored up to now is the “exploration” of the untapped reserves of deep seabed minerals, offshore oil/or gas platforms, fish stocks, marine algae. We have not explored our large coastal shelf in the Indian Ocean. This is our opportunity for economic expansion.

It must be noted that these opportunities must be exploited responsibly in a way that protects the environment and man and promotes inclusion and sustainable growth, not greedy exploitation?  It not only requires significant financing but responsible use of the ocean surround. There is investment potential, but it has not been researched?

 Last but no way the least, public expenditure management has been lacking and now is vital. Strong public expenditure management goes beyond conventional government budgeting. Primarily forecasting future needs, a research based budgetary alignment of finances to Sri Lanka development Goals is paramount.

What are our national development priorities? “We desperately need Capital Building, Knowledge Exchange and Technological Transfer, if we are to manage our debt burden within a reasonable time frame for the benefit of our people, our future generation.  

We need all the resources available to us at present to clear our inability to resolve our dependence on hand outs? Resilience involves the ability to recover and rebound from challenges and setbacks. Can we bounce back! Yes we can?

You might be interested in

The sky at night?

Published on
/

People watch many events at night but star gazers today (April 23, 2023) had a spectacle which hardly occurs visible to the naked eye, except when there is a cloudburst or a “meteor shower “to light up the dawn skies.

I had the occasion to witness a similar “meteor shower,” when I visited Sydney, Australia, on a Backpackers holiday in mid-December 2003, sleeping on the top of a bunk bed at 5 am, during their summer season. It was awesome. The celestial display was something out of this world. The peak came just after the New Moon, which meant views of this once in a lifetime spectacle, was not impeded by moonlight.

We were warned yesterday as late as yesterday by Professor of Physics, Don Pollacco at the University of Warwick of this event in UK, but to my surprise, we could hardly witness it in London, as the sky was overcast with thick cloud.

According to Dr. Pollacco, as the Earth passes through the comet’s orbit any material deposited by the Comet could become “meteors” or shooting stars in the sky. He states: “these bodies are usually the size of dust particles but when they fall into the Earth’s atmosphere, they travel as such speed that they are vaporised. Along the path that the dust particle travels, the gas molecules are superheated and give out light – this is called a Meteor”.

He further stated these meteors are called “Lyrids” and are a regular occurrence every year in the Northern Hemisphere between April 16-25 and approaching summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

How do meteors affect life on Earth? 

The melting of rocks at impact, would have released carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere, resulting in greenhouse warming. This in turn could have increased acid rains, igniting fires. The majority of smaller meteors burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. But the larger ones can leave huge craters in the surface of the planet.

These meteors are literally defined as “space rocks that travel into the Earth’s atmosphere.

We called them “shooting stars”.

The most famous large Asteroid 65 million years ago eliminated the dinosaurs and created the 180 wide crater on the Yucatan Peninsula, off the coast of Mexico, spanning 93 miles and is 12 miles deep. How much of this theory is conjecture is to be researched?

Our understanding of our Universe, of meteorite impact events and their effects, is continually evolving.

Depending on your viewpoint the meteorites have resulted both good and bad outcomes for our planet and for life as we know it. Rare minerals have been exposed to the surface of the Earth for man to exploit, and spectacular views have been displayed for man to enjoy at the “wonder of our planet” thanks to these so called “Shooting Stars”.

We have a duty as custodians of our planet, Earth, to save it from extinction by greed and destruction.

You might be interested in

Trends we cannot ignore?

Published on
/

Continued market volatility has put constant pressure on individuals and businesses, not only in the UK but also worldwide. This strains resources, slows productivity and growth. Fortunately, the growing maturity and prevalence of common sense and balance among other reasons, makes our daily affairs or duties more bearable.

Feeling torn between the desire for more patience and more understanding and the need to figure out details, we see new ways of doing things, coping with reality, According to some, the prevalence of new technology including AI and Machine Learning (ML) have established ways that can help navigate uncertainty while accepting the unique complexities of life today. What do we need to trade in its place?

How do we choose the trends that align best with our needs? How do we develop a short and long term roadmaps, that align our living to evolving trends? How do we prepare the skills and organisational culture, where people and machines seamlessly collaborate? Is this possible or practical?

Technology and Change?

How do we stay ahead of the game by anticipating changes rather than succumbing to them, say ChatGPT, AI, and Automation.

“ChatGPT is a sibling model to instruct GPT which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provides a detailed response”. The first peak of ChatGPT is coming directly to Windows 11- with no browser.

With AI we are told there are deeper ethical and moral concerns – since the AI models have neither?  

Without delving into the “New Tech” suffice to state, we must be weary of where they are leading us?

The Tech sector has seen explosive growth in the past two years. The Pandemic saw a dramatic rise in the hybrid working model as employees left the office to work from home. This saw major firms like Amazon and Facebook hire thousands of workers, doubling their headcounts in a matter of months. Now with a potential recession looming, Tech companies are laying off workers. In the last year more than 70,000 people globally have been laid off by Big Tech Companies?

What has led to this shake up?

Rising inflation and rising interest rates drag on economic growth. Faced with this additional intense pressure on already stretched finances, UK wage growth has remained high in the three months, according to data from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS).

“Pay and wages strikes” have continued “over the winter of discount,” with the latest Royal College of Nursing members rejecting, the pay offer agreed by their Union. There is talk of a demand of 35% increase, which the Government will hardly consider. Junior Doctors are on strike, but the big question is, “Will there be coordinated strikes” that threaten people’s lives?

Will inflation eat away at pay growth? “Who is the loser?”

When adjusted to inflation “Real Pay” fell by 2.3 %, while “Total Pay” fell 3%. CPI inflation has unexpectedly ticked up to 10.4% in February, after a fall in January 2023.

Economic uncertainty is weighing heavily on the labour market. UK economy has remained largely stagnant since the end of 2022. According to reports, GDP was “flat last month”. Though the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt expects the UK will avoid a recession this year, the IMF’s outlook is far less rosy. Indeed, the IMF expects the UK economy will shrink by 0.3% this year.

A bleak outlook awaits the Conservative Party as expected at the Local Government elections in May, with as many as 1000 Local Council lost.

You might be interested in

The Ageing process

Published on
/

My readers may have wondered my silence over the past three months. I was in hospital; over two periods of eight days, for health check in January and February 2023, each at two different hospitals in Essex. What I learned over this period is something I will never forget.

One of my Consultants at Queen’s Hospital, Romford when questioned stated, “don’t worry when you reach your age, diseases common to ageing like dementia have lost their potency, or don’t have their virility.  Another Rheumatologist asked me whether I had gone home to Sri Lanka. When I told him it was over six years ago, he said,: “You are natural sunshine starved, it is high time you some of the natural sunshine, so go and spend a long overdue holiday in the Sun,” as he prescribed me high strength (dosage) Vitamin D tablets.

The ageing – from youth to old age  

In your twenties, you are OK, with life and expectations just getting started. You are excited with all the opportunities that open to you.

Your thirties, are generally a hard grind, hard work, kids and mortgage.

Your forties, are pretty good with life’s challenges.

Your fifties are really awesome.

Your sixties are even better, with the mid-sixties learning to live retirement.

Your seventies start to get harder in many ways.

Your eighties are a real struggle, everything hurts and your friends are all passing away, leaving you lonely and seeking solace?

Your nineties, if you live that long, seems like, “what was that dear?” or “who are you?” or” are we there yet?” You are really not able to tend for yourself, you try to “walk like a duck” and” talk very little, about yourself?”

Life as we age feels like a bell curve. I guess, it is different for every “oldie?” But one thing for sure, we get slower and slower doing the chores that we took seconds, if not momentary minutes, or took for granted?

Age come with ailments

As anyone might expect, age is not a number, it comes with ailments. Slowing down process is part and parcel of ageing. More pain, in places, I thought I didn’t know existed. Tending to not eat much anymore, losing weight, muscles weak. Dependency, is the synonym for old age. Really, depending on way the health-wind blows, longing for the sun to come out of the clouds?

Longevity is another word for ageing

There is a lot of truth on the assessment of family history of longevity. My Grand dad, (my mother’s father) lived well into his nineties, my family genealogy, rather genetic makeup too, needs more scrutiny.

The body ageing is not anything new, but the process of ageing is at different rates, at different countries. When you were born, and what was happening to the world around you, I think, has a lot to do with longevity.

In most developed countries, advances in our knowledge of age are associated with treatment of disease, some with medicine, but most, I reckon, with mind-set.  Diseases have far outpaced advances in the understanding of the fundamental ageing process. The onset and spread of the ageing process are also fairly individual, and sometimes depending on the decade of birth, the health condition, nutrition, exercise, work environment among other considerations?

All in all, my question to my readers, “Can you control the ageing process? If so in what way, is it still a possibility?

You might be interested in

What is Politics all about in Sri Lanka?

Published on

For a Sri Lanka politician, for that matter any politician, what matters most is outcomes and delivery rather than process and ideology. But, to be successful, process must be married with energy, ideas, and political will of the Central Government.

The electorate will of course, give or willingly bestow time, most often, the benefit of the doubt, but no responsible Central Government can carry on regardless, without structural reforms, if it wants to survive.

We have seen this clearly in what is happening, or rather what has happened in the uprising of the people or the “aragalaya movement” that took to the streets in March 2022.

Can raising standards of living be indefinitely postponed?

Political theorists admonish that the performance of a truly national government cannot be separated from structural reforms if a Central Government has to survive. It looks that political reforms may be ‘flunked’ once again, as it has happened several times in the past 75 years, this time largely as a result of the Debt crisis.

Reports have emerged that the Government will be delaying an announcement on reforms, in fact, Local Elections until later after securing the IMF assistance package. (Déjà vu?)

Reports suggest that the President‘s favoured plan for funding reform – perhaps, a cap on military spending – faces two key objections from the Services. That the country can least afford, that it will cost too much in security concerns and that it may disproportionately benefit the enemies of the nation? Of course, the security of our nation comes first, but how long can the ordinary man on the street wait, when prices of essential goods and services, electricity tariffs are raised previously by 75% and soon by another 66% on the request of the IMF to secure the approval of its Extended Fund Facility (EFF). How long can we go on a begging bowl? Is it not time to cut unnecessary and extended expenses on anything and everything, that is now found when we are not on a war footing, to save our people from hardship for years on end?

Do these objections stack up?

First, let’s briefly remind ourselves how we got here. We got to the position we are in because of our vanity, and our wonton carelessness after 30 years of war. Can we really and economically afford a bloated service force the same as during a war? At the same time can we ignore the way how to secure our nation in peacetime?

Protection against any uprising in the future should not be ignored. How affordable is cutting the military’s budget? But, simultaneously, affordability shouldn’t be the only factor determining reform. Can the nation afford this cost of reform now and in the future?

Fundamentally, reform of the military services is to make it “fit for purpose for the 21st century,” which should be one part of the new system of security. Making this happen will require additional government time, planning and investment. But, reform of the military services is not unaffordable?

The Government can afford to provide a fairer and more generous society to live within its means and solve the debt crisis if we begin to live within our means. This is what is necessary, not further loans from the IMF to pay our existing loans.

The arguments are clearer and more logical. The question is the Government’s political will?

You might be interested in

Beyond the China balloon?

Published on
//

The flavour of the month is not Ukraine, but China, the pundits in the West, state Chinese State intelligence gathering has grown in ambition and scale, leaving the West to catch up.

The Chinese balloon which was first shot out of the sky off South Carolina on 4 February 2023 has now triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing. But the subsequent “hysteria” has led to at least three more unidentified being also shot down.

President Biden has said that the Yukon Territory, Canada and those taken down over, Deadhorse, in far Northern Alaska and Lake Huron in the US since the Chinese balloon incident, were not thought to be surveillance vehicles. They seem to be called UFO’s or UAP’s, perhaps sent up by balloon hobbyists in the US. Note the pun in “dead horse”.

Speaking in Japan, Liz Truss in her first public speech since her resignation addressing the Inter –Parliamentary Alliance on China has called on the international community to agree on a coordinated package of defence, economic and political issues on China’s back yard, Taiwan.

More hawkish Conservative MP’s have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reclassify China as a threat, instead of a “systemic competitor”. P.M. Sunak has tried a new way to keep lines open with China for his own reasons, although he originally wanted to placate the hawks in his party,

According to Hindustan Times, China has specified American high altitude spy balloons have flown in Xinjiang and Tibetan skies as well, at unspecified times. China has also vowed to take counter measures against US entries, which undermine Chinese sovereignty,

What is all this spat about?

What the balloon crisis exposed, Washington’s heightened sense of alert as the standoff over the balloon delays were efforts to re-set bilateral relations, according to Reuters.

While US is blowing hot and cold with Vice President Kamala Harris warning against Chinese support for Russia in Ukraine, President Biden has said he does not believe relations between the two countries, US and China, were weakened by the incident.

We note that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the balloon, is considering meeting Chinese top diplomat, Wang Yi in Munich this weekend.

At the same time Japan and China hold security talks on the side lines of Munich Security Conference on 18 February 2023.

In a word, the balloon incident is the over-reacting whether China is provoking a new war in the Indo-Pacific region, some say as evidence in the South China Seas off Philippines, on 5 February 2023.

A new world order is in the making?

A new axis of World Powers – China, Russia and Iran is coming into being. Although some analysts say it is a myth, we may soon see the formation of an informal “alliance of convenience” between these three nations, perhaps, not to join in the Ukrainian war, but for other reasons best known to themselves.

You might be interested in

Sunak at No 10: Scotland’s Bombshell

Published on
/

Nicola Sturgeon,52,surprise resignation as Scotland’s First Minister on 15 February 2023, was expected after the fortunes of Scottish Independence was dealt a death knell in November 2022 by the UK Supreme Court judgment blocking her bid to hold a second referendum. But, the question is why did she not soldier on until the next election?

She was a charismatic personality who after 8 long years in office as the first woman Scottish National Party Leader and the second leader of her party after Alex Salmon, had acknowledged the job was “rightly hard”.

She described her time in office as a “privilege beyond measure”. She insisted her decision was “not a reaction to short-term pressures, but came from “a deeper and longer-term assessment,” perhaps, a strategic assessment. She also said in her hastily convened televised press conference, that “the time was right for her to step down”.

What has shocked the British public?

It was the same day that former British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn decided to stand down as a Labour MP at the next General Election. There has been rumour doing the rounds that Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation was possibly a move to curry favour with the Labour Party’s lead in the polls, to get some sort of arrangement with Sir Keir Starmer“to
make an accommodation for Scotland”. We are not to know what was in her mind, but there was indeed something more than meets the eye?

Who will be Scotland’s next Leader?

It is not the public but the British and Scottish Press which has made many assumptions on who would follow her in the days, weeks and months ahead.

The Scottish Herald stated; “Just two weeks ago Sturgeon said there was still plenty in the tank!”

The Independent stated: “What does Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation mean for Scottish independence?”

The Telegraph stated:” By quitting, Nicola Sturgeon is leaving her trans (gender) mess for someone else to clear up”.

Public opinion felt her steady decline of late, most notably over the next UK General Election, which she pledged to turn it into a “de-facto” referendum on Scottish independence. Whilst the independence card played well for Sturgeon, the tide of politics has turned. Recent polls in Scotland gave a signal that the tide has turned in Scotland supporting a second referendum, following the first in 2014, especially after the energy crisis and the cost of living sky rocketing around the UK and most of all her failing initiatives on health care, after her brilliant handling of the COVID-19 pandemic vaccinations.

The debate over the Gender Recognition Bill has been a thorn in the side of those in Scotland not agreeing with Nicola Sturgeon’s incarceration of double rapist Isla Bryson.

What did Nicola Sturgeon contribute to Scotland?

Nicola Sturgeon’s dynamic campaigning led the SNP to a historic landslide victory in the Scottish constituencies as its share of seats in Westminster swelled from a mere 6 to 56, with nearly all of its gains at the expense of the Labour Party, for which Scotland had been its stronghold. Who knows, whether now the tide has turned back for Labour with Sturgeon’s exit? Nicola Sturgeon’s charismatic personality led the SNP to its third straight victory in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2016, but failed to obtain an outright majority at the last election, but chose to form a minority government instead.

Her legacy for the younger generation of Brits will be remembered, as she made University
Education is free for those wanting to enter and study at Scottish Universities.

Sturgeon and PM Rishi Sunak did not agree on the Gender Bill as Sunak said the law would undermine UK-wide legislation, a blow to residents in other parts of the UK do need to undergo a medical examination to change their gender. Sunak used that argument to prevent the bill which narrowly passed in Scotland’s Parliament from becoming law. Sturgeon will be forever remembered for stating that Sunak’s decision undermined Scotland’s democracy,

The shelf life of a politician around the world is limited. This is unlike in Sri Lanka, where Prime Ministers end up as Presidents, and cling on to power?

You might be interested in

The Survival Instinct: What does it feel to be Prime Minister of 100 days in UK?

Published on
/

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak marked 100 days in 10 Downing Street on Thursday, February 2, 2023 pleading to restore trust, confidence, and integrity in politics. But how does it feel to be first among equals as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, today?

Mr Sunak’s premiership began on October 25, 2022 after former Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just six weeks. He was the runner-up in the summer Tory leadership race and was the only candidate to receive 100 supporting MPs in the second contest. Despite support among the Tory party, he has no public mandate, many state. “The Southampton-born former investment banker had served as an MP for his Yorkshire constituency of Richmond since 2015 and been a cabinet member for two years before becoming the youngest British Prime Minister in over 200 years and the first of Asian descent”.

The most pressing issue upon entering office was to stabilise the economy after Ms Truss left it in a volatile state, wiping £30 billion from it in less than three months. Alongside his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Mr Sunak has lowered inflation, despite its remaining high, and worked to increase growth and get public finances back on a sustainable path. Mr Sunak promised to clear up Tory sleaze but has still been faced with several issues. Last week Mr Sunak sacked his Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi over his tax affairs after an independent investigation. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is also the subject of a formal investigation into bullying”. This is called the “balancing act”.

He also is finding it hard to unite the Conservative Party, as there are rumblings within and outside.

Politics and Position in Britain

Being Prime Minister for 100 days today in Britain, is like being “top dog” for 100 years. Or so it seems?

 Many feel the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain is a poisoned chalice? Economically, the UK is viewed by some abroad “less a poisoned chalice and more a poisoned barrel”. By some assessments, the UK is already in recession with a massive hole gaping in its public finances. Soaring inflation is hitting the public and the Bank of England has raised interest rates to keep pace from 3.5% to 4% on 2 February, to bring inflation down to BOE official target of 2%. But it is a far cry, as inflation is in double figures today and not expected to come down until December 2023.

Higher energy costs are starting to hit households hard this winter. Gas meters have been compulsorily installed in homes of “the vulnerable” unable to pay their bills and there is a big hue and cry by Labour.  Meanwhile, there is nationwide industrial unrest, including in postal services and transport, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, even Civil Servants.

Like many fellow Conservatives, Sunak is suspicious of China. He considers it “the biggest threat, more than Russia” to the UK and has called for the shutdown of Confucius Institutes in Britain. Whether he will prosecute policies against the world’s No 2 economy as Prime Minister, remains to be seen.

No one will believe it if I say, a lucrative future awaits him in the United States, at any time of his choosing? That does not mean, he will jump ship anytime now, as he has many friends in the “business world,” who would egg him on to stay on at least until the next General Election in 2024.

Being Prime Minister is a stepping stone to returning to United States at some foreseeable future as he is quite young, capable, enthusiastic and willing to work to the bone.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, is watching and waiting in the wings to take it on, “as the “empire strikes again,” and if and when it becomes vacant?

You might be interested in

1 2 3 4