It makes sense, though. The push to make the televised leaders’ debates Tory and Labour only comes primarily from Labour. Starmer will barely have to open his mouth if he’s facing Sunak- just let Rishi be Rishi and Tory votes will keep falling.
But throw a Green, or even a Libdem, into the mix, and viewers will be reminded how far Starmer is from what the country really needs. It makes sense for him to chicken out of that.
Sunak announces UK general election for 4 July
Okay, it’s not people like me who are going to cause the death of the Tory party. They’re going to do it themselves, with a little help from splitters who are somehow even more vile than them. But it can’t come soon enough, frankly.
Their complete obliteration, a la Canada ’93, is unlikely. But wouldn’t it be nice to see them reduced to single figures of MPs.
For a while, I thought Rishi Sunak was only as useless as David Cameron- in other words, actually an improvement on the incompetents he succeeded. I’m a big enough man to admit I was wrong. He’s at least as hopeless as Truss, even if he has managed to cling on a bit longer.
Things are looking awful for the Tories after two by-election losses. Here’s hoping they get worse.
Of course, they’ll be replaced by a Starmer Labour party, who’ll be both a massive improvement and blandly useless at the same time. But we’ll deal with that problem after the Conservative party is burnt down.