U.K. needs debate not a coronation

If an election is “no time to discuss serious issues,” to quote former prime minister Kim Campbell, then congratulations to the United Kingdom for taking her advice in this, the year of our Lord 2024.

- ANDREW MACDOUGALL

We are now nearly a week on from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s rain-soaked election call and we are no closer to having an idea about what this election is really about. It’s been an unedifying affair, with Sunak and his Conservatives having squandered the incumbent’s advantage on timing, careening from gaffe to gaffe instead of offering a clear plan in the early days of a listless campaign.

Which is a shame because there is a lot we should be talking about. The British economy, while recovering from the almost fatal dent hammered into it by Liz Truss, Sunak’s predecessor, is still underperforming. British productivity was last seen sometime in 2008, and the declining trade volumes from Europe in the wake of Brexit have yet to be made up from alternate markets.