Britons’ liking for technocracy is the highest in the G7 according to the World Values Study, a global survey of public opinion. Hence the appeal of Rishi Sunak
Hence the appeal of Rishi Sunak, Britain’s prime minister, whose personal polling is much better than that of the Conservative Party . Asked to sum Mr Sunak up, officials cite a photograph of him buried in a folder of notes which was taken on the deck of a retired aircraft-carrier during a recent visit to San Diego. The message is clear: Mr Sunak is a workaholic and a problem-solver, undistracted from his homework even by the toys of the Pacific Fleet. Yet his is a strange form of wonkery.
He brings a technocrat’s discipline to Downing Street. Officials cite a remarkable work rate; his mantra is “to run as fast and as hard as we can”. Whereas Boris Johnson’s red box of papers was said often to sit outside his flat unread, Mr Sunak calls up reams of data and analysis from the civil service and interrogates the footnotes. “He’s much more into the cooking,” says one official of the policy process.
But even if Mr Sunak stands out from the average politician, he is also not your typical technocrat. He made his political career by dissenting from the weight of expert opinion. As a young backbencher he backed Brexit not out of romance but as if it were an investment. “I wasn’t ideological about it…somewhat analytically I sat down and looked through the numbers,” he has said.
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