In the past I have drawn Johnson, May and Truss - posting their pictures on this very blog. Now it's Richie Sumac's turn:-
I changed his first name from Rishi to Richie simply because he is very rich. He doesn't need to think about rising energy costs, his supermarket bills or the cost of a family holiday. But how did Richie become so rich? Certainly not through physical labour or a 9 to 5 job. This is what "The Week" had to say in January of this year:-
Sunak became a “multimillionaire in his mid-twenties”, according to The Sunday Times. He was a partner at the hedge fund TCI, where bosses “shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis”.
As a young man he operated in the financial world like a successful gambler in a casino, placing his bets wisely and then he married Ashakta Murthy who just happened to be the daughter of billionaire Indian businessman Naryana Murthy.
Richie registered "a blind trust" in July 2019 after being appointed chief secretary to the Treasury by then chancellor Sajid Javid, and it is believed to contain a multi-million pound fortune. Blind trusts allow people to make interest from their investments, without knowing where the money is actually invested. This is supposed to remove any conflicts of interest.
As PM, Sumac has already made a few mistakes but I will give him this - he seems a lot more prime-ministerial than either of his predecessors. At least he does his homework and his ego does not appear to be the size of an over-inflated hot air balloon. Perhaps that is partly down to his Hindu heritage.
Well, at least the money is in a blind trust. Perhaps he will surprise everyone and be a good person.
ReplyDeleteI just found out that Eddie Izzard is running in Sheffield. I love Eddie and her humour.
I love Eddie Izzard, too.
DeleteHe has always been a big Labour supporter and it would be good to see him committing himself to representing Sheffield Central if the party will have him. After all, he is not a local man.
DeleteLoadsamoney the Harry Enfield character comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteYou and I would be Notmuchmoney.
DeleteWell, I wish him luck. He can't be much worse than the last two, can he?
ReplyDeleteI want to see Labour back in power and Sumac is Tory (similar to Republicans).
DeleteSumac is as stealthy as a panther
ReplyDeleteIf he becomes a One Nation Tory he could save the Union.
Truss was a 45 day Biblical plague of locusts and suppurating boils.
We do not wish Sumac to fail as P.M. even if he was one of the bad boy Brexiteers who happens to be married to a billionaire with more homes than I have coffee makers.
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In my recent list of prize premiers I should have listed Disraeli who came close to greatness and stood up to powerful vested interests in his own Tory party.
As did Tony Blair in prevailing over old Labour which had no understanding of business enterprise and middle England's changing aspirations.
The Iraq War and its bloody death-toll Blair will take to his grave.
Anthony Seldon's *Blair* (2004) is 784 pages including index, notes, bibliography.
It is so well structured that it reads like a short book.
Finishing it I turned to Paul Auster's *Burning Boy* the life of Stephen Crane and Marina Warner's delicious *Inventory of A Life Mislaid*.
As a reader, you are gluttonous Mr Haggerty - soaking up so many demanding tomes from different genres. I mean, it's not like racing through a dustbin filled with "Mills and Boon" "novels" is it? I don't think Mavis Truss's parents would approve of their beloved daughter being referred to as a "plague of locusts and suppurating boils" but I have no objection.
DeleteMavis is a songbird. Trussy is like the shrike or butcher bird.
DeleteArtists could copy her snarling face in a comic book version of Susan Hill's *The Woman in Black*.
The BBC drama was superior to the movie.
My mother jumped out of her seat when the Woman hovers above the bed of the young man in the middle of the night.
Imagine seeing Trussy like that, it would give me my first heart attack.
The stuff of nightmares.
DeleteHopefully he's not a fool and hopefully he sticks around longer than a head of lettuce.
ReplyDeleteHis party - The Conservatives are the equivalent of your GOP mob.
DeleteYour new PM will be interesting to watch and hopefully not interesting in the manner of the last couple.
ReplyDeleteHe seems smoother and more professional. The other two had the same motto: "Me! Me! Me!". It was called the Me3 movement.
DeleteWe are all in a blind trust - blind trust that the present mess will somehome be sorted out. We can't do much about it ourselves. We elect politicians to do that on our behalf, not to further their own interests. Sunak is so wealthy he might be able to take that approach.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying. I doubt that he will be signing up for "I'm A Celebrity" any time soon or ever!
DeleteI hope he works out well for you.
ReplyDeleteDo I remember you saying you dont do caricatures? because this looks suspiciously like one
I know I have a memory like a sieve Kylie but I really don't recall saying that. I have attempted to do caricatures for years even though it's very tricky work.
DeleteFor the sake of Great Britain, for the sake of the entire world, I hope he is a decent and wise man.
ReplyDeleteSunak's party is the equivalent of the GOP so naturally I am not a fan but he seems more purposeful than Johnson or Truss.
DeleteRichie may be better than some of his predecessors but the whole system needs a major shake up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should become the 51st state of the USA - oh, I forgot, Canada is ahead of us in the queue.
DeleteCanada is much further ahead for becoming Americans. Family crosses borders. My daughter is an American.
DeleteMay I add that the cartoon was devilishly good right down to the tight little suits that Mr Sumac prefers to the classic Saville Row cut.
ReplyDeleteThese suits of his look as if they once fitted but had been shrunk down by a 48 hour immersion in a copper boiler.
I would like to see the return of Edwardian suits with their luxuriously ample jackets, and those collared waistcoats with pockets that look like a secondary jacket.
Men dressed like this up to the 1920s wearing loose linen suits in summer.
There is a photo of Glasgow Central Station 1926 and men are in straw boaters.
I have a paperback on the Chelsea Hotel NY and the short story writer O Henry is wearing a three-piece tweed suit that afforded any man an air of dignity.
Even the painter Cezanne looked dignified in his shabbier three-piece suit.
When it comes to suits, Lord Nobhead - aka the odious Jacob Rees-Mogg - sets the standard that others should follow.
DeleteMoggy belongs in Madame Tussauds holding his breath all day.
DeleteHe hasn't the brains of his Daddy who would have denounced Kwarteng's mini-budget as the road to ruin.
I would look a proper Charlie in one of Moggy's pinstripe suits.
My jackets are like Paul Goodman's on William Buckley's show Firing Line (YouTube).
Unlike Goodman I only had eyes for Les Dames.
Only time will tell, you optimist.
ReplyDeleteOptimism has always been one of my main weaknesses.
Delete"He doesn't need to think about rising energy costs, the supermarket bill or the cost of a family holiday" Pretty much the same as anyone in politics with their enormous salaries and "for life" pensions. It goes a long way to explaining how "they" could possibly believe that we minions should be managing okay on the pittance they allow us.
ReplyDeleteBeing so bloody rich, it makes you wonder why Richie Sumac even wanted to be PM. He could have cruised the most far flung Pacific Islands on a luxury yacht - taking months to complete the adventure.
DeleteI often wonder if we take the physical appearance of our PMs as character references. So Rishi is quite pleasant to look out, but beware the wolf in the sheep's clothing I say. He will have a 'rumble' of a ministerial role to contain what is coming in the next few months. Cruella is being brought down by the press at the moment for the miserable way we treat immigrants and refugees.
ReplyDeleteI understand that in putting Cruella back in The Home Office, Richie was well aware that she would effectively bring herself down with a bump before he replaces her with someone of his own choosing. She was put back to keep Johnson out of Number 10 as she brought a wedge of right wing votes with her.
DeleteDid you see that Liz Truss and her lettuce are being burned in effigy on Bonfire Night in Kent? I'm sure Rishi will have his turn.
ReplyDelete