Scuttled ship of state.

"Rishi Sunak has been officially announced as United Kingdom's Prime Minister after he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. Sunak will be the country's youngest Prime Minister in two centuries and the third one this year after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss." ET. Indians are rejoicing because "His parents came to the UK from east Africa and are both of Indian origin. Mr Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980," "He went to the boarding school Winchester College, then studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, and business at Stanford in America." BBC. As thoroughly British as anyone can be. "'Free ports' are one of his long-time favorite ideas: areas near ports and airports where goods can be imported and exported without paying taxes, to encourage trade." Sunak has to make sure that his appointment does not turn out to be a classical poisoned chalice, as that of his predecessor Liz Truss, who now holds the record of being the UK's shortest-serving prime minister. npr. "The United Kingdom was already sliding towards a recession when Truss took office in September, as soaring energy bills ate into spending." CNN. And yet the UK will "still need to find between 30 and 40 billion pounds in savings to bring down public debt as a share of the economy in the next five years, according to calculations by IFS, an influential think tank." "Productivity growth has dropped to half the rate it was in the early 2000s, real wages are falling, the pound is nearing record lows and an aging population is placing a growing strain on public services, even as the government tries to rein in public spending that soared during the Covid-19 pandemic," wrote Max Colchester. And then, there is the thorn of Brexit. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson "said the Tories were elected to 'get Brexit done'. He said he duly delivered. But then he called the deal he struck unsustainable because of its most conspicuous feature: an economic border separating Northern Ireland from the UK," wrote Clive Crook. But Brexit cannot be reversed. "The idea that Britain might turn supplicant for renewed membership - presumably on terms that would be less favorable than those it secured through years of grudging and obstreperous participation - is unthinkable." "First, London would be negotiating from a position of weakness; second, the EU would be pleased to see Brexit fail, and conspicuously, to discourage other rebellions." "The Conservative Party made itself the party of Brexit, but they were never honest about the inevitable trade-offs of leaving the European Union." Vox. "You are going to create trade barriers with your biggest trading partner, even though you are going to be able to sign new trade deals with other countries." To add oil to the fire, the Catholic Sinn Fein party won the largest number of seats in the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in May. BBC. "The ultimate goal of Sinn Fein is for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and become one country with the Republic of Ireland." Also, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon wants another referendum for independence from Britain. BBC. The British ship of state has been scuttled economically. Can Sunak bail it out?