Rishi Sunak’s trade-off ideology

In his interview with the Sunday Telegraph proclaiming himself to be pro-car, Rishi Sunak made an interesting point: that this was not about post-Uxbridge opportunism but about his values. ‘I have a set of principles and values that are important to me, and that anchor my approach to life and to government.’ He added, as a drive-by, that “I don’t see that across the despatch box”” – but let’s set Starmer aside. What are his values? I’d say that his driving principle is what you might call tradeoff-ism: a belief in the need to be frank about the choices facing a country and its government. And those values may rub up against the Net Zero agenda.

To govern is to choose: that’s an old saying. But Rishi Sunak would take it further. If you do X it means you won’t do Y and a politician who doesn’t spell this out, who promises the ends without discussing the means, is basically lying.