The Tories’ biggest missed opportunity

In about a year’s time, maybe less, the British people will collectively hand the Tory government their P45s. Rishi Sunak will be mildly disappointed for about five minutes and then move on to a cushy billet in a Silicon Valley tech firm. The Cabinet members will mostly return to the backbenches. Some of them will be able to wangle regular gigs in the newspapers or on TV, where they will argue for the red meat policies that they failed to pursue in office.

And so will pass one of the most incredible missed opportunities in British political history. A Tory majority of a size not seen since the Thatcher years has been used to achieve a great deal of nothing at all. There was not a single measure from Tuesday’s King’s Speech that could not plausibly have appeared in a Labour manifesto.

The Tories talk a good game. Ever since the early Cameron era, in the dog days of New Labour, they have floated reform of the Human Rights Act.