editor’s letter
I’m jealous of Rishi Sunak’s feet. It’s because of the Samba business. He was pictured last week wearing a pair of boxfresh Adidas Sambas. This led to something between a kerfuffle and a furore. Sunak matched the classic cult shoe with a pair of signature tight trousers. While he may have wanted to channel Oasis circa 1995, he was closer to a works function at a No Way Sis gig. The look didn’t land. And Sunak apologised. Which, I suppose, is a way to humanise him. All I could think was, at least he can wear them. I have wide, flat feet. Too many generations of Irish farmers trotting over wet bogs. It means Sambas and me could never get together. They are a narrow shoe. When I attempted to secure the look and get my feet into a pair of original navy suede Sambas I looked like I’d had an accident. And so I was forever outside that part of the Mod circle.
I don’t know if the whole thing was staged to allow a conversation that would make Rishi more like the rest of us – look, LOOK, he wears trainers and everything! And then have him laugh at himself when he realises the outcome. It was the dominant line from the PM in the early part of the week. Which is telling. The other really striking photo story of the week was of the farmhouse in Trimingham in north Norfolk which needs to be demolished as the land around it has collapsed into the sea. The erosion which led to the loss of that house, and several others in recent months, was not caused by the advance of the sea, but by rain. Heavy rain.
Of course, north Norfolk is not the only part of the country to suffer from chaos caused by excess rain in recent times, it’s just the most dramatic image.
And there is no doubt that this is due to climate change. Despite the best efforts of some deniers, the evidence is all around us. At the moment in deep puddles and swollen rivers. In March, it was in temperature. March was the 10th consecutive hottest month on record for global air and sea temperatures. Yet, despite the chaos brought by the weather, the impact on day-to-day lives of millions, on the crops in fields, I couldn’t find a line, at time of going to print, from Sunak, about commitments, new or reaffirmed, to doing something about it all.
Just a few months ago, he backed away from net zero and major climate promises. He was, he
