How to judge Rishi Sunak? Not as a politician, but as the

How lucky we are to have witnessed masterful performances such as ‘chancellor of the exchequer’ and ‘prime minister’

Is political satire dead? No. It’s just been temporarily eclipsed by satirical politics. And honestly, has there ever been a more satirical politician than Rishi Sunak? He is a natural, and we have been fortunate witnesses indeed to this brief yet dazzling masterclass.

For decades, a slow-motion metaphysical event has been crunching politics and satire together to form a super-dense singularity. It is reminiscent of an ingenious theory within Flann O’Brien’s 1940 surrealist novel, The Third Policeman. If everything is composed of small particles whizzing around, objects bumping into each other often enough would exchange atoms. In the book, people rattling along uneven roads inevitably exchange atoms with their bicycles. The bikes become more human; cyclists become more bike-like, spending silent hours at a time propped with one elbow against a wall.