Robert Shrimsley’s analysis “Sunak’s ‘Italian Job’ moment” (Opinion, February 1) is spot on — that the Tories’ predicament is not unlike the cliffhanging ending of the iconic British film comedy, with the teetering bus in the final scene, stolen gold heading for the open back doors and over the cliff when its lead character Charlie Croker announces: “Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got an idea”.
The Tory bus has clearly wobbled on the edge for nearly the last time and recent events to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with an alternate leader will probably implode the whole show and lead to their election wipeout.
Damage limitation to reduce the carnage seems to be off the agenda for many Tory leadership plotters, despite facing an electorate that has stopped listening to the endless Tory necromancy of individuals who got us here in the first place. Governing with dignity and competence shouldn’t be beyond the reach of an administration that has been in power for well over a decade and their current leader is, in reality, now their only hope of avoiding a swift exit and the bus hitting reality in the valley below.
The producers of The Italian Job film had planned both a different ending (in which the Mafia rescue the bus with two helicopters and a steel rope, all the robbers and of course the gold) and indeed a sequel film in which Charlie and the gang try and recover their gold — and their dignity. Neither made it on to the screen in the end; the cliffhanger of the dangling bus remains forever on film.
The Tories’ problem is that they need to have voters agree with them that a sequel is indeed deserved or at least the ending isn’t as bad a disaster as it currently seems it will be.
Hopes of a Hollywood ending that help steady the bus and deliver the gold into their hands as it sways over the precipice seem fanciful if they can’t even collectively agree to back their leading character this close to an election.
Lee Callaghan
London N22, UK
