I can’t stop thinking about the Parthenon Sculptures – or rather, what led Rishi Sunak to cancel a meeting in November with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after he raised the issue of their return. Anyone could have warned Sunak that skipping the opportunity to discuss serious geopolitical challenges with a fellow European leader was an unforced error. And the reason behind it might have something to do with a very tiny hammer.
A few days before Sunak cancelled the meeting with Mitsotakis, a video went viral of him appearing to misuse a hammer. The full video shows a jeweller telling Sunak to use the side, but it didn’t matter. The image of an incompetent politician failing to do something as basic as holding a hammer had stuck. Like the photos of Ed Miliband attempting to eat a bacon sandwich, the video reinforced the prevailing sense that Sunak doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.
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