Some political changes in the UK and the US.

Braverman and Manchin are out. David Cameron is back in?!? What does this mean for the fortunes of these countries?

The last few days have seen two expected, yet consequential political developments. A member of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet in the UK government was fired after a string of incendiary comments and disrespect. And one of the most notable Senators in the US decided he was going to step-down instead of run for re-election in 2024.

Suella Braverman

Source: The Guardian

On Monday, Suella Braverman was fired by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Braverman had been the British Home Secretary, analogous to the Secretary of the Interior in the US Cabinet, responsible for policies surrounding national security and immigration.

A far-right member of the Conservative party, Braverman’s time as Home Secretary had not been one of peace and unity. She had been Home Secretary under Liz Truss but was fired over an email scandal shortly before Truss’s resignation. In the power vacuum post-Truss, Braverman supported Sunak when he was chosen to lead the British government, helping Sunak lock up support from the far-right to prevent a comeback by Boris Johnson.

Ever since, she had been a thorn in Sunak’s side, consistently drawing headlines for controversial statements. Braverman classified the influx of asylum seekers as an “invasion”. Recently, she had commented that homelessness was a “lifestyle choice”. Last year, she supported an immigration policy that would send asylum seekers to Rwanda, stating that it was her “dream” to see a flight depart for the country. The British courts decided the policy was a violation of human rights and unlawful, a ruling the Supreme Court unanimously upheld upon appeal.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was an op-ed she published last week, without permission from Sunak, accusing the police force of favoring left-wing protestors.¹ She had previously denounced the primarily peaceful pro-Palestine marches that had cropped up post-Hamas’s attack on Israel as “hate marches”. Her message seemed to increase the temperature around the nation, and critics feel her words roused the far-right, culminating in clashes between far-right protestors and the police around the Cenotaph, a memorial in central London dedicated to those killed in the war, on Armistice Day this past weekend.