Two weeks can be a very long time in politics.

Two weeks ago, Boris Johnson was still clinging to the swaying ship Downing Street as captain, shortly afterwards everything collapsed.

After its inglorious end, the Conservative Party is trying to make a fresh start.

The two candidates for the run-off election should be known on Wednesday evening, and then the estimated 200,000 members of the Tories will have their say.

According to bookmakers, ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak has a good chance of becoming the next prime minister.

He has yet to prevail against Secretary of Commerce Penny Mordaunt and Secretary of State Liz Truss.

Mordaunt's campaign has faltered as Tory-affiliated media harshly scrutinized her woken socio-political views.

Truss, who would like to present herself as a Thatcher reincarnation, appeared stiff and uninspiring in televised debates.

Ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer Sunak is running with heavy luggage, namely his record in tax policy.

Many Tories bitterly blame him for the fact that the tax and duty ratio has risen significantly under him, which was mainly due to the spending spree during the Corona recession, but also to Johnson's wishes.

A "socialist" level of taxes, the highest in seventy years, is now being lamented by some.

A debt-financed fairy tale would not exist with Sunak

The inner-party election campaign at times resembled a bidding war for tax cuts without counter-financing.

Sunak hits the brakes and warns against debt-financed "fairy tales".

He obviously wants to keep the powder dry in order to prepare for a broad tax cut in the 2024 election year.

Whoever moves into 10 Downing Street in September is assuming responsibility in an extremely difficult economy, with inflation at its highest rate in forty years.

Millions of people barely know how to pay their energy bills.

After all, households in need, a third of the population, receive up to £1200 in grants.

Companies are also groaning under the cost shock.

Unions threaten to go on strike.

Economists see a recession risk later in the year.

In 2023 the economy will stagnate.

All in all, this is a cocktail of economic pain.

The long-term perspective is missing in the current debates

It is unfortunate that the internal Tory campaign rarely talks about long-term challenges.

The country has structural problems.

Great Britain's productivity growth has been relatively weak for years, since the financial crisis but bolstered by the Brexit vote.

The formulaic announcement by all Tory candidates that they want to seize the "Brexit opportunities" and unleash growth remains a cheap promise without details of a new supply policy.

Sunak wants to relax EU rules for the financial industry, but there are also conflicts with supervisors at the Bank of England.

Remarkably little is now being heard of Johnson's prestige projects Build Back Better and Leveling Up.

The UK suffers from severe regional inequality.

Johnson's pledge of investment in research, innovation, and infrastructure sounded good.

But overall, Build Back Better had too much emphasis on construction projects (such as the outrageously expensive HS2 rapid transit system) and too little on education.

The British healthcare system is ailing

Huge problems exist in the public sector: the health service behemoth NHS has a staggering waiting list of 6.5 million patients that could get worse.

The candidates also speak too little about this – beyond prayer wheel-like praise for the “fantastic NHS”.

Some commentators write that the Tories have abandoned Margaret Thatcher's ideals of a lean government.

That's partly true.

When Thatcher turned things around, Britain was paralyzed by a sclerotic welfare and union state.

She unleashed the country through free-market reforms.

But favorable circumstances also helped, such as a better demographic situation, and North Sea oil revenues also bubbled up.

The next prime minister will manage a lot of shortages.

An aging population means rising healthcare and pension spending and growing pressure on public finances.

There are alarming projections for the debt ratio over the next few decades.

However, Sunak appears to be the candidate with the most economic and fiscal policy acumen of all, grasping the seriousness of the situation.