Reason why 90's classic blasted over a soggy Rishi's general election announcement

Rishi Sunak stepped out of Downing Street on a rainy Wednesday evening and announced what pretty much everyone in the UK had been waiting for - there is going to be a general election.

The rain turned the prime minister positively soggy while he warbled on about the furlough scheme and other things he would hope to count among his achievements during his time as chancellor and prime minister.

As the assembled political reporters waited for him to get to the point a sound could be heard in the background.

As the noise grew stronger, a thoroughly damp Sunak eventually got round to making the point pretty much everyone knew already, that a general election was going to happen on 4 July.

However, it was hard to hear him over someone blasting music as people nearby serenaded the sodden Sunak with a very carefully chosen song.

The damp prime minister could barely be heard over the sound of D.Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better' as he tried to explain to the country why they ought to persist with the Conservatives after 14 years.

Plenty of people picked up on the relevance of the song, even though it had released all the way back in 1993.

“Things Can Only Get Better” by D:Ream is drowning out Rishi Sunak’s speech calling a general election. pic.twitter.com/JQlU3zGgrf

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 22, 2024

For those among you who might be younger, 'Things Can Only Get Better' was the song adopted by Labour's 1997 campaign.

It was the tune to a Labour victory which swept a clapped-out Tory party which appeared to be out of ideas and bouncing from scandal to scandal from power after a long period in government.

It captured the mood of a Britain that seemed to be sick to the back teeth of the Conservatives and ready for another party to take charge.

Sound familiar?

Even people who either weren't around or weren't aware of what was going on in 1997 might have come across the song.

Viewers of The Crown will remember a somewhat bewildering imaginary sequence where the Queen (Imelda Staunton) is forced to look on while new prime minister Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) was crowned as Britain's new monarch.

A choir of children sung 'Things Can Only Get Better' as part of the ceremony, showing how closely tied in the song was to Labour's victorious campaign of the 90s.

Now here we are in 2024, with a soggy Sunak here at the end of 14 years of Conservative government and his party trailing behind Labour by a staggering amount in the polls.

The date of the UK's next general election has been set at 4 July, otherwise known as six weeks and a day from now (22 May) and if the polls are correct then this summer is likely to see a new government ushered in.

Clearly, some people think that things can only get better from this point onwards.