London (CNN)Earlier this week, Rishi Sunak celebrated his first 100 days as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
In some sense, the fact Sunak was able to reach this milestone at all was reason enough to celebrate. When he took over from his predecessor Liz Truss last autumn she had only managed 49 days, making her the shortest-serving PM in British history.
During her brief, chaotic spell in Downing Street, Truss somehow managed to sink the government Conservative party's poll ratings even lower than her predecessor, Boris Johnson, a man forever remembered as the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office.
So the fact that Sunak, not universally popular among Conservative party members or parliamentarians, has survived 100 days is an achievement in its own right.
But that certainly doesn't mean his first 100 days have been a success. Since Sunak took up residence in Downing Street, the UK has seen some of the worst public sector strikes in modern history. Only this week, half a million workers went on strike across the country, closing schools, canceling university lectures and bringing most of the rail network to a standstill in what unions say is the biggest single day of walkouts in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the country's beloved National Health Service is close to collapse, millions are suffering amid a cost-of-living crisis, and the International Monetary Fund says the UK is the only G7 economy forecast to shrink in 2023.
