The crumbling of British Politics in Turmoil - General Meeting talk on 17th March

Our guest speaker Andrew Baker delivered a devastating analysis of why British politics are in turmoil. He cited:-distrust with lightweight politicians, who have not had serious jobs. They cannot make decisions in case they alienate their followers. They display little skill in political leadership and communications. - it is becoming much more difficult for leaders to manage their parties including the new populist ones. Since 2016 and the Brexit vote, flawed politicians have struggled to deliver (Rishi Sunak being an honourable exception who came to power too late). 

With well over 15 policy u turns since 2024 it is hard to see any sense of direction or cohesion from the Keir Starmer's government. - public voting numbers have declined from 96.8 % in 1951 to 57.5% in 2024 and our two main parties have lost votes to the populist Reform and Greens. Voting by class, income and age has changed. Identity often determines voting choices e.g. age, education, attitudes to Europe and globalisation, support for manufacturing as opposed to services and finance, family connections and other networks, social media, equality groups, pro or anti migrant etc. Many people don’t bother voting. 

Nothing seems to work in the UK. We are not investing enough to defend ourselves as a nation, we lack affordable homes for young people, we keep incurring huge debts to manage the public finances, we have a mental health crisis with many workers unable to work, we continue to bail out the failing NHS and have no plan to address big infrastructure needs. 

For Andrew the answer is that we need growth, either through a smaller state and less taxation or a larger state with more but simpler taxation and focused on incentives to work and create industries. In both scenarios there might be some unpalatable answers for us as older people i.e. losing bus passes, allowances, and needing to contribute more.  Andrew listed 10 critical issues which need fixing now - defence, productivity, taxation reform, technical education, strikes, welfare society and care, infrastructure, relations with the EU, NHS Reform and dealing with the politicisation of Islam. It was hard to disagree with him. It’s over to us to do what we can!

Contributed by Angela Dowling