No. of Recommendations: 6
> Very interesting, thanks for the links backing up your statements. Brexit seems to be quite the boondoggle. How do you expect things to work out in coming years? Any chance of reversal, or just muddling forward as a FREE!!! nation?
The UK is in a lot of trouble. There is neither competence, nor the ability to install competence for at least another year or two, in Westminster.
The degree of rot in public services, due to underfunding and hostile management, has become too much to bear and the UK is seeing massive strike action. Today for example I believe is the biggest strike in the history of the NHS.
Brexit has driven almost all rational politicians out of the Conservative party, just as Trump did to the modern Republican party.
The FPTP system creates an unhealthy dynamic.
a) you effectively have only two parties in Westminster, selected by England (Scotland generally votes as a block for the SNP, who are the third party, and have almost no power as a result)
b) to get power within FPTP, both parties believe they must appeal to the 'least flexible' voters who are essentially the British far right / xenophobes. The Overton Window gets dragged further to the right each year.
Corruption is absolutely endemic at the top, and the UK is plunging down the global league tables for governance and corruption.
Tipping points are dangerously near, in terms of crumbling public services, the faith in the system, and economics, and simple economic reserve strength to cope with crisis. The pound had a crash last year which was VERY steep, I mean literally months ago, people were talking about pound-dollar parity! Major financial firms were really on the brink, relating to LDI investments. They were bailed out at taxpayer expense. And that was likely only the tip of the iceberg, I suspect gilt yields soaring would have uncovered a lot of cockroaches.
I feel the UK is worryingly close to a "Greek Crisis" or perhaps something like the 1976 IMF crisis. But not just money this time, also a breakdown in social and political values, in hope that things can get better or are worth making better, in the belief that politics is anything other than a cash grab. A large part of this is driven by the UK media being fairly right wing and more or less bullying left-wing politicians while downplaying anything the right does. Any time a right-wing politician does something bad, it's time to talk about The Queen/The King/Harry/Meghan/Love Island/Football.
Teaching, healthcare, policing, elderly care, all are struggling to keep going. Assets have been sold off, salaries have been pared back, and the money 'saved' handed out to 'friends of the party' via massive corrupt contracts.
I suppose you might characterise it something like, the Labour party are presently mostly decent people, with diverse views, who stick together when it doesn't matter and have in-fighting when it does matter. The Tories seem to be the opposite. The party is ridden with the seven deadly sins, full of corruption, bullying, xenophobia, spite, but when there's a vote, they vote the party line. And when there's no vote taking place, they resort to infighting that undermines any effort to actually understand and solve problems the country is facing.
Nonetheless, 4 elections and 3 major referendums starting in 2010 have proven that Brits will stubbornly vote for the status quo again and again (in terms of politicians & political structures) regardless of the suffering it inflicts upon themselves, with the exception if you can wrap up an idea as being 'Britain is better than everyone else', in which case, you can overcome the status quo bias, as we saw with Brexit.
The Labour party are trying to do a re-run of the 1997 election by mimicking the policies of the Conservatives, while offering 'a more safe/sensible/less obviously corrupt face at the top'. This was successful in 1997 and I suspect it may be successful again. I fear it will be only a 5 year reprieve. And it's possible the Conservatives will install Boris back into power, because an amazing number of Brits will vote for The Funny Man! He's A Right Laugh, Isn't He! The Conservatives may also go for the US right-wing play, "Rest Assured, We'll Hurt The Right People" as it has worked tremendously well for the last 13 years.
Things look grim, and are getting grimmer. The only good news in UK politics currently is that the polls have finally swung towards Labour in England, and that support for helping Ukraine as much as we can, is strong both within politics and the public mood.
If Britain can stop itself toppling over til the next election and if it can choose a Labour government with a strong majority, then I think Britain will muddle through. If the Tories are chosen again, or if there is too much bad luck in the next year or two, I am not sure Britain will muddle through.
There is a significant brain drain taking place, especially in medicine, teaching, academia, IT.
lux
