The Government of the People

This is England

 

You've been had.

 

Indeed.

 

There's an argument to be made, but I don't think this article makes it very well. From the opening howler about the Conservative Party botching the bank bailout in 2007 (despite only coming to power in 2010) you kind of know what you're in for. The initial response to the financial crash has generally been praised, and was overseen by Gordon Brown, who the author cites approvingly in his last paragraph. And with brexit now an unfortunate but well-established fact of life it's ridiculous to argue that the notion of sovereignty doesn't matter - clearly it did to many people. It was an issue for Europhobes back in the time of MacMillan, when Britain's membership of the (then) Common Market was first mooted. It can't simply be brushed aside.

I shared the author's sense of doom in the immediate aftermath of last week's elections. But it is possible to view this period as simply a part of the political and economic cycle. Once the pandemic recedes, the focus will slowly shift to what, if any benefits really have begun to flow from brexit, and whether the Johnson government is seen to be honoring it's promises. If they are found to have been lacking then opinion will slowly shift in favour of an alternative. I think that reliability and competence will be the attraction, rather than a radical, populist swing in the opposite direction, but we shall see.