Despair hangs like a low black cloud, sullen and threatening worse to come. That cloud currently hangs over most of the UK. Straitened personal finances, a housing crisis, crumbling infrastructure and the drastic failings of the previous Conservative government have all contributed to the widespread lack of optimism that affects the country.
When hope has been eradicated, people can respond with anger and revolution, or they can simply shrug and give up on any prospect of things getting better. The latter is the course that seems to be dominating in the UK. The flash of optimism that followed the general election result should not obscure a worrying underlying picture. Britain is experiencing an increase in mental health problems, a shrinking birthrate, growing antisocial behaviour and widespread distrust of authorities and institutions.
There are, though, people untouched by this malaise. The inequalities in the UK are highly visible, heightened by the cost of living crisis that has recently hit so many, while barely having an impact on the owners of Mayfair mansions or lavish country piles. Inequalities in household incomes are matched by huge regional imbalances, most of which have persisted for decades. In some areas, that black cloud of despair has been hovering for a very long time.
What is more recent, though, is the growing acknowledgement by a broad swathe of Britons that their country is no longer the international power that it once was and that it will never regain that position. As long ago as 1962, the then US secretary of state, Dean Acheson, observed that: “Great Britain has lost an empire but not yet found a role.” That is still the case.
Just as Donald Trump was carried into the White House on the back of his rabble-rousing exhortations to “make America great again”, Nigel Farage, now leader of the Reform Party in the Commons, succeeded in persuading many in the UK that the only way to make the UK great again was to leave the European Union.
Now, almost nine years later, it is all too clear that he was wrong. That painful realisation has left disaffected Leave voters even more malcontented than they were before. It may also account for Reform’s strong showing at the general election.
On the other side of that great divide, those who believed that it would be a crazy act of self-harm to quit the EU can take no comfort from being proved right, since they too are having to foot the ever-increasing bill. That neither of the main two political parties is prepared to even contemplate a return to the bloc only adds to their dismay and disillusion.
Meanwhile, day-to-day living for the majority in the UK is something of a struggle. This may be hard to grasp for those who do not venture out of their padded comfort zone of limousine and helicopter transport, fine dining and plentiful holidays, but they should take a break from their usual reading matter, whether it be Vogue or the financial pages, and read a lengthy article that appeared in the New Yorker earlier this year.
To say that it gave an unflattering description of the UK would be to grossly underplay the picture it painted of a country in deep decline. It detailed the heavy use of food banks, the sometimes interminable waiting times for ambulances and medical treatment, the potholes now so deep and prevalent that motorists’ claims for compensation for damage inflicted on their vehicles are becoming ruinous for the responsible authorities.
While far from flattering, it is difficult to argue with that analysis. For many families on low incomes – and even those earning significantly above the average – life has become a constant battle. The Covid pandemic brought new pressures and tragedies but, for some, it also provided a bit of a break from the daily grind, even restoring a sense of community in some quarters, where neighbours volunteered to help with shopping or share a socially distanced cup of tea.
As the pandemic eased, there was not a return to normality, but to soaring inflation that made life even tougher. Add to that the outbreak of war in Europe, and a population suffering mass depression seems not only understandable but inevitable.
The overwhelming desire in such a situation is for a leader who can show the way out of this despond – that task now falls to Keir Starmer. But people have become cynical and they won’t be sold fairy stories of a better tomorrow just around the corner. However, they could be persuaded that there is a brighter future ahead if some positive steps could be mapped out.
Improving the living standards of the poorest in society has to be this government’s starting point – and that does involve increasing benefits. The two-child cap on Universal Credit is simply inhumane. Instantly doing away with it would demonstrate not a wish to encourage irresponsible procreation, but a real desire to do away with child poverty.
It could be balanced by reversing the rule that people of pensionable age in work do not have to pay National Insurance. Together, they would be a small step towards reversing the intergenerational inequality that exists, largely because of property prices.
Rebuilding public services is essential, and while government must always search for productivity increases, the short-term need is for more cash.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has already rightly targeted the tax advantages enjoyed by private equity, but instituting a top rate of income tax for the highest earners beyond the current 45% would demonstrate a commitment to building a fairer society even if it did not raise a vast amount of cash. A salary of over £1m should have the top slice taxed at 50% or more. Whatever the grumbles, it is not likely that such a move would drive the recipients to leave the country.
The focus should be less on the plight of these high earners, and more on the areas where there is good reason for discontent: the places that, having endured many years of deprivation, had hoped that the last government’s vow to “level up” was genuine. It was first mooted in 2017 and finally enacted in 2023. But while the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act finally arrived last year, running to more than 500 pages, it has achieved pitifully little, and most of it seemed to gravitate towards Tory-held constituencies.
The new government could, and should, justify borrowing to invest in the infrastructure that those regions desperately want. The need for an east-west rail link across the Pennines, for instance, is glaring. Airy promises would be met with cynicism – action, not rhetoric, is all that a disillusioned public will now believe.
The change of regulations governing the construction of onshore windfarms is an encouraging start. But now pushing the start button on several shovel-ready projects would show a real commitment by this government to lifting the more depressed regions.
What the UK craves is some imaginative schemes that could rekindle the country’s confidence and ambition. It seems a lifetime ago, but it is only 12 years since the London Olympics engendered a sense of pride – and plenty of joy – across the nation. A vast battalion of volunteers was mobilised, a reflection of individuals’ willingness to be part of rebuilding Britain, and to regenerate morale as well as communities.
This is not a novel idea. When David Cameron first came to power, he launched the “Big Society” project and demonstrated what he intended with this vague term by being filmed slapping coats of paint on a deserted youth club. With local authorities impoverished to the point of near-bankruptcy – and some actually broke – volunteers are all that keep some libraries lending.
Providing seed capital to local authorities specifically for building a volunteer force could benefit communities in the physical and emotional sense. It would mean the government admitting that finances were tight and likely to remain so for a while, but that acknowledgement might give the country some confidence that politicians were at last being honest with them rather than pretending that economic revival was already well under way.
Being honest with itself would be the UK’s essential first step to defining the role that Dean Acheson saw was missing. The country has some massive assets: in the arts and education, it still scores highly, with the benefit of a language that is widely understood. It has large tracts of unused land, plenty of which could provide much-needed housing without encroaching on any beautiful countryside or parks – the new government has already said that it will overhaul the planning system to allow a wave of new building.
With action rather than empty words, Starmer’s new government could make Britain into a happier country, content to enjoy its advantages. That would be a good start to regaining respect around the world.
Patience Wheatcroft is a former editor of the Sunday Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal
