Britain’s future is threatened by public exhaustion, fear and a lack of confidence in the future. Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch must offer solutions to survive
After years of stagnant wages and low growth, most Britons think country is going in wrong direction (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch would do well to tune into a classic BBC series if they want inspiration about securing the survival of their parties and the revival of Britain. They need to stop voters who are desperate for change and disillusioned with traditional Westminster politics flocking to Reform UK and the Greens. Fortunately for the PM and the Leader of the Opposition, there is an instructive documentary on iPlayer which provides the sharpest of insights into how once-great societies crack up – and how they can be rescued.
Long before he became Britain’s best loved nature presenter, then-BBC2 controller David Attenborough commissioned art historian Sir Kenneth Clark to create Civilisation, a 13 episode exploration of the wonders of western Europe’s greatest ideas, art and architecture. The result is a pioneering work of early colour television which carried with the warning that even mighty civilisations are “quite fragile”.
In the 1969 book to accompany the series, Sir Kenneth wrote: “[If] one asks why the civilisation of Greece and Rome collapsed, the real answer is that it was exhausted.”
This may send a slight shiver down many a spine in modern Britain. This is a country where neighbours stop each other on the street to share examples of how “nothing works anymore”.
Britons swap horror stories of hours spent in A&E or how loved ones have have had long-awaited operations or appointments with a consultant cancelled. Anyone taking a major journey by train who has not been able to book far ahead faces a gulp-inducing fare, and they will live in dread of the announcement that the journey will be completed on a rail replacement bus service.
People in jobs are working flat-out but without the prospect of a happy retirement. The final salary pension schemes which gave many the hope of a comfortable old age have largely vanished in the private sector, and financial experts routinely issue warnings that millions of us will struggle to make ends meet.
Sir Kenneth warned of “exhaustion, the feeling of hopelessness which can overtake people even with a high degree of material prosperity”.
Sir Kenneth Clark made broadcasting history with Civilisation (Image: BBC)
Such weariness is deepened by the corrosive belief that Britain is a nation in decline. Type “British malaise” into a search engine and you will find an array of articles detailing our productivity crisis, the stagnation of wages since the financial crisis in the first decade of the 21st century, and the failure of the economy to grow.
Throw in the horrors of a cost of living crisis exacerbated by sky-high electricity costs which also holds back industry and you could be forgiven for doubting that Britain is match fit to compete against new, ferociously ambitious economic powerhouses such as China and India.
These countries have seen the living standards of hundreds of millions of people transformed in just a few decades. In sharp contrast with the UK, they have a certainty their young people will enjoy a level of prosperity unthinkable for previous generations; the fusion of personal ambition, national pride and the sense of being part of a project bigger than themselves is rocket fuel for progress.
But in Britain the spectacular failure of the housing market to meet giant demand means not-so-young Britons cannot afford a grim two-bedroom flat, never mind a terraced house with a garden in which to raise a family. Britain’s status as a property-owning democracy is in danger, as are the social benefits which come when people acquire bricks and mortar and put down roots in a community.
When hard work is not a springboard to prosperity and young people fear they will be worse off than their parents, a country is in trouble. If citizens conclude the country is broken, their confidence in Britain as a place of fairness and opportunity, and in their own potential to earn a decent standard of living, will collapse.
Some will emigrate; others will despair. There were 946,000 people aged between 16 and 24 who were not in work, education or training between July and September; many who are in university will leave saddled with tens of thousands of pounds in debt.
Can Sir Keir Starmer restore a shared sense of pride and hope in Britain? (Image: Getty Images)
Faith in the future is undermined by lack of investment. It is frightening the UK is in last place in the G7 on this vital measurement.
Why is public and private investment just 18.6% of GDP here but 22.8% in Canada and 27.4% in Japan? How come we are incapable of laying the rail track and building the power stations our economy manifestly requires?
In Civilisation, Sir Kenneth argued: “Of course, civilisation requires a modicum of material prosperity – enough to provide a little leisure. But, far more, it requires confidence – confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one’s own mental powers.”
Last month pollsters Ipsos reported a mere 12% of Britons thought the country is going in the right direction. This is more than just winter gloom.
There is an endemic sense that Britain is in trouble. Repeated warnings about a recruitment crisis in the military and procurement fiascos heighten fears the nation is not ready to fight a major war; the hollowing-out of high streets robs residents of shared spaces in which they can take pride, just as extortionate parking charges and the profusion of potholes cements the belief that citizens are being squeezed for cash but the state is failing in basic responsibilities.
London’s prosperity continues to eclipse other regions’ (Image: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
For years, governments have pledged to spread wealth beyond London and the Southeast but prosperity is the train that has failed to arrive in swathes of our former industrial heartlands.
Swathes of voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland want to call time on the very existence of the United Kingdom. In May’s elections, pro-independence Plaid Cymru may be the biggest grouping in the Senedd in Cardiff Bay with the SNP, despite years of turmoil, still emerging as the most popular choice in Scotland; meanwhile, Irish nationalists are preparing for a future referendum on unification with the Republic.
When a Government makes the case for curtailing jury trials to tackle a scandalous backlog in our courts people will worry a pillar of British civilisation is collapsing. The inability of successive administrations to tackle the small boats crisis in the Channel shakes confidence in our society’s ability to get things done.
We can take neither future prosperity nor peace for granted. Russia’s murderous invasion of Ukraine made that clear. Today’s insecurity could spiral into flat-out fear with devastating effects.
Sir Kenneth described how “fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague and famine” make it “simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planting next year’s crops”.
In contrast, a society which is excited about the future will invest in its young people and treat their mental health problems as a national emergency; it will create buildings of beauty for future generations to enjoy; its values will command confidence across a diverse nation.
To survive, Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch need to show they can restore integrity and competence to the highest level of a governments which will once again be engines of hope. If they cannot, voters will give the likes of Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski – men who are not commonly described as exhausted – the chance to save our civilisation.
