Broken Britain? Yes. Why is only one politician offering to fix it?

by Richard Pooley

Photo: Nick Page on Unsplash

“I’m off to Bulgaria.” So said Nick, the man who had helped boost our Sky broadband download speed at our house in Bath from a piffling 3 to 5 Mbps to a hardly less piffling 12 Mbps (compared to a download speed of 37 Mbps in our house in deepest rural France). Nick had come because we had decided to try again to up the speed by contracting with a provider who could give us full-fibre connection. Again? Yes, we had signed up with True Speed, a Bath-based full-fibre broadband provider, two years ago. Installation dates came and went. Engineers appeared and disappeared. A red-sheathed cable dangled from the high pavement near our house…and stayed there for well over a year. Emails and calls from me went unanswered. We cancelled.

Nick had come to try and sell us Starlink but went away having given us good advice on what much cheaper, non-Elon Musk solutions there are. He also told us that he had had enough of “Broken Britain” and was selling his house in Swindon and moving with his dog to rural Bulgaria to become as self-sufficient as possible, unreliant on government or big business. He is even learning Bulgarian. I guess Nick is in his late thirties. Covered in tattoos, his various injuries have not just come from his past professional life as a roofer. He’s a serial entrepreneur and he is sick of British politicians – “They’re all on the take.” – and British bureaucrats – “incompetent jobsworths”. These are views and language I have heard on many doorsteps as I  canvassed in the General Election last year and local council elections in May this year.

My business colleague, Tim, a successful businessman whose upbringing was, I suspect, much tougher than anything Nick went through (his father was in prison for long periods), is also heading overseas. He’s bought a house in Spain and plans, with his wife and young son, to become fully resident there within two years. He also has a dim view of British politicians and has never voted. He can’t see the point: they have no experience or understanding of business, they favour the workshy over those trying to better themselves, and they raise barriers to growth through over-regulation. His ire is directed most at the Police. His main business in Sheffield was burgled three times. The third time, the cameras he had had installed caught clear images of the robbers and their vehicles’ registration numbers. The thieves, so confident were they of not being arrested, did not even bother to hide their faces. The Police did nothing with all this evidence.

John, a Brit and close friend, whose successful business in the UK was destroyed through no fault of his own as a result of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, is wondering whether he wants to return to the UK from his current home in France. He and his wife, formerly a nurse in the UK,  have had to deal with the health and care problems of their parents in the UK and worry what awaits them in their old age in a Britain whose health service faces chronic staff shortages, years-long waiting times for operations, and crumbling hospitals. Compare this with the superb health service they benefit from in France (not that the French themselves realise how lucky they are). He’s a highly practical man who can turn his hand, literally, to almost anything which needs to be built or repaired. His business had depended on him being so skilled. Yet I recall him telling me how, when he lived in England, he had stopped being a volunteer for his local Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). He had joined a group putting in and repairing fencing, gates and stiles without any problem until told by a paid AONB official he must take the Health and Safety course in ... how to operate a chainsaw? No, how to safely use a spade when digging a hole. When he refused to waste time on such a course, he was banned from the group. He, like Nick and Tim, believes the UK is hamstrung by over-regulation. I agree and would add that even where regulation is necessary, the rules are not enforced.

I could regale you with more of my own Broken Britain stories but, if you are a Brit, you have enough of your own, and if you are not, you are probably keen to tell me how bad things are in your own countries (if so, please put them in the Comments below).

The figures for the UK economy compared to other developed economies confirm the story of a spavined country. In 2007, the UK’s nominal GDP per person was $50,400. The USA’s was $48,100 and Germany’s $42,400. Yes, folks, we were richer than the super-capitalist US Americans and those industrious Germans. But now*? The USA figure is $82,800, Germany’s is $54,300…and the UK’s has dropped to $49,500.

How we Brits put the Great back into Britain is something I’m still trying to work out and will be the subject of future articles. What interests me right now, as an activist in a British political party, the Liberal Democrats, is how British politicians are responding to the frustration and anger of British voters.

Love him or loathe him (and I am in the latter group), Nigel Farage is the only politician who is connecting with many British people at the moment. His Reform UK party has just five Members of Parliament out of 650 MPs but completely dominates the news. The mainstream media have long favoured the right-wing of British politics but that usually meant they supported the Conservative party. Even the BBC, forever abused by the Left for favouring the Right and by the Right of leaning Left, is now, justifiably, being accused of giving far too much air-time to Farage and his motley crew of right-wing nationalists.

The traditional political parties in Britain have only themselves to blame. Labour came to power last year promising to get the UK growing again but without raising any major taxes, borrowing any more money, or cutting overall public spending. Yes, they said, Britain was in a mess but that was all the fault of misrule by the Conservatives. What was Labour’s vision? Their solution? We still don’t know. The first act of the Labour government of 1997 was to give independence to the Bank of England. The first act of the Labour government of 2024 was to scrap the winter fuel allowance for old people. 11 months later they have restored it for most old people. Thanks. I was wealthy enough not to need it a year ago and I still don’t need it now.

If Labour appears to have no overall plan for the country, the Conservatives are honest enough to admit they don’t have one either. Their newish leader, Kemi Badenoch, tells those who wish to know (not many) that they are not going to be rushed into working out what their policies are. They need to learn from past mistakes to ensure they don’t repeat them. Very laudable but an admission that they have no idea what to do to fix Broken Britain. Those in her party who believe Badenoch’s no-policy policy is misguided either think the Conservatives should merge with Reform or hanker for the return of that self-styled Cincinnatus of our times, Boris Johnson, fresh from siring his ninth (we think) child. In short, the Conservatives are either not being listened to or are not serious. Or both.

And my party, the Liberal Democrats? We still have not come to terms with being taken seriously by many voters. We have got so used to being the butt of jokes and ignored by political commentators, we don’t seem to realise that with 72 MPs we are the third largest party in the House of Commons – a platform from which to demand attention. But only if we have the courage to be honest with the electorate and say what needs to be done: Brexit was a dreadful mistake and we should negotiate re-joining the Customs Union; to thrive the country needs immigrants to do the work which Brits can’t or won’t do; illegal migration can be reduced (look at how liberal Denmark has done so); taxes will have to rise if we are to grow. But our leader, Ed Davey, a good and decent man in the wrong job, has neither the courage to say this nor the oratorical skills to inspire and persuade.

The Green party at least has the clearest plan for the future among all the parties. But, like its sister parties elsewhere in the developed world, only the young and idealistic, with no money to lose should those Green plans come to fruition, are prepared to vote for them.

And the Scottish and Welsh nationalists? The former will find it hard in Scottish parliamentary elections next year to defend a rotten governmental record. The latter will do well in next year’s elections to the Senedd, especially after reforms to the voting system, but may find, as the Scottish nationalists will, that Reform are as much a rival as the other parties.

Let’s not get into Northern Irish politics; I know my limits.

Which brings me back to Mr Farage. My Only Connect colleague, Stoker, has written elegantly about him in previous articles. I won’t cover the same ground. Suffice to say that Farage does have a plan for the UK and is able to communicate it in a way which will persuade at least a quarter of Brits to vote for his party at the next general election. The plan is unworkable and dangerous (why in my next article) but unless the other parties start communicating their own visions for the UK, forcefully and clearly, they will fail to stop Mr Farage becoming the next prime minister of Britain.

We chose Virgin Media as our new broadband (and TV) provider. Installation in early July. Will it go smoothly? Or will I have another Broken Britain story to share with friends and family…and Nick in rural Bulgaria (Ah, No: he said he was going to be “off-grid”).

*World Bank and OECD national accounts data. Latest figures are for 2023.