Politics Matters: Tests will be energy costs, inflation and industrial disputes
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Did you watch the World Cup final last Sunday? For my part, it was the most thrilling, exhilarating and topsy-turvy game I have ever watched.
It only just nudged Caley Thistle’s famous 2015 Scottish Cup win into second place!
Football has so much in common with politics. One moment, you are top of the world, winning elections, accolades and press headlines and in a flash of one election, you are down the ladder, out of a job and a postscript in yesterday’s papers.
Australian politicians have a great expression for political defeat: “Rooster one day and feather duster the next.” Never was this expression more apt than for our heady Prime Ministerial office, as 2022 saw three Prime Ministers in two months – and five in six years.
The history books will show this is the fastest turnover of leaders in Number 10 for nearly a century. Is this trend an uncharacteristic blip or the new normal for the UK?
By comparison, Nicola Sturgeon appears to have been First Minister since the beginning of time, with no indications of the removal vans being called to Bute House any time soon, before the next Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026.
So, what has led to the musical chairs of Downing Street? Jill Rutter, from the think tank The Institute for Government, argues that the Brexit vote in 2016 caused the most instability in British politics. “We can attribute almost all of the instability to a fallout of the Brexit referendum and what it has done to the Conservative Party,” she says.
Academics, such as Professor Tim Bale of Queen Mary University, feel that the UK political system is becoming too presidential. He argues that as the focus changes from parties in power to the leader in power, the Prime Minister is held personally responsible for political failures, for example the energy crisis, inflation and transport.
Will Rishi Sunak last the full two years until the next General Election?
The litmus tests will be how well he copes with the problem of raging inflation, the heightening of industrial disputes and the soaring cost of energy.
Though whether the Prime Minister’s role is more or less presidential will matter little for Highland families struggling to heat their homes this winter.
– I completed my third and final taught course on my studies this year. My course was on global health and I managed to lodge both the required essay and blog on time for once.
Best wishes to all readers who are students, and I hope 2023 brings success and good grades.
– Son Andrew returns to the fold today after an exhausting journey from sunny California to baltic Scotland via Amsterdam. It will be lovely to have him home for the whole festive season and tomorrow the family will be complete when our daughter Kirsty, and her husband, join us for Christmas Eve.
We have been careful to do the “offspring staying for Christmas” checklist. Car insured for son, broadband up and running, board games found, favourite armchair given up and monopoly on TV viewing sacrificed.
I will, though, put in my bid to watch It’s A Wonderful Life with James Stewart for the 100th time.
I hope all readers and their families have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
