Fourteen long years of austerity have plundered local and regional council coffers while they have been given even more key and costly responsibilities including social and child care. And despite national devolution and mayoral authority, one of the most centralised governments in Europe still largely influences what happens locally through its heavy-handed financial control. Many councils are now in a critical financial state with some already declaring insolvency while local taxes are rising to record levels, especially for the middle to lower income populations - adding to the substantially higher cost-of-living which continues to cripple many households.

“…in 2005 - when Cameron became Conservative leader. That was the year in which the number of democracies ceased to increase, and in which a civil war in Iraq exposed the full catastrophe of the (Blair) Iraq intervention. It was the last year in which the British economy was larger than the Chinese…Cameron’s world view had been formed by Margaret Thatcher and largely preserved by Tony Blair. He did not question Britain’s over-reliance on financial services before the financial crash of 2008…But Cameron’s most fundamental blind spot was over the way that these different elements (the humiliation of the West in Iraq, the rise of China, the financial crisis and social media) had created a space for an entirely different politics: the age of populism - which between 2014 and 2016 produced Modi, the Law and Justice party in Poland, Donald Trump and the loss of the Brexit referendum.”

It was the advent of Boris Johnson that tipped Britain into its version of blind populism and democratic demolition. It all came about through a political coup by the far right of his party - in return for his leading support for Brexit he would be virtually guaranteed the Conservative party leadership. Brexit triumphed, Cameron resigned, Theresa May’s softer (and more practical) Brexit agreements failed to win parliamentary support and Johnson ultimately won the leadership contest. It signalled the beginning of the most autocratic, corrupt, incompetent and dishonest UK governments in my (long) lifetime.

“Boris Johnson, having failed to prorogue (shut down) Parliament, or deliver Brexit by 31 October, called an election for December…I am no longer a Conservative since Boris Johnson has thrown twenty-one of us (some of the best Tory MPs) out of the party for continuing to vote against a no-deal Brexit…”

That dreadful, autocratic  ’stick to the party line’ has been the reason for so many government failures, and especially in most recent years. It’s the blind following the blind and it is the country and its people that suffer while the wealthy grow substantially richer.

The Conservative Leadership Campaigns

“All (candidates) claimed that the UK could leave all customs and regulations alignment with the EU, without having to erect any border on or around Ireland, while preserving the full benefits of access to the European markets. And that they could achieve this by 31 October or, at worst, by the end of the year. Furthermore, none of them was prepared to say that Boris Johnson was manifestly unsuitable to be prime minister. It was this that shocked me most profoundly. Nine years in politics had been a profound education in lack of seriousness. I had begun to notice how grotesquely unqualified so many of us were for the offices we were given. I had found, working for Liz Truss, a culture that prized campaigning over carful governing, opinion polls over detailed policy debates, and announcements over implementation. I felt that we collectively failed to respond adequately to every major challenge of the past fifteen years: the financial crisis, the collapse of the liberal ‘global order’, public despair, and the polarisation of Brexit.”

As an interested observer, I found media coverage, both then and now, to be sensationalist with catchy headlines and, in most cases, strong political bias. I have to grit my teeth when watching TV interviews as governing party MPs defend the indefensible and turn the debate onto opposition parties. I get angry when interviewers demand to know ‘what would Labour do?’ when the topic is usually about current government action, policies and incompetence. This alone has allowed the ruling party to escape the just level of public scrutiny while prolonging the mistakes, incompetence and public suffering. The BBC is the worst and especially when it combines the above with constant interruptions of those questioned which usually results in us being none-the-wiser.