“Meanwhile Britain remains a mess. There was a housing crisis, incomes were stagnating, adult social care was hardly functioning, and the Union itself was under strain. We hadn’t invested suffficiently in research or eduction or infrastructure, or how to respond to a world in which AI and robots would replace millions of existing jobs. Our economy was weak, and we were borrowing tens of billions of pounds every year. And we had built our economy on financial markets that left us almost no room to borrow more. Abroad, the whole international system was creaking under new forces of populism and increasingly aggressive authoritarianism, And that was before we began to consider what the long-term impacts of Brexit might be, or what might happen if China invaded Taiwan.”

I experienced the 3-day week, the miners strike, financial crisis, unrelenting property price rises and more. Difficult times. But the UK has never been in such a parlous state as it is today, the sum of many years of austerity and competence which has crippled every public institution and service, and which will take many years to repair to an even basic standard. At the same time the government has wasted billions, yes billions, on various projects and Covid. The country’s growth record is one of the worst of any developed nation and will remain so with the advent of Brexit - how could we have voted for leaving the EU, and who exactly funded the leaving fanatics (we never did see the Russian Report did we)? Like so much today, negative reports (Brexit implications included) remain secret with the predicted results of government policies never revealed, even prior to relevant and major parliamentary debates. It should also be remembered that the UK economy has shrunk to below that of many developed nations ( % of nothing is nothing), and that the higher growth rates quoted for ‘developing nations’ which we now seek to trade with reflect cannot and should not be compared with the ‘developed status’ of our former EU partners.

The Labour opposition has failed on so many occasions to properly question the government and especially when misleading statements are made in parliament. The failure over several months for the leadership to call an immediate halt to the horrendous Gaza genocidal war, and the most recent cessation demand (the UK Conservatives, Labour and the United Nations was too little and over 34,000 deaths too late). The government’s Rwanda strategy is legalised rendition which punishes the victims while allowing the trafficking perpetrators to continue their inhumane trade unpunished. Labour’s timidity and fence-sitting when the country is such a poor state points to it avoiding upsetting traditional Labour voters (many of whom voted Conservative in 2019). A prime example is its declared policy of not rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union - vital to improve the country’s growth record and fix key skill shortages. Labour has also agreed to the government’s reduction of National Insurance without considering that such reductions will result in the continuing diminution of public services, and increased taxes at the local level. Instead of declaring plans covering the 5 years of a parliament Labour is promoting short-term minor/superficial policies (such as taxing private schools) which go nowhere near to correcting existing major problems. The retreat from its significant Green Investment plan and the continuing promise to adhere to its ‘Fiscal Rules’ virtually guarantees that the country and its people (accept of course for the wealthy who will not be asked to contribute a little more…) will continue to suffer. Labour’s stance on the Gaza conflict and its strategy to follow the Conservative line is another example of its timidity. Its recent call for an “Immediate Ceasefire” has come 34,000 dead, 77,000 injured and many war crimes too late. This alone will detract many potential younger Labour voters.

Party politics isn’t working and hasn’t for many years. Every single public service needs vigorous investigation to discover specific problems, needs and solutions. The next government, of whatever persuasion, will have the highest mountain to climb of any government in many decades. Sticking to ‘fiscal rules’ won’t cut it. Short to medium-term pain for some (including politicians) will be necessary but the years of incompetence, mediocrity and party politics must end if the UK is to offer its younger and older generations hope and faith. Labour’s sticking plaster fix ideas are paper-thin and go nowhere near at least beginning to solve the major problems the country and its people face.

Passages in italics were written by ex-Conservative MP and minister Rory Stewart and come from his 2022 book POLITICS ON THE EDGE