Is Britain broken?
Claims of a ‘broken Britain’ are becoming more widespread, but is this narrative being hijacked by the right-wing to progress careers and drive further division in the UK?
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In brief…
- A recent poll revealed 71% of people in the UK believe things are getting worse in this country.
- Labour MP Chris Curtis tells The News Agents that right-wing voices are working to convince people that immigration is to blame, and says Labour is working to “unshitify” the country.
- The News Agents say that while the UK’s decline is being exploited by a small few, for the majority of people in the country, the experience is more personal, and much more severe.
What’s the story?
Rising poverty, growing unemployment, increasing food prices, racial divisions, hate crime, political fatigue, rapidly spreading online disinformation, the ongoing impact of Brexit – these are just some of the reasons contributing to the narrative that ‘Britain is broken’.
The population is feeling it, with recent polling by More In Common showing that 71% of people in the UK believe things are getting worse in the UK, with just 10% saying they believed things were improving.
But frequently this narrative is being picked up by right-wing politicians and activists to advance their cause – and own career.
Nigel Farage, in-part responsible for the UK leaving the EU, insists the UK's biggest problem is migrants.
Tories such as Liz Truss and serving MP Robert Jenrick – both key parts of 14 years of Conservative government – have laid the blame with the year-old Labour government for the UK's issues.
Should we accept the declinist narrative being pushed by such politicians, or is the situation being exploited to score political points?
And more importantly, what can be done to make people's lives – and the country – better?
Will politicians, from all sides, admit the problems the UK is facing?
Chris Curtis, Labour MP for Milton Keynes, tells The News Agents that he doesn’t believe Britain is broken.
He does, however, believe things are quite “shit”.
“I’m not sure if I'd use the word broken to describe Britain, but I'd certainly say it's down, if not out,” he says.
“Lots of things are pretty shit, and that’s why you need a government with the determination to unshitify it as quickly and as radically as possible.”
He believes one of the main causes of a sense of British decline is due to a lack of planning, and says that building the promised new homes in the UK would be of huge benefit to the nation.
And while he says that the UK needs higher integration than immigration, he stands against the suggestion that migration has changed London, and other UK cities, into crime hotspots.
“The point of those claims is to blame the brilliant, fantastic, creative, inspirational, multicultural city that we live in for the problems this country faces,” he adds.
“That is not the cause of the problems this country faces.
“Unless we work really hard to fix that, then these narratives about it being the problem of immigration and immigrants is going to be the narrative that takes hold.”
He says that Labour is working to address this, but urges the government to move faster – saying without solid proof of progress, the prospect of a Reform UK government is all too real.
And that, he adds, is made all the more likely because of politicians on the left and centre refusing to admit the problems the UK is facing.
“It would be dangerous for us – the centre left of social democratic politics – to fall into this narrative of thinking that everything is broadly fine, and that it's only the radical right, believing things are broken,” Curtis says.
“We need to accept how broken things are as well – and the argument needs to be whose diagnosis is best able to fix it.
“This government needs to accept some of those real problems that people are facing in their lives.”
What’s The News Agents’ take?
There’s a new word in the political lexicon, say Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, and it’s one we all need to get familiar with.
“Declinism is the new thing that is being spoken about – it's harder to get an appointment to see your GP, the trains aren't running on time, the roads are crumbling,” says Jon.
He says this is being exploited by right-wing individuals such as former Tory policy advisor Munira Mirza and ex-Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe. setting up groups such as “Fix Britain” or “Restore Britain”, to cluster around the concept of declinism with the suggestion that only they can fix it – and likely paving a way for a future Reform UK government.
But while politicians are looking to exploit this “bleaker, darker” side of declinism the reality is much harder for everyday people across the country.
“At the moment, for a lot of people, Britain does feel broken,” says Emily Maitlis. “There is clearly a lot of deep unease and frustration with many people's lives.
“They are looking at the highest tax burden. They're looking at generational unfairness. They're looking at a sense that they cannot save, – whatever they are doing, however many hours they're working, whatever jobs they're taking on – it doesn't seem to be actually going into the bank at all.”