The country is broken. NHS waiting lists are at record levels. Our prisons are overflowing. Schools are crumbling. The rail network north of the Watford gap is a joke. Our rivers and seas have been neglected and polluted. We have energy insecurity. Oh, and there is a housing crisis. If UK Plc was a business, it would be a candidate for administration.
Despite all of this, our politicians are unable to tell us the stark truth. In order to fix these huge problems, we need to increase taxes.
Osborne’s cuts went too far, Brexit is costing the economy 4% a year, Johnson conned us with ‘boosterism’ and then we had Liz Truss 🤷🏻♂️.
Having lost the art of having a grown up conversation, and with some of the mainstream media seemingly desperate to match the polarising debating tactics of social media platforms, we are now in the depressing place where government ministers are dancing on the head of a pin and being challenged to define ‘working people’.
That the government’s communications strategy has been poor since it was elected cannot be denied. Equally, we cannot pretend that we have been open to that ‘honest conversation’ about the country’s future that is so obviously needed.
Rt Hon Rachel Reeves not only needs to reset the economy when she delivers her first budget on Wednesday. She needs to reset the conversation.
Do we want our public services and public realm to continue to crumble? Do we think we can afford to maintain bureaucratic barriers with our nearest and biggest trading partner, the EU and grow our economy? Can we invest in the NHS, education, and infrastructure without raising tax? Can we reform public services and planning laws to make that investment work? Should we pretend that a business owner who works 70 hour weeks is not a ‘working person’?
Its time for some honesty. Not just just from our politicians- but from all of us.
