Escapists Prime Ministers In Musical Chairs in UK : Inability To Face Reality And Raising Baseless Expectations : Margret Thatcher Is Needed Again
Rajiv Upadhyay
Britain has set a new record with seven Prime Ministers in ten years i.e. David Cameron , Theresa May, Boris Johnson , Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak , Keir Starmer and now the new likely PM Andy Burnham . Britain used to be an island of political stability with Thatcher , John Major , Tony Blair all enjoying long tenure which gave political and economic stability .
The problem started with David Cameron who was very balanced , popular and had been PM for six years .He resigned in a very dignified way . He wanted Britain in European Union but public referendum ordered by him, in a 52 vs 48 % vote, decided against staying in EU popularly called BREXIT . Time has proved that Cameron was right. But alas it is too late. The referendum could have been avoided but his excessive correctness costed UK dearly but yet it preserved the core British values .
But after Camron, Theresa May tried very hard to get a good deal from EU. She did succeed in getting many good deals for UK from EU . But her own party, particularly her extra ambitious successor Boris Johnson , riding on the Brexit wave, almost sabotaged all her efforts and she resigned in frustration . Boris Johnson , a true politician , won 365 seats for conservatives in 2019 and got clear mandate from public to proceed with BREXIT .
Unfortunately first COVID wave struck in UK in early 2020 and second wave in January 2021. UK started successful vaccination programme in Dec 2020 and did well on Covid front. But economically possibly UK became too liberal with employees leave and many able bodied people stopped working and became a long term liability. Yet still , amongst G 7 countries , UK achieved fastest economic recovery and growth but at considerable long term economic cost including very high inflation.
But economics aside , Boris Johnson destroyed the core British strength of high morality in public conduct of its leaders as displayed by David Camron. His successor Liz Truss created history by being PM for just forty nine days due to her absurd economic policies which lead to collapse of British Pound .
Her successor , Rishi Sunak was possibly the best Finance Minister . As PM he made economy his principle focus and refused political concessions to nurses and other working class , As expected, in the next two years, he controlled inflation and restored growth . He also made universities well funded by high paying foreign students . Similarly he solved the problem of high vacancies in health workers and shortage of IT professionals . His best long term beneficial plan was deportation and resettlement of illegal immigrants in Rwanda . It would have stopped illegal immigration across channel by small boats and other means . But the worst British hypocrisy stopped this and deportation of false asylum seekers who were a wasteful strain on economy and instead focussed on high paying students and other economically beneficial immigration including health workers . Rishi Sunak’s another master stroke was to draft David Camron as foreign minister to give confidence and comfort to Europeans and Americans .
Apart from racial handicap , Rishi Sunak was not a great communicator like Obama . He was therefore an economic asset but a political liability to Conservatives . Conservatives lost badly and Labour party with Starmer as its leader romped home with even greater majority than Boris Johnson .
The fall of Starmer like the fall of Theresa May before him reveals the great weakness of the present British politics . Starmer government had brought net immigration down to 136000 in 2025 compared to 891000 in 2022 . British economy had been in decline since 2008 economic crisis . British productivity was stagnant while productivity in Germany and other G 7 countries was improving consistently . The housing crisis was due to far less new houses being constructed compared to France and Germany . There was no great British product ruling the export market . Ukraine war and high price American energy almost destroyed European exports and resulted in high inflation .
Starmer was well intentioned like Camron but did not educate public adequately . His worst failure was not taking on the Islamic ‘ Grooming Gang ‘ culprits . He surrendered to the criminal Islamist lobby. Appointment of Epstein stained US ambassador was avoidable . The corruption charges were not only trivial but almost cooked . Finally in spite of having huge parliamentary majority, he has resigned because his party is not sure of his ability to win the next election .
British public is unable to face the reality of having lost the economic competitiveness , high wages , its dependence on cheap immigrants for NHS and its shortfall of STEM/ IT graduates . It is instead chasing mirages and El Doradors helped liberally by its ambitious but escapist leaders. The latest buzz word is bringing in a new party like the ‘Reform Party’, an off shoot of conservatives with no clear winning economic policy but harping on immigration as a punch bag . No one has courage to advocate joining the European Union . It has to increase labour productivity possibly accept a reduced standard of living in a planned manner rather than an abrupt change like Greece . More than anything it needs a will to pull British economy out of the present Morass .
Britain needs a Margret Thatcher again !
