Under Salmond and his erstwhile protégée Nicola Sturgeon there was a monomaniacal focus on constitutional change rather than fixing problems.” Iain Martin in The Times 17/10/2024
And there you have in elegant summary a description of not just Scotland’s problem but of Britain as a whole in the now near a decade since 2015. When Cameron won the General Election that year he surrendered his freedom to act to the Tory Right who wanted not just to kick the LibDems out (they succeeded) but to shove traditionally One Nation Conservatives aside and institute a National Conservatism that would take us out of Europe. They succeeded on this as well.
Leaving the European Union was the largest constitutional change the UK has had in modern times. And it required Theresa May and her successors to focus on it to the exclusion of everything else. Problems remained unfixed. They still are.
More than a hundred years ago constitutional change (Home Rule and women’s suffrage) were dominant issues but it didn’t stop the great reforming Liberal government from acting on a range of issues. But when Britain needed an Asquith they got a run of shallow Conservative leaders utterly preoccupied with Brexit.
Constitutional change is certainly necessary in Britain with our unelected Upper House, our undemocratic voting system and our medieval mindset about governance. We are not a serious nation as we see in our current trivial headline-grabbing preoccupations.
Paddy’s Blogs in a crazy world 
I am convinced by the recent past that people who aspire to become politicians completely lack any vision to ‘fix things’. On the contrary, their vision is personal fame and glory. Rather the same as that of the aspiring rock star or struggling boy band member.
Having said that I believe Kier Starmer may be different. Although he may lack the ability to fix Britain since there seems to be too many of the other kind of politicians with an avoid intent to stop him. It’s a massive job. Far and away too much for one man.
What might just fix it is a major conflict, a world war. Provided of course the nation prevails. Destroy to rebuild is a pattern that has successfully endured for centuries.
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man”?
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