People may have differing opinions regarding parliament, but it certainly can’t be considered boring at the moment. In the past 6 years we have had 5 different prime minsters all under the same party and a record number of resignations – from Hancock and his scandalous affair, to Sunak who is now our current Prime Minister. It is safe to say that something along the line has gone terribly wrong, and today I am here to talk about what that is, whether it be Brexit, the rising age of media or just a bunch of leaders who lack the necessary confidence and charisma to lead the country. While, it may be too soon to say, I think the shift to a Labour ruled country may not out of the cards unless the Conservatives can finally unite and create a party that is worthy of parliamentary power.
Firstly, let us talk about Brexit – one of the biggest changes to the political landscape in the last ten years. Not only did it provide a very controversial result, but the margin on which it won will go down in history. With a 52% leave, 48% remain (1) result, we can understand that it would be difficult to act upon the situation as people were so evenly divided. From Cameron to Theresa to Boris, no plan seemed to get a majority in parliament until Boris’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ (2) campaign took off. Britain finally left the EU on the 31st of January 2020, almost four years since the country decided it wanted to leave. But what did this mean for the Conservative party? Well, firstly it provided a reason for the people of Britain to lose confidence given it had taken them so long to get something as big as Brexit done. Citizens were starting to lose faith in democracy as an institution because although yes, they had been involved in the actual decision, for a long time following it seemed like that decision was never going to take place. This distrust and unhappiness subsequently kickstarted a difficult few years for the Conservatives.
Another thing which created a negative attitude towards the Conservatives, was and still is, the growing age of new media. Politicians are finding with the current level of scrutiny harder and harder. Everyone who has access to the internet can now have direct contact to political figures through platforms such as Twitter or Instagram etc. Once a politician has done something ‘wrong’, they receive instant hate online and that one person’s negative opinion becomes 100 peoples and so on, therefore hindering the strength of the government officials. Inevitably this affects their ability to form effective governments when they ‘can’t seem to do anything right online’ (4). Maybe this is the reason so many PM’s have felt the need to resign in the last 6 years. With social media being so accessible for everybody, even politicians are using it to increase a positive sense of public opinion. For example, Downing street now has a
TikTok where, mainly, Boris Johnson makes videos around the current issues of the week (5). Many people view this as unprofessional and somewhat childish, leaving them turned away from the Conservative party due to their want of a ‘serious’ leader. However, in my judgement, I believe that Downing street having TikTok is a good thing – this way they can reach a younger audience and give them some idea about politics from an early age.
However, the main reason (in my judgement) why the Conservatives have not passed any major legislation in the last few years, or why in the opinion polls they are losing votes to Labour, (6) is because of the incapable leaders they have had. From Cameron, who resigned over the Brexit referendum, to Liz Truss, the shortest serving PM in history, the public have nobody to give there hope too. This array of leaders has created a divided party and a meltdown of the conservative ideology. When considering this, it is no wonder that there is a distinct lack of trust in the government anymore.
Alongside these, there are many other issues, including the Covid 19 pandemic, the effects of the pandemic on the economy, the growing unity of the Labour party, the death of Her Majesty the Queen and so many more. Although it is all good and well to acknowledge these, the simple fact is that the Conservative party is simply not good enough at this current moment to lead the country. We need someone who can fix the economy whilst also maintaining social peace: someone who can put the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Whether that can be solved by Labour or whether the Conservatives are going to suddenly change everything and become something that everyone needs (I highly doubt it). The political landscape needs to enter a new era to fix the country and take it out of the dark last few years we have had.
Bibliography
https://www.bbc.com/news/politics/eu_referendum/results
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Brexit_Done
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_election
https://www.tiktok.com/@10downingstreet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022
Written by: Hayley Seagrave
Edited by: Ella Dayer