Luke Tryl is Director of More in Common. He is a former director of the New Schools Network, director of Strategy at Ofsted, and a former special adviser.
After never ending Brexit rows, the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, partygate, wars in the Ukraine and Middle East, and seemingly endless arguments at home on everything from statues to bathrooms, you could be forgiven for assuming the UK was an irreparably divided country entering a state of terminal decline.
Indeed, ask people to describe Britain in one word and “poor”, “mess”, and “bad” are the most popular options. Hardly stirring stuff – but is it really as bad as it sometimes seems?
There is a temptation sometimes for Britain to see itself as a Little America, only one step removed from the chaos unfolding across the Atlantic. But take just a small step back and you see how wrong that analysis is. While America’s forthcoming election often seems like a fight for democracy itself, here in the UK the most likely outcome is a transition from one slightly uninspiring technocrat to another.
The British people may not feel particularly enthused about the options they’ll see on the ballot paper this autumn, but they’re also not going to storm Westminster or rail against rigged elections if they don’t get the result they want.
Is the US is too easy a target to benchmark against? Maybe, but even judged against our neighbours across the channel, the health of British democracy and society looks to be in better shape.
In France, Marine Le Pen is gearing up to fill a post-Macron void; in Germany, farmers are revolting in the face of deep budget cuts and the far-right AfD looks set to enjoy record results in forthcoming state elections.
Despite Reform UK enjoying a recent poll bump they still only attract the support of one in ten voters – a far cry from the support of their populist cousins overseas.
Moreover, the Reform-AfD/RN equivalence is a stretch. While Nigel Farage thrives on saying the outlandish and unpalatable, his platform remains a world away from the terrifying proposals we have heard emerging from meetings involving senior AfD politicians, who suggest mass deportation of German citizens.
That lack of appeal of the populists on both the right and left speaks to a wider truth. Britain, in fact, doesn’t consider itself deeply divided. A majority of Britons think we have more in common than what divides us, and over six in ten think differences between us are not so big that we cannot come together.
Listen to the average focus group and you’ll quickly find that – far from the rows we see on GMB or GB News – most Brits approach controversial issues guided by principles of fairness, compassion, and respect.
Even Brexit, which once seemed set to mark a permanent new cleavage in our politics, has lost its sting. The number of people saying that their stance on Brexit is important to their identity has fallen from half to just a third, a rare example of a western country managing to successfully depolarise on a hot-button issue.
And while it is certainly true that the public worry about the state of our nation, they have a very different view of their local area. Ask the public to describe their local area in a word and you get a very different response to how they see the country as a whole – the top word they use is “good”.
People will also, on balance, say they are happy with local services including schools, emergency services and buses. They take pride in their local area – in their green spaces, their history and their people.
If faith in politics is low, faith in the ability and ideas of local people is not. More in Common’s research with UCL Policy Lab found the public believe that local communities (both individual residents and community groups) have what it takes to make their local areas better places to live – they just want local bureaucrats to get out of the way and let them do it.
At the same time, even though traditional models of local association have declined, others have sprung up to take their place. The WhatsApp and Facebook groups that formed during the pandemic have continued to be hubs of community activity, used by around a quarter of the country to stay in touch with their neighbours.
But the good news isn’t just parochial: looking at how Britons think about our place in the world should give us similar optimism.
Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine will be remembered as a dark and devastating moment in global history. But Britons responded by coming together in solidarity for Ukraine. Nothing better encapsulated the rally around the (blue and yellow) flag than the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which saw Ukrainian refugees given sanctuary by British families.
The public welcomed our Ukrainian guests with open arms: 71 per cent of Britons believed the fact the UK had taken in over 150,000 refugees was a good thing, and they continue to believe those refugees should be able to stay for as long as they need.
And while policy on Ukraine has riven the US along partisan lines, here over 70 per cent of the public say that it is not only vital to Ukraine, but to Britain’s interests, that Ukraine wins, compared to just seven per cent who disagree.
There is no doubt that Britain is in need of a pick-me-up. Whoever wins power in the autumn has a daunting task to do, to tackle both the sense and reality of the malaise that has gripped much of the British state.
But it’s also important not to overstate the problem. The fundamentals of our democracy are strong: the public continue to take pride in their community, to respect their neighbours, and to want Britain to be an outgoing, self-confident country that plays its part on the world stage.
If 2024 is to be a change election (as both candidates for prime minister are making it out to be) they would do well to avoid importing Donald Trump’s diagnosis of American carnage. Instead, as well as looking at what to change, they would also do well to reflect on those things about our country that are good, strong, and worth protecting.
Luke Tryl is Director of More in Common. He is a former director of the New Schools Network, director of Strategy at Ofsted, and a former special adviser.
After never ending Brexit rows, the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, partygate, wars in the Ukraine and Middle East, and seemingly endless arguments at home on everything from statues to bathrooms, you could be forgiven for assuming the UK was an irreparably divided country entering a state of terminal decline.
Indeed, ask people to describe Britain in one word and “poor”, “mess”, and “bad” are the most popular options. Hardly stirring stuff – but is it really as bad as it sometimes seems?
There is a temptation sometimes for Britain to see itself as a Little America, only one step removed from the chaos unfolding across the Atlantic. But take just a small step back and you see how wrong that analysis is. While America’s forthcoming election often seems like a fight for democracy itself, here in the UK the most likely outcome is a transition from one slightly uninspiring technocrat to another.
The British people may not feel particularly enthused about the options they’ll see on the ballot paper this autumn, but they’re also not going to storm Westminster or rail against rigged elections if they don’t get the result they want.
Is the US is too easy a target to benchmark against? Maybe, but even judged against our neighbours across the channel, the health of British democracy and society looks to be in better shape.
In France, Marine Le Pen is gearing up to fill a post-Macron void; in Germany, farmers are revolting in the face of deep budget cuts and the far-right AfD looks set to enjoy record results in forthcoming state elections.
Despite Reform UK enjoying a recent poll bump they still only attract the support of one in ten voters – a far cry from the support of their populist cousins overseas.
Moreover, the Reform-AfD/RN equivalence is a stretch. While Nigel Farage thrives on saying the outlandish and unpalatable, his platform remains a world away from the terrifying proposals we have heard emerging from meetings involving senior AfD politicians, who suggest mass deportation of German citizens.
That lack of appeal of the populists on both the right and left speaks to a wider truth. Britain, in fact, doesn’t consider itself deeply divided. A majority of Britons think we have more in common than what divides us, and over six in ten think differences between us are not so big that we cannot come together.
Listen to the average focus group and you’ll quickly find that – far from the rows we see on GMB or GB News – most Brits approach controversial issues guided by principles of fairness, compassion, and respect.
Even Brexit, which once seemed set to mark a permanent new cleavage in our politics, has lost its sting. The number of people saying that their stance on Brexit is important to their identity has fallen from half to just a third, a rare example of a western country managing to successfully depolarise on a hot-button issue.
And while it is certainly true that the public worry about the state of our nation, they have a very different view of their local area. Ask the public to describe their local area in a word and you get a very different response to how they see the country as a whole – the top word they use is “good”.
People will also, on balance, say they are happy with local services including schools, emergency services and buses. They take pride in their local area – in their green spaces, their history and their people.
If faith in politics is low, faith in the ability and ideas of local people is not. More in Common’s research with UCL Policy Lab found the public believe that local communities (both individual residents and community groups) have what it takes to make their local areas better places to live – they just want local bureaucrats to get out of the way and let them do it.
At the same time, even though traditional models of local association have declined, others have sprung up to take their place. The WhatsApp and Facebook groups that formed during the pandemic have continued to be hubs of community activity, used by around a quarter of the country to stay in touch with their neighbours.
But the good news isn’t just parochial: looking at how Britons think about our place in the world should give us similar optimism.
Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine will be remembered as a dark and devastating moment in global history. But Britons responded by coming together in solidarity for Ukraine. Nothing better encapsulated the rally around the (blue and yellow) flag than the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which saw Ukrainian refugees given sanctuary by British families.
The public welcomed our Ukrainian guests with open arms: 71 per cent of Britons believed the fact the UK had taken in over 150,000 refugees was a good thing, and they continue to believe those refugees should be able to stay for as long as they need.
And while policy on Ukraine has riven the US along partisan lines, here over 70 per cent of the public say that it is not only vital to Ukraine, but to Britain’s interests, that Ukraine wins, compared to just seven per cent who disagree.
There is no doubt that Britain is in need of a pick-me-up. Whoever wins power in the autumn has a daunting task to do, to tackle both the sense and reality of the malaise that has gripped much of the British state.
But it’s also important not to overstate the problem. The fundamentals of our democracy are strong: the public continue to take pride in their community, to respect their neighbours, and to want Britain to be an outgoing, self-confident country that plays its part on the world stage.
If 2024 is to be a change election (as both candidates for prime minister are making it out to be) they would do well to avoid importing Donald Trump’s diagnosis of American carnage. Instead, as well as looking at what to change, they would also do well to reflect on those things about our country that are good, strong, and worth protecting.