British Politics has never been in such a unique moment, the current negotiations of Brexit are circulating news headlines whilst PM Johnson looks to gain trade deals with states such as Brazil, Russia, China and India.
Coupled with this, the rise of extremism, party politics and austerity measures have all taken their toll, and here I want to share a few of my thoughts.
Where does this leave the state of British Politics?
Well, I don’t think that there is one straight forward answer if I am quite honest and certainly there are many balls to juggle for the newly elected Prime Minister.
Brexit is a topic which has almost worn the British public down, after so many elections, pledges and false hopes I think that the British public are now rather disenfranchised with the whole idea of Brexit and just want it to be over and done with.
Indeed, Friday was a historic day for British Politics but did the people really engage with the “Brexit Deadline Day”?
I am not sure if the answer is yes – certainly from personal experience I would say no. Being a former Politics and International Relations student, I can’t count the amount of times I have been asked questions such as “What will happen with Brexit?”, “What will happen after Brexit is done?” and “Was Brexit the right decision?”.
Brexit is not something which will just change overnight, and even if all the paperwork and formalities had been completed the moment we voted to leave the EU on that sunny Friday in June, I don’t think that it would all be done even today nearly three and a half years on.
There are still so many formalities of Brexit that need to be cleared up, negotiated and debated in both Westminster and Brussels.
Putting the process of “Brexit” aside, I feel like the management from politicians, legislators and the government has been handled rather poorly.
The British people – including myself do not know what will happen when Brexit is finally done, will we be able to get a deal which allows us to stay within the Single European Market?, or will we have to forge new trade links with other countries.
The information has simply not been there. Whereas the decision to leave the EU was a joint venture which involved the British people – that has been the only point where the public had any clue of what they were actually voting for, or the views that they actually represented.
There is no need for me to dig into the Brexit campaign issues, as the public know that they had been deceived from both sides where false promises, incorrect statistics and to be honest absolutely absurd claims had been made by both the “leave” and “remain” campaigns.
The government need to address the wider issue – which concerns the views and opinions of the British public who are not interested currently in British Politics as they do not have the resources or information.
Endless debates in Westminster take place everyday, countless Prime Minister’s Questions have happened since Brexit and methods of Parliamentary scrutiny onto the Executive are not involving the British people – which goes against the principles of democracy.
It really does make sense that the British people are not holding much interest in British Politics – and it not even a case of the party leaders or central figures being an issue.
Outside of Brexit, PM Johnson has many issues to tackle outside of Britain’s fragmented relationship with the EU.
A few days ago, another fatal terrorist attack took place in Streatham following another episode of political extremism.
The rise of the “political right” in England has meant that communities have never been more isolated – and many members of far right political groups such as the British National Party or the English Defense League are quick to blame Political Islam as the reason for these attacks happened.
Looking into this however, the reasons are not so apparent. This is only meant to be a round up piece – and I would love to sit here and write thousands of words about the history of political extremism and the recent rise of terrorism in the UK, however there is too much ground to cover.
The simple answer is that we need to create a society of involvement, not one that promotes isolationism, not one that separates minority groups and makes them feel excluded.
The British Government need to pay more attention on promoting both racial and ethical harmony in the UK, as there is still so much ignorance faced towards split communities, whether this be British Muslims, British Sikhs or even the LGBTQ+ community.
It is important to stress that this is not an issue that requires attention from just the government or legislators. Political education has to become more available for the British public, and progressive politics and ideology has to be an open part of pluralist British society.
It is very easy for many in the UK to point fingers at the immigration system or the actions of extremist minorities, however this is just one small aspect of many that need to be tackled to promote a fairer and more diverse society.
I am a firm believer that the British people want to know more about British Politics and are keen to learn more about Parliamentary processes and the idea of Parliamentary democracy. However when the resources are not there and things go wrong – it is easy to point fingers and play the blame game.
British Politics needs to become a universal entity – rather than split into partisan factions. This has been see throughout Prime Minister’s question as Jermey Corbyn attacked Theresa May or Boris Johnson every week rather than discussing the wider issues that need to be solved.
Again – the answer is not something that can spring from a new Prime Minister or a new candidate promoting a hybrid party between the Conservatives or Labour.
British Politics has become more and more partisan – following the polarization of the parties at both ends of the political spectrum and arguably this is one of the reasons as to why nothing is “actually” being done in Westminster.
There is a lot going on for PM Johnson, and this is certainly not a criticism of him. The December election gave both parties a chance to express their intentions, and relate to the British people on a level that they can engage with Westminster officers.
Neither party really did so in my opinion – if someone was to tell me that Boris Johnson played a master stroke and won the election against the odds then this would be far from the truth.
Instead, the British people sided with Johnson over fears that Labour could not deliver and the so called ‘red wall’ of the North collapsed.
In reality, the answer to the question posed initially does not really have an answer.
Political writers and commentators will continue to speculate over Brexit, Political extremism and a reformed immigration system however the British public have seen some extreme divisions which is worrying to think about.
The first job for British Politics is to heal the wounds of a fragmented society, and try and make the House of Commons a chamber of legislation making, not partisan rule breaking.
Once this is done, we will hopefully see a British Political progression and a more universal society, which tackles issues such as Brexit in a more informed manner.
