YouGov asked an interesting opinion poll question last week: “Would you say that British politics is working well or poorly at present?” This is likely a response to the launch of the Independent Group of breakaway MPs, who proclaimed during their launch last week that British politics is “broken”. As you might expect, 82 per cent of a sample of Great British adults replied “poorly”. What was fascinating, however, was that 9 per cent said “well”.
When I reported this finding, the response was nearly unanimous. “Who are these 9 per cent?” Well, I’m one of them. I think British politics is working well. We are a nation struggling with a huge question about what our relationship should be with continental Europe, and we are engaged in a long, democratic and open discussion about it.
I don’t know how it will be resolved, but whatever the outcome, it will be the least worst in the collective judgement of our elected representatives assembled in the House of Commons. That is British politics working as it should.
It is not the fault of our political system that leaving the EU is difficult; or that our main party leaders are flawed. I have my disagreements with Theresa May, and she is not an inspiring leader, but I don’t know that a prime minister with the historical grasp of a Churchill, the forcefulness of a Thatcher and the negotiating skills of a Blair would have done much better – although an exceptional communicator such as Blair would have been able to give a better account of himself.
Any prime minister would have struggled to reconcile a popular vote to leave the EU with the implemention of it by a House of Commons, three quarters of whose members voted to remain. Any prime minister would then have found it even harder to construct a majority out of a parliament split three ways, reflecting…
