Something very strange is happening in Britain at the moment. Look at the economy. Things aren’t really too bad: for a start it’s actually growing, if only a little. At the same time, inflation is falling. Real incomes are on the rise too – with earnings going up 4.4 per cent in the year to October, while inflation was 3.6 per cent.
Meanwhile unemployment is at 5.1 per cent, which isn’t terrible. The government is raking in the sorts of taxes that would make the Sheriff of Nottingham weep with joy; and yet our taxes as a percentage of GDP are still only a hair above the OECD average – so, in other words, we are plainly a pretty well-off country with plenty of money left to splash on railways and hospitals and frigates.
Our national debt is lower as a percentage of GDP than that of the US, Japan, France, Italy or Canada. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, is soaring – at 9,700 it’s near record levels, with the astonishing benchmark of 10,000 hoving into view after a decade in the doldrums (consider that it was at 6,500 in 2021).
Similarly, our banks – one of the business sectors where we still have global heft – are in buoyant health after years of recovery from the global financial crisis, with big profits and five of them in the world’s top 50 judged by assets. The share values of the likes of NatWest and HSBC and co. are also soaring – HSBC alone is worth £190 billion.
But despite the economic indicators and ample evidence of our continued international and diplomatic reach, our cultural import and even our individual material prosperity, we are miserable. Worse than that, many Britons really think the country has had it. Yet plainly we’re in a much better position than the French or the Italians or dozens of other countries around the world. So it seems we’re stuck in a psychological funk – a funk which is sinking the Labour government, despite its best efforts, and a funk that goes way beyond the usual levels of phlegmatic British pessimism.
Of course, in a very real sense we have Labour is to thank for the funk in the first place. What we needed from Sir Keir Starmer was something approaching Cool Britannia Mark 2; what we got was ‘Gruel Britannia’ – a doubtful species of national welfarism with Rachel Reeves as a latter-day Mr Bumble with the ladle.
Yet look at the evidence – and ignore if you can the impact of two Budgets which arguably do for supply-side economics what Imodium does for the alimentary canal. Despite it all, Labour is trying: whether it’s with those trade deals, the European reset, the apprenticeships and youth stuff or the big decisions on infrastructure – from Heathrow to mini nuclear reactors – there’s a body of good work that’s being done. And they are building some ships, too, for the Royal Navy. At last.
But Britain remains gloomy. Granted, it might be because it takes a while to build morale back up – it’ll certainly take a few years for Labour’s policies and investments to come good. But I fear that it goes deeper than that. In fact I worry: is something is up with Britain?
Britain has got so much to be thankful for that it’s a mystery to me to hear people complaining so much and repeatedly insisting that it’s over
Look at the latest migration figures. Lost amid the headlines about net migration falling to its lowest level since Brexit was the fact that 109,000 more Britons chose to leave than arrived at our shores. Our citizens are voting with their feet. And it’s not the just the rich. Business people are leaving, and not only because of the taxes. They’re leaving because Britain has somehow lost its mojo. It’s become a place where even the roses smell bad. The good news isn’t as good as it used to be.
Why are we so down in the dumps? Is Britain depressed? Can a country be ‘depressed’? I fear the answer is yes. Somehow we have lost perspective and forgotten what we need to be proud. We have similarly forgotten what we have to be grateful for – everything from the rule of law to the classic pub, arguably one of our greatest contributions to civilisation. We’ve forgotten to be grateful not just for our health, but also our National Health Service.
We also seem to take for granted the fact that we have arguably the strongest and firmest and most vigorous democratic system in the world. We’ve got the English language. In fact, Britain has got so much to be thankful for that it’s a mystery to me to hear people complaining so much and repeatedly insisting that it’s over. Since clearly it’s not. OK, we aren’t America or China, but nor are we Ecuador or Iceland. Yet we are stuck in a national rut of misery.
What’s the answer? Can a nation be prescribed Prozac, or start doing a few brisk walks daily with the dog to cheer itself up? Perhaps Britain would benefit from taking some time off and going on Incapacity Benefit? Maybe Britain needs to register for Pip?
Whatever it is, we need to do something to get ourselves out of this funk. We need to rediscover our self-respect as a country and get back out there. Because if we don’t, the gloom will become self-reinforcing. We’ll become the national equivalent of one of those houses where they never draw the curtains or go out, and where the rubbish lives in the front garden.
The question is: how we achieve this? Boosterism doesn’t work, as we saw from the Boris Johnson years. But we do need a new vision for Britain, one that goes beyond lifting benefits by certain percentage points or other forms of bureaucratic incrementalism.
I suspect that like any deep-seated problem, the first step is to acknowledge the existence of the problem in the first place. Britain is depressed. It needs to rediscover its joy and make a life for itself in the world. It needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and I’m not quite sure – collectively at least – if it’s got that at the moment. Help is needed.
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