Don’t make a promise you cannot keep. These are wise words the new UK government have followed, by making very few promises at all, writes 1News Europe Correspondent Mei Heron.
Labour played it safe on the campaign trail by releasing only a handful of policies, which lacked in real detail or substance. While its landslide victory has proven that game plan worked, it’s also left people wondering what change it will actually achieve now that it’s in power.
At the playground after school, while dutifully pushing our children on the swings, one mother mused to me, “I know what Labour isn’t, but I don’t think I know what it is”.
Now with a historic majority, Keir Starmer has 5 years before the next election to act, or risk being like the Conservative prime ministers before him, who have now been brutally tossed out of power.
After a few tumultuous years of UK politics, people are fatigued. Voter turnout was the lowest in decades.
31-year-old ceramist, Lilly Maetzig, moved to London from Christchurch eight years ago and started Mae Ceramics. She said it’s been a particularly destabilising time.
“Having so many prime ministers in a short succession means it’s a constant jostle for power instead of anything meaningful getting done, and you feel that day to day,” she said.
And the problems Britain face aren’t small.
It's battling record high migration, with small boats still illegally crossing the English Channel, the NHS health system is flailing, and the cost of living is still stubbornly high.
Labour’s record majority win won’t make those issues magically disappear.
Lilly Maetzig said life felt a lot harder now than when she first moved. Brexit has meant her European clients have dried up.
“In 2016, I was able to call the doctors get an appointment that day and get things sorted but now I’d be lucky to hear back from a doctor after a few weeks of waiting,” she said.
Keir Starmer admitted the country needed a reset, “a rediscovery of who we are”, and as he tries to navigate the UK back to calmer waters, he also recognised the lack of trust in politicians, likening it to a “wound”.
“Changing a country is not like flicking a switch. The world is now a more volatile place. This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately,” he said.
So while celebrations of this historic win will continue for the Labour party, the pressure is already on, because as Keir Starmer’s last few predecessors know all too well, the mood of this country can turn very quickly.
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