I hope...
As parties vie for votes with promises they may or may not keep, Tortoise is asking public and not-so-public figures for the one thing they hope for from Britain’s next government.
I hope for a period of boring government. I am tired of the arrogance and posturing of the political class. The hysteria of recent years, the public back-stabbing, the recriminations may be the stuff of life at Westminster but they are the despair of the electorate, increasingly disaffected with politics and contemptuous of politicians. Despair is dangerous for democracy, which needs at least a modicum of respect for those who practise the dark arts. Despising politicians risks searching for simple solutions and supporting the extremists who espouse them. Our problems are well known: an economy struggling in the global marketplace, our health service crumbling, our justice system barely functioning, our education and training culture in desperate need of improvement – all this in the context of war in Europe, uncertainty about our relations with America and China and turbulence in the Middle East. So I do not want to hear any more flashy solutions, glib answers or half-baked theories. I would prefer dull pragmatism and the centre ground: a return to Butskellism. Some hope!
