Incompetence now baked into British political system

WE need to talk. The NHS is creaking, prices are through the roof, and don’t get me started on the trains. Renationalisation has never helped anything before, but things got so bad (thanks a bunch, EU Railways Directives) that it can’t make anything worse. Post-Brexit, at least it’s legal to try renationalisation.

- Jonathan Arnott

Everyone agrees on the problem: our politicians just aren’t up to the job. The UK has a serious competence problem when it comes to government. My problem here is that I don’t think the colour of the rosette is going to make any difference. Politics is now so polarised that I think this level of incompetence is now baked into the system.

Let’s start with Reform UK. In May 2025, they stormed the council elections and even nicked a parliamentary seat from Labour. They currently have five MPs. Suppose that, as the polls seem to be suggesting (though there are years to go between now and then), they win the General Election. They'll have only five MPs with any experience at all of Parliament (none with ministerial experience), 300+ newbies, and some of those will probably end up being appointed to one of the Great Offices of State. Who will be Chancellor? Who will be Foreign Secretary? Who will be Home Secretary? What about all the other dozens of Cabinet and junior ministerial positions? Each requires experience.

They will already have problems at local level: how will they run Durham Council? Still, there’s a binary choice: more of the same tired old politics, or something new. Experience has its own problems: it can lead to stagnation, lack of ambition, and a dearth of new ideas.