Think our plan to fix British politics is a pipe dream? Think again

‘Our key insight is that in order to build economic prosperity across the UK and alleviate fast-rising poverty, political reform is a necessity.’ Gordon Brown (left), Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar (right) presenting the Commission on the UK’s Future report, Edinburgh, 5 December 2022.



Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Everywhere I travel in Britain, I find creative talents waiting to be tapped, entrepreneurial flair ready to be unleashed and outstanding young people impatient to be given their chance. All are being held back by our broken economy and broken politics. Twelve years of Conservative government have made the United Kingdom the most regionally unequal economy in Europe, and its most centralised state.

The year ends with our country in a doom loop: the more the economy fails, the more people lose trust. And despite the promise of 2016 that the people would take back control, millions feel ignored, neglected, forgotten and invisible to the powers that be, all too often feeling they are being treated as second-class citizens.