Britain 2026: welcome to the state of emergency |
Keir Starmer says 2026 is the year we'll start to see some improvement in our lives, but the political omens are not good, says Mark Smith
People of Britain, good news! In his new year message, the Prime Minister said this will be the year when we start to notice change, positive change, little improvements in our lives. Sir Keir also said that 2026 will be the year when he defeats the “decline and division offered by others”. So quite a lot to look forward to, I think you’ll agree.
But before we get too carried away, it might be worth trying to translate some of what Sir Keir said. It might also be worth looking at a few of the political parallels that point to where we are now, and where we need to go, because this isn’t the first time we’ve been addressed in a time of crisis by an uncharismatic PM with a strange voice. History is telling us we’ve been here before. History is telling us to get a grip.
So here’s a little of what Sir Keir said. “Things have been tough in Britain for a while,” he told us, before listing some of the things he says he’s doing about it: lower energy bills, higher minimum wage, more police, more funding for local communities. He said the plan was to reverse the decline and put the country back on a stable footing and that “when Britain turns the corner with our future now in our control, the real Britain will shine through more strongly.”
The PM may not have gone into details about the crisis; he may also have tried to blame other people (“the challenges we face were decades in the making”) but we know the context: economic stagnation, cost of living crisis, the crisis in public services, the divide over cultural issues. The wider context – and Sir Keir certainly wasn’t going to mention this one – is that confidence in the PM and the governing party is at rock bottom. If the country’s in........