It is good news that the election of the next leader of the Conservative Party has been brought forward to 2 September. The sooner a new leader is in place and installed in Downing Street the better. No meaningful governmental decisions can take place until a new administration is up and running and Britain cannot afford to be without a functioning government for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
The new Prime Minister will have to draw their party together, negotiate Brexit, and administer the country. It would be a sensible start to the campaign if each leadership candidate committed to following, at least initially, the domestic policy agenda David Cameron won the General Election on barely a year ago. Finding areas where Conservative MPs and the party in the country can come together would be a helpful start.
A challenge even greater than Brexit is now emerging that will force its way to the top of the agenda of the new occupant of No 10. It is becoming apparent that we are facing an existential crisis in our democratic and economic settlement.
Underlying the referendum campaign was the consistent theme of criticism of globalisation, ‘elites and big business’. Time and again this refrain was deployed and struck a chord with many. The unhappiness with perceived inequality and unfairness, the in-balance between the fortunes of the generations, regions of the country that have felt little if any economic benefit from the recovery, and the sense that politicians ‘are all the same’ all played an important part in the sense of grievance that underpinned the outcome.
This same phenomenon is sweeping across continental Europe and the United States. In France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain politicians are facing a huge upsurge in scepticism about the current European settlement. In America inequality and resentment about immigration has fuelled Donald Trump’s candidacy. Confidence in national and international institutions is at an all time low. The motives and activities of bigger business are regarded with cynicism and scepticism. Britain is far from alone in experiencing a backlash of this kind and at home it is having a profound effect on our domestic politics.
Wales, for decades a Labour stronghold has seen a number of UKIP representatives elected to the Assembly. In England Labour is unsettled at Westminster with a system to elect a leader that many of its MPs have found challenging. It is now also under serious electoral threat in its regional redoubts. Scotland has in effect become a one party state. We cannot afford for the same thing to happen in England.
Difficult as it will be the handling of Brexit is not necessarily the biggest challenge on the incoming Prime Minister’s desk. It certainly should not allow them to be distracted from what is now emerging as the even greater problem facing this generation – to arrest the collapse in our democratic process, to reverse the prevailing sense of alienation and exclusion that pervades too many of our communities, and to fashion a new political and economic settlement that draws the country together. We need to know that a square deal is available for everyone.