My blog

Category: Opinion

  • Exclusive: Prosper in a busy world – Sir Terry Waite

    How to prosper in a busy world, Sir Terry Waite

    I retain equilibrium in our busy world by having time alone. Everybody needs some solitude and everybody needs a break from other demands of life because we live in an instant age. We notice the effects of this very clearly in all sorts of behavioural patterns – most particularly, in the anger and resentment we all see online.

    It is as if people today now have a very short fuse: they expect to get everywhere instantly, and this is an unconscious development arising out of our constant use of the Internet. Today we have to answer emails immediately whereas before there was a necessity to take life at a more leisurely pace, and to be able to digest things. The best antidote to all this and to prosper is to take time for reflection, and ideally a period of time off each year for a retreat or something of that kind.

    There are three goals to work towards in life in order to prosper. The first is to work for harmony in yourself and establish a healthy balance between body, mind and spirit. The second vital goal is to work for harmony with other people – and to be compassionate and understanding in that regard. The third, which we see people more conscious of today than ever, is to be in harmony with our environment.

    If you look at these three areas, the bad news is that we seem to be suffering crisis on all three fronts. The fact is that the rapid rise in mental illness particularly amongst young people is often due to this lack of inner harmony, and a failure to achieve internal coherence. On the second point, the anger and frustration with our neighbours tends to be brought about by a lack of understanding and compassion. Finally, the way in which we treat the environment is already wreaking a tremendous revenge on us in all sorts of ways when we see all the effects of climate change.

    Of course, there is such a thing as natural climate change, which we accept. However, we have confused the situation by our exploitation of the environment: we are out of harmony with nature, and sometimes behave as if we have forgotten that we are a part of it. The atoms that constitute our human body are the very same atoms that make up the stars. We are a part of a much bigger creative process: we are called upon to be creators and co-creators with God, but too often we behave as consumers and destroyers instead.

    We therefore need to encourage everybody – and especially to encourage young people – to be active in co-creation. The moment you accept this understanding, then an interesting thing happens: a sort of happy responsibility is bestowed upon you, and you become a creator with God. In my experience, this is the moment when the possibilities of life open up, and can be felt in your personal life as much as in your working life.

    The point is, of course, that God has created us in freedom: we are not just here to obey his commands, important as that is. We’re actually called to something far higher: we have been given the ability to choose between creation and destruction. It hardly needs saying that these are enormous powers given to the human species, and that we have to take them with the utmost seriousness.

    Quite naturally, if we don’t realise the importance of this, then we begin to suffer – and it is this suffering which makes up such a visible aspect of our present predicament: the restlessness and uncertainty which we all see when we look at the world. It is because we are not engaged in what we should be engaged in: the co-creation with God of a better world for ourselves and for others.

     

  • Discovering the Charm Budapest: Tom Pauk’s Letter from the Heart of Hungary

    Tom Pauk

     

    I’m writing at our table in the New York Café, Budapest, although to call this ridiculously ornate former insurance hall a café seems at best irreverent. I’ve just polished off a bowl of somloi galuska, Hungarian trifle made with walnuts, chocolate and cream, soaked in apricot brandy.

    I’m here with my wife Rachel in Hungary’s capital visiting friends and relatives. My parents fled the country during the 1956 Uprising, so it’s another opportunity for me to practice my rusty Hungarian, a dauntingly opaque language linked only to Finnish and Estonian.

    Budapest is above all a city of bridges, connecting the commercial side, Pest, with the leafy hills of Buda, dominated by Castle Hill with its steep, cobbled alleys, atop which the imposing Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion and magnificent Matthias Church.

    During your visit you’ll find yourself crossing the Danube often in order to take in this stunningly beautiful city and walk off the calories. The most famous crossing is the “picture postcard” Széchenyi Chain Bridge; designed by an Englishman, constructed by a Scot.

     

    Pest is home also to Hungary’s 286 metre-long neo-Gothic Parliament (or Országház) in Kossuth Square. It’s well worth the visit and the No. 2 tram and Line 2 metro stop right outside. If you’ve been to Vienna you’ll be reminded of its architectural doppelganger, Vienna’s gothic City Hall.

    Prior to WW2, Budapest was home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities. The first anti-Jewish laws had been passed in 1938; Jews were banned from working in government and from editing newspapers, and only six per cent. of lawyers, doctors and engineers were permitted to be Jewish. The events that followed Nazi Germany’s invasion of Hungary in March 1944 need no retelling here, suffice to say that my own family (both maternal and paternal sides) was severely impacted.

    The Dohány Street (or Great) Synagogue (closest metro stop Astoria), built in an Arabic-Moorish style (check out those Alhambra-like domed towers), remains Europe’s largest with a capacity of 3,000 worshippers. A visit (guided and private tours can be booked on-line, or just buy a ticket and wander around) takes in the synagogue itself, memorial gardens and the Hungarian Jewish museum on the site of the house where Theodor Herzl was born. Especially poignant, the dramatic Emanuel Tree (or Weeping Willow) Memorial, which has the names of thirty thousand Holocaust victims inscribed on its metal leaves.

    Dohány Street marks the border of the former Budapest Ghetto within Budapest’s District 7, an area now popular for its specialist coffee shops, falafel bars, craft beers and quirky shops. While there, admire the fusion of Judeo-Art Nouveau of the orthodox synagogue, and stop off for a superb flat white at Stika.

    Do also visit the Cipők a Duna-parton (or Shoes Memorial) roughly half-way between Parliament and Széchenyi Chain Bridge on the Pest embankment. The sixty pairs of iron shoes, boots and sandals commemorate the hundreds of Budapest Jews lined up and shot into the river by the Hungarian Fascist Militia in December 1944. My father, then only eight, was one of those rounded up for execution. Mercifully, he was able to run away and avoid recapture.

    Budapest is famous for the wellbeing properties of its waters. The city sits on a geological fault line with hundreds of natural springs jetting skywards. Following their conquest of Hungary in 1526 the Turks built a number of Hamman-style thermal baths, three of which, Rudas, Király and Veli Bej, operate today. However, for the full spa experience, head over to either of Gellért Baths (in the fabulous Art Nouveau Hotel Gellert on the Buda side), and Széchenyi Baths (the largest spa complex in Europe, and especially wonderful in winter) for a full range of spa treatments, and for mineral-rich indoor and outdoor swimming.

    A quick mention of Hungarian politics. Hmm. Hungary continues to struggle with … let’s politely say idiosyncratic views, likely a result of being subjugated over the centuries by successive invaders (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Soviet) and now struggling to assert its own identity. Happily, as a visitor you’ll be oblivious to the country’s growing political radicalisation on the global stage, and unless you’ve a good grasp of Hungarian you’ll miss the inflammatory political messaging on posters and billboards.

    Where to stay? You could check in to one of the global 5* brands (Four Seasons, Kempinski, Ritz Carlton and others) but Budapest also has an abundance of boutique hotels and Airbnb properties. On one memorable visit Rachel and I stayed at Brody House,  a former artists’ salon, now quirky boutique hotel, in which each of the ten rooms has been decorated by a different artist.

    If you’re staying for more than a long weekend, a half-day in the small baroque town of Szentendre along the banks of the Danube (40 minutes on the HÉV H5 local train from Margit Bridge) provides a wonderful escape from the bustle of the city on a hot summer’s day. With its narrow cobblestoned streets, art galleries, coffee shops and churches, Szentendre is home also to the Szamos Csokoládé Múzeum (Museum of Chocolate).

    Your waistline won’t thank me but trust me, you will!

    On the subject of food (I keep coming back to that, don’t I), traditional Hungarian restaurants abound, and with the forint weak against Sterling and US$ you’ll find prices generally low by say London standards. I’d suggest avoiding the glitzy eateries along the Pest embankment and up on Castle Hill in favour of more authentic dinning venues like Café Kor, Két Szerecsen and, for a modern take on Hungarian classic cuisine, Szaletly. Reservations are always wise; Budapest is busy all year round.

    More Budapest top tips:

     

    ABSOLUTELY take the number 2 tram (Pest side) on its stunningly scenic 20-minute meander from Közvágóhíd to Jászai Mari Square at the Margit Bridge. For 450 forint (under a quid!) you’ll take in many of the major Budapest landmarks. When you get off, walk half-way across the bridge to Margit Island, a one-kilometre green oasis equivalent to say Hyde or Central Park. It will take you a pleasant hour or so to circumnavigate.

    Download the BudapestGo app to purchase e-tickets for bus, tube and tram. Alternatively, buy books of ten from ticket machines (4,000 forint or roughly £8.50). A word of caution: ticket inspectors are ruthless and abundant, and all tickets (paper and digital) must be validated in a designated machine to avoid incurring a hefty penalty fare.

    Download the Főtaxi taxi app,  Budapest’s cheap and reliable equivalent to Uber.  Főtaxi is the official provider of taxi services to and from Budapest Airport. Fares are transparent and reasonable. Bolt also operates in the city.

     

    Budapest is a walker’s paradise (wear comfortable shoes) and is perhaps even more beautiful after dark!

     

    ***

     

    Back at the New York Café our waitress has returned. Would we like the bill, she enquires, her eye on the growing queue of impatient faces that now snakes all the way back to the main entrance. Not just yet. Could we see the menu again? That raspberry and pistachio tart looks rather tempting.

  • Promoting Community Relations to Advance Net-Zero: An Interview with Marjorie Neasham Glasgow

    Marjorie Neasham, Promoting Community Relations to advance Net Zero, Glasgow

     

    Sir Keir Starmer swept to power and is proposing a ‘mission driven government.’ He is making clean energy one of Labour’s top missions. Vowing to make the UK a ‘clean energy superpower,’ Labour have set bold targets to double onshore wind, treble solar and quadruple offshore wind by 2030.

     

    Their dedication to decarbonising society is welcome. Labour has also made welcome signals they are committed to translating ambitious targets into action through necessary planning reform.

     

    To attract the level of investment required for us to achieve net zero – especially in the timeframe Labour have suggested – and for renewables to meet their economic potential, we need a more efficient planning process. In her first major speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves lifted the de-facto ban on onshore wind. This overturns planning rules that have made it almost impossible to secure planning consent for onshore wind in England in the last decade.

     

    The UK can yet become a global leader in renewables innovation, enabling a rollout of onshore projects that make environmental and financial sense amid a world without consensus on climate change. In fact, the UK is making more progress than many think in the transition to a more renewables-based energy sector.

     

    For the first time ever, renewables accounted for more than 40% total UK electricity demand in the second half of 2023. Analyses by Drax Electric Insights showed that in the 12 months leading into October 2023, coal supplied less than 1% of the UK’s electricity use for the first time.

     

    The UK is also the first major economy to cut its emissions by half since 1990, compared to the EU, who have cut emissions by 30%, the US not at all, while China’s emissions are up by 300% according to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in a 12 March 2024 statement on reinforcing energy supply.

     

    Further, a growing proportion of new jobs in the UK are ‘green jobs’, defined by the Office for National Statistics as ‘employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change’. Recent PwC data indicates that 2.2% of new UK jobs are classified as ‘green,’ green jobs growing four times faster than jobs in the wider UK market. And research by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources indicates UK green jobs could increased by 150,000 by 2030.

     

    Yet, while the data shows we are making progress, we are still some way off bringing local communities on board with the transition. To deliver on decarbonisation, we don’t just need political will and investment.

     

    Many people see the value and importance of transitioning to renewable energy. For instance, they are aware that producing and burning fossil fuels creates air pollution that harms our health and generates toxic emissions that drive climate change. Imperial College research finds that air pollution is the largest single environmental risk factor in the UK, associated with the premature deaths of 28,000-36,000 people each year and affecting the poorest in society the most. The transition to renewable energy will help address these health concerns.

     

    However, people understandably also want to know what tangible economic, cultural and social benefits the transition will bring to their daily lives and their communities. Right now, the renewables industry is struggling to convince people that we can genuinely deliver a green energy transition with respect for landscapes, livelihoods and heritage.

     

    Sir Keir Starmer vowed to make public trust a central theme of his government. That must be the foundation of all our work across the renewables sector too. In my 30 years in this sector, I have learned that trust is the cornerstone for driving meaningful change in the renewable industry.

     

    Without communities onboard, in a way that engages them based on their local needs, concerns and aspirations, it is difficult to develop the trust that is so vital to seizing the opportunities in front of the UK.

     

    Trust fosters collaboration, ensuring that local needs, concerns, and aspirations are addressed. This engagement not only facilitates smoother project implementation but also enhances public support and acceptance.

     

    Trust can only be developed gradually through relationships between real people, not corporate language or platitudes. This process takes time – there are no shortcuts. A recent King’s College London study found that 98% of the UK population say they trust people they know personally – joint top out of 24 countries with Sweden and Norway – showing that trust can only be built through relationships between real people rather than conglomerates and brands.

     

    For responsible developers, months if not years of investment in community relations are necessary to understand who they are and what they care about. Consultation processes must not be tick-box exercises. They must be proactive and truly collaborative, with developers actively approaching community members at the onset of every project.

     

    Developers need to demonstrate to local communities that a green energy transition is worthwhile for them socially, culturally and economically as well as being sustainable.

     

    Communities must be consulted and allowed to shape projects from the start, considering the potential impacts on their lives. That includes listening and learning about their specific needs as well as generating local jobs and creating cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.

     

    Developers have so many assets and areas of expertise they can offer communities, should both sides be open to a genuine, real relationship.

     

    At Ridge Clean Energy we look beyond our renewable energy projects when partnering with local communities, and use our resources and expertise to advance community initiatives that are important to them. In some cases, communities may seek investment for local initiatives that are not at all directly related to energy. That doesn’t preclude a developer from helping, they just need to think creatively.

     

    For example, we recently lent our fundraising and development expertise to one community in Scotland that wanted help to restore its much-loved local pier, an important point of cultural pride. We worked with community leaders and groups in the town of Inveraray near one of our development sites.

     

    Our team helped the community to apply for and secure £244,000 in funding to take ownership of the pier and restore it, finally seeing it open to the public for the first time in a decade. We supported local community negotiations with the previous pier owner, helping to provide the confidence that a repurchasing was possible. This was all undertaken years before we submitted a planning permission application for our site.

     

    We are also in the process of establishing a Climate Care Awards scheme for primary schools in the vicinity of our projects, to help contribute to their academic growth and foster a sense of ownership and responsibility towards their community and the planet.

     

    As part of the Awards, children will be encouraged first to work together with their classmates and their families to calculate their carbon footprint, and second to take small steps to reduce it, by, for example, turning off lights, shopping second-hand and planting their own vegetables.

     

    We are excited about the project’s potential, and would like to share the programme with other renewables companies who could take it to the schools in the communities they serve.

     

    American investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett once said ‘trust is like the air we breathe. When it’s present nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everyone notices.’ As we navigate the complexities of the green energy transition, trust cannot simply be a buzzword.

     

    There is a profound importance to fostering genuine long-term trust among communities. Developers and politicians alike must acknowledge that will only happen through real actions, not just words, one genuine relationship at a time.

     

    Marjorie Neasham Glasgow is CEO of Ridge Clean Energy

  • Labour’s Ambitious Green Policies

    Labour’s Ambitious Green Policies: Navigating Challenges for a Sustainable Future, Dinesh Dhamija

     

    When Sir Keir Starmer took office as Britain’s new Prime Minister on 5 July, there was a sense of relief among many people in the renewable energy sector that the Conservative government, which had begun to make a virtue of its opposition to green measures, was gone.

    Instead of delaying the deadline for the phase out of petrol and diesel cars, Labour is keen to re-establish it. Rather than pandering to the oil and gas lobby, Labour will allow more onshore wind energy development. Overall, the incoming government aims to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind energy as it pursues its goal of net zero carbon power generation by 2030.

    The trouble is that the undercurrent of opposition to many green policies, which the Tories identified and tried to harness, has not gone away. Reform, which won 14 per cent of the popular vote (4 million votes), promised to do away with subsidies for renewables and instead ‘drill down’ to harness Britain’s remaining reserves of coal, oil, gas and shale. This appeals to the same instincts that Reform appeals to more generally, opposing immigration, reducing imports and fostering nationalism.

     

    Labour’s task is to foster nationalism of a different kind, persuading the nation that its future prosperity lies in clean energy rather than in the extractive industries of the past. There is a deeply regressive feel to this debate: in the 1980s, it was the right wing of British politics under Margaret Thatcher that sought to move the country on from its dependence on coal mining, while Labour fought to maintain it. Today, the right-wing Reform party is trying to re-introduce this dirty, polluting, climate-change-inducing (but still cheap) energy source, against the flow of history.

    Labour will face other obstacles to its green agenda, including from green activists themselves, who decry the miles of pylons that must be erected to transmit clean power around the country and from anti-immigration parties like Reform, who oppose bringing in overseas labour to help build the necessary infrastructure. Then there is the cost of the plans, which Labour kept quiet about during the campaign, fearing that any specifics would be held against them by the Conservatives, accusing them of planning tax rises.

    This is all the business of politics, making unpopular choices for the long term good of the economy and the nation. It remains to be seen whether this government has the courage to act on these instincts and face down its detractors, knowing that with every year the potential for climate catastrophe comes ever closer.

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • Understanding the Future of the Apprenticeship Levy under the New Government

    Finito World

     

    Initially it sounds a good idea to expand the apprenticeship levy and reform it into the “growth and skills levy”. This would mean that other forms of training were now possible under the scheme, with businesses allowed to use 50 per cent of their apprenticeship funding. This is all part of a general offer to young people between the age of 18 and 21 called the ‘youth guarantee’.

    It is difficult to gauge the cost of such a move. Under the previous government, Labour’s proposals were estimated to cost £1.5 billion – and it’s not clear how it would be paid for.  At that time, the then skills minister Rob Halfon argued that it is ‘important that the apprenticeships budget remains ring-fenced for apprenticeships to ensure continued affordability of the programme”.

    The real problem is in what firms will do with the money. Some analysis points to the likelihood that firms will use the money from the new levy to cover their costs for training programmes which they would probably have paid for already. Labour stated before coming to power that it would issue a list of approved courses, but already it looks less simple to administer than the levy was before.

    The inevitable result of the new levy would be fewer apprenticeships – probably down to under 150,000 per year, a huge decrease in the number of young people having apprenticeships – but that’s only if the figure is right, since it essentially charts a situation where large employers use all their levy and use up the 50 per cent allowed for non-apprenticeship training.

    Obviously the situation would be more complex than that – and so the question comes down to the detail of how the policy will be be designed and what incentives will be built into the system. Watch this space.

     

     

  • Steve Brill’s The Death of Truth: Unveiling the Web of Lies

    Book Review of The Death of Truth by Steve Brill, Finito World

     

    Dustin Thompson was living in Columbus, Ohio and getting along more or less fine in the pests control industry when the pandemic came along. As Covid took hold, he lost his job which led to a notable increase in time spent online. Eventually, he would be among those who perpetrated the 6th January Capitol Riots. His weapon? A coatrack.

    It’s a weird image – and perhaps it fits somehow with the sorts of weird states we can get ourselves into when we try to twist reality. Steve Brill’s book is an examination of how we got here, and it’s no surprise at all to find that the Internet is to blame. Specifically he notes that Section 230 – a 1995 law in the US allowing internet providers to police their own platforms and granting them immunity over content, no matter how far-fetched – was a landmark moment which nobody much noticed at the time.

    So what can be done? Brill suggests that Section 230 – and presumably similar provisions globally – be amended to take into account dangerous algorithms. He also argues for the scrapping of online anonymity, as well as an end to partisan primaries, which he argues create an atmosphere of resentment, which itself leads to misinformation. Of course, the title is a bit misleading in that truth itself, if it is true, can’t actually die: what happens is that individuals become severed from it en masse. Perhaps there’s hope there – and also in this authoritative and well-written book.

  • India’s Legal Market Opening: A Game-Changer for UK Lawyers – Insights by Dinesh Dhamija

    India’s Legal Market Opening: A Game-Changer for UK Lawyers – Insights by Dinesh Dhamija

     

    In a sign of the growing openness of the India market, the Bar Council of India has said it expects to allow UK lawyers and law firms to operate in the country from the end of July this year.

    The move comes after some years of discussions and negotiations, including a court case in which the Society of Indian Law Firms tried to block the reforms. Leading Indian lawyers described it as a breakthrough for India’s legal market and he president of the Law Society of England and Wales,

    Lubna Shuja, called it “a significant step forward…[which] will create huge opportunities for solicitors and Indian advocates in both countries.”

    Fellow Law Society head Nick Emmerson, who took part in the negotiations, said: “As both our countries go through historic general elections this year, and the UK-India free trade agreement negotiations continue, our close ties are as important now as they’ve ever been.” It is vitally important for international businesses to be confident of the Indian legal system if they are to conduct the scale of trade that all sides wish to accomplish. For years, there have been gradual reforms of corporate regulations, which have bolstered this confidence, including the 2016 bankruptcy code, which enabled creditors to trigger insolvency proceedings against defaulting companies.

    In March 2023, there were initial efforts to liberalise the Indian legal sector and enable overseas firms to operate, but the action by the Society of Indian Law Firms postponed that until now. While there remains some resistance to reform, leading Indian lawyers such as

    Crrill Shroff at Cyril Amarchand Mangalas are enthusiastic about the prospect of more openness. “It will align with the India story of more global investment coming to take India to the next level, so there’ll be more quality work,” he said. There will be a greater focus on modernisation.”

    With US firms increasingly seeking to divert business away from a hostile China, Indian leaders recognise the urgency to harmonise their legal and commercial systems with international norms, to capitalise on the potential wave of inward investment. A rash of articles have appeared with headlines such as ‘For American Brands Worried About China, Is India the Future?’ based on projections such as Walmart’s plan to source $10 billion worth of goods from India by 2027, up from $3 billion in 2020. European importers are equally bullish. The prospect of a second Trump presidential term could accelerate this trend, pushing American firms further away from China and towards India.

    Indian legal eagles watching India’s legal market are rubbing their hands in expectation.

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • Successful Government Transition: What Happens When a New Government Takes Office?

    Understanding Government Transition, Stuart Thomson

     

    Government transition between one of the two main political parties have rarely happened in recent years. Since the time of Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s the baton has only been passed in 1997 and 2010 and now again in 2024. But what really happens when such shifts take place?

    After any General Election there are always a number of new Members of Parliament (MPs) that are elected. This time around the churn has been much higher. The example is often given that when everyone arrives in Westminster for the first time, it is like a fresher’s week. There are lots of new people making new friends, catching up with old ones, finding their way around, and not really knowing what they are doing!

    Then there are the logistics of being allocated an office, sorting IT, and for many, recruiting an office team as well. They are nowadays provided with some notes on what to expect and a ‘buddy’ system is in place but the government transition process can still be a daunting prospect.

    The results this time around, especially for some Labour MPs, mean that victory will have been unexpected. This means resigning from their existing jobs with immediate effect. There is also then the impact of a very different sort of working day and week. It is not 9-5 which may sound fine in theory but takes time to get used to not least for those around an MP. There can also be issues about where to live as well.

    For the Government itself the key challenge is in getting up and running as quickly as possible. Once the PM has been appointed by the monarch, there will be a speech to deliver on the steps of Downing Street. This sets the tone of everything that will then happen and many literally go down in history.

    Then there is the hard work of governing to get on with, Ministers to appoint, and briefings with civil servants as everyone gets up-to-speed in their new roles. A PM also needs to start ringing world leaders as well as engaging on national security measures.

    One of the over-riding thoughts especially for this Government transition will be the first 100 days. They will already have mapped much of that out so that they can demonstrate a clear plan, deliver some quick wins, and show that they are different from the party which has just been removed from office. There will also be a King’s Speech to finalize, setting out the new government’s legislative agenda, and I would assume a financial statement from Rachel Reeves opening up the books and explaining what a poor state Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have left them in.

    It might be thought that the size of the majority will make life easier for Starmer but trying to manage such a large number brings its own challenges. Even from the moment he appoints Ministers he has to consider party management and whether he is brewing up potential trouble in the future. Government transition, even in the event of such a successful election campaign can be wrought with dilemna.

    The Ministerial team will be appointing political and media (special) advisers, and Starmer too will be adding to the team already around him. There will be other appointments to be made as well potentially around engagement with business but we do not operate in a US-style system that sweeps out officials and replaces them with new political appointees. The British style of government is one of a smooth and seamless transition of power, rather than a sea change. The independent civil service means that a change from Conservative to Labour can happen, a new approach implemented, and new policies progressed almost as if nothing has really changed.

    Who said starting a new job was easy?

  • Opinion: Are General Elections in the UK still fit for purpose in 2024?

    Opinion: Are General Elections in the UK still fit for purpose?

    Finito World

     

    ‘Laugh about it/shout about it/when you’ve got to choose/anyway you look at this you lose.’ So sang Simon and Garfunkel in their song ‘Mrs Robinson’, and judging by the sheer number of people who voted for smaller parties and independents in the July 2024 general election, it would seem many feel the same.

    This isn’t about the result of the general election, which was the largest display of collective schadenfreude ever aimed at a UK government, but about process. When Sir Keir Starmer arrived on the steps of 10 Downing Street to announce that the country had voted for change, most people in the country inwardly assented. Indeed many Conservatives had been privately wanting their leadership to change tack for years.

    But then the question followed: what kind of change? Even when Starmer announced at the end of that first address to the nation as Prime Minister that he was heading indoors to get to work there was still a good deal of doubt as to what precise work he might be referring to.

    Would he empty the prisons as his new advisor James Timpson wanted him to? And how would his new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood feel about, having said rather different things? Would Starmer raise taxes? And if so, which ones? And to do what?

    Labour’s campaign had been a masterclass in campaigning according to Napoleon’s dictum of never interrupting your opponent while they’re making a mistake.

     

    The format of our general elections had meant that by and large he hadn’t had to elaborate on his plans. This isn’t good for the electorate – and it’s not ideal for the Labour Party itself which will eventually disappoint partly because people have been projecting their hopes at this vagueness. “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views,” as President Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope.

    At one point in his speech, Starmer said he would be ‘unburdened by doctrine’. This was good to hear, since we are crying out for sensible politics – but it’s difficult to think of a more ideological policy than the end to the VAT exemption for private schools.

    Starmer has said some promising things, but mainly people like the way he has said them, since that’s mostly what they have had to go on. At the tail end of 2024, positions will need to be carved out and crises will need to be responded to. Shakespeare’s Hamlet found out that there is nothing quite like events for forcing you into a display of your character which will smoke out your beliefs whether you like it or not.

    When it comes to employability, the subject of this magazine, the matter hardly came up throughout the six-week campaign – except tangentially in that there was talk of an increase in green jobs due to decarbonisation of the economy. Labour also stated that a ‘back to work plan’ would aim to increase the employment rate from 75 per cent to 80 per cent.

    The new Department for Work and Pensions secretary Liz Kendall spoke during her 2015 leadership campaign of her commitment to the living wage, and expressed support for worker representation on company boards – which Theresa May also at one time espoused. None of this is much to go on.

    In fact, the media must take a larger share of the blame for our lack of knowledge about the nature of the new government. The TV debates were once again ludicrous with the whole of the taxation or healthcare system having to be explained in 45 seconds. The manifesto coverage was slender, as were the manifestos themselves.

    The typical response from the media is that they must whittle the issues down in order to cater to voters’ dwindling attention spans. But what if there is a far greater hunger for detail than they think? One often hears its chief reporters speculating about how a certain matter is ‘only for people in the Westminster bubble’. The depth of emotion around politics at each election cycle makes on think that at 45 seconds into an explanation around tax, the people may not be tuning out – they may just be tuning in. To paraphrase Starmer, it’s time for a change.