The United Kingdom is about to get a new prime minister.
If Andy Burnham takes the top seat — and this seems to be a done deal — any day now, he will be the eighth prime minister in 16 years, which means each prime minister lasts an average of two years.
Liz Truss’s premiership lasted 50 days in 2022.
Five of those prime ministers became prime ministers via leadership contests within their political party, one for the Labour Party — Gordon Brown — and four for the Tory Party, the Conservatives — Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Truss and Rishi Sunak.
In those 16 years, only David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the current prime minister Keir Starmer won general elections, with Cameron’s first election win only able to be forwarded in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Johnson was mayor of London and might have quit that post to become prime minister, which one can only do so by first becoming a Member of Parliament.
That route is being replicated now by Andy Burnham, who until a few weeks ago was the mayor — a popular mayor, so it seems — of Manchester (2017-2026), before becoming the MP for Makerfield, that role becoming free when its former MP quit, and not unsubtly, to let Burnham pursue that route to No. 10 Downing St.
This all appears quite undemocratic, in some ways, even if it all follows democratically stipulated rules.
Of course, Burnham also went to one of our two established universities, in his case, Cambridge, the running joke being that the U.K. does not change government, just universities (Sunak and Brown being the exceptions, although they too had excellent, dare I say it, privileged educations).
My friend, the journalist Eric Jozsef said the chaotic nature of British politics is one that is shared by other European countries.
He is French, and in France he said that every president of the last 20 years has enjoyed popularity of increasingly shorter duration.
European countries are not ungovernable, as some jump to claim, but their elected leaders have less power now than they ever have.
The levers they control domestically in a global world, despite globalization apparently having suffered of late, are never enough to satisfy domestic voters who wanted change yesterday and have seen their standard of living decrease.
The crowning of Burnham — who, lest we forget, will likely become prime minister a month or so after entering Parliament — also has a gloss of the absurd to it, although he did serve in government once before in the cabinets of Tony Blair and Brown.
The problem goes to the heart of voter confidence and participation.
Both seem to be at historical lows.
Perhaps moaning is at a historical high?
I offer no answers.
Burnham’s cavalry charge to Westminster is seen by some as a requirement for the Labour Party to counter the rise of the Reform Party and its colorful leader Nigel Farage, who campaigns on an anti-immigration platform, so many feel, and picks up disillusioned voters, so many also think.
Farage currently is in a little bit of a pickle, with accusations that he did not properly declare political donations and also accepted them from sources closely related to, allegedly, someone convited of fraud.
The pressure on him mounting, Farage decided to quit his seat in Parliament, which he only gained in 2024, and force a by-election, which he said he will stand in.
What he is doing, seemingly, is to try to cement his legitimacy via the democratic process, but others see this as a charade.
By-elections cost money to stage.
Farage said Reform would pay for it, but this is, so it appears, against the law.
All the major political parties have decided not to have candidates stand, so this situation is left with Reform seeking re-election there against one other party, the Count Binface Party.
It is led by Count Binface, who follows the 70-or-so-year tradition of fringe parties poking fun at the establishment, parties such as the Monster Raving Loony Party, which might throw in a candidate, too, against Farage.
Binface’s election promises include inviting European Union countries to join the U.K.; build at least one affordable house, and requiring water company bosses “to take a dip in polluted rivers to see how they like it.”
By the way, Binface — real name, Jon Harvey — attended the University of Oxford and received a BA in classics.
Burnham might take office as soon as July 20, with Starmer’s last decision — we are all ardently hoping —being to grant a one-off national bank holiday when England win the World Cup.
Hoteliers, carry on doing your sound work, bringing joy to guests and travelers!
Business confidence will soon be at its zenith because, really, what could possibly go wrong?
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