As others see us
My in-laws in Malaysia think Britain is going nuts. Could we go back to boring steady politics please?
THE country I know best, apart from this one, is Malaysia. Just over twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to get married to a local (we met in Glasgow, at university). After countless trips, it has become my home from home.
Not long after first travelling there to meet my wife’s family, two things quickly became apparent. Firstly, I knew absolutely nothing about their country: to begin with, I had a vague inkling it bordered onto Turkey. Secondly, and to complete my embarrassment, they knew everything about us. As with many other former colonies, Malaysia’s relationship with the old country may have weakened since it had become independent in 1957, but the ties were still strong – and broadly still affectionate.
My own father-in-law had practiced medicine in Aberdeen in the Sixties. Like many other middle-class Malaysians, he sent his children here to college. British and American sport, film, TV, and pop dominated just the same as here. Sure, my family enjoyed mocking the inflated self-regard that Britain had over our relative importance in the new world. And of course, there was anger every time some pompous British politician stood up to declare how the rest of the world should live. But underlying it was a sense that we shared some values. It was taken for granted among my Malaysian relatives that Britain was a country of common sense, fair play, and sound, serious judgement.
It was with the eyes of my Malaysian family that I tuned in to watch the latest episode of Westminster Goes Nuts this week, as Tory MPs gathered to pronounce their views on the Prime Minister. And once again, I felt the same sense of embarrassment. There was poor Hugh Edwards struggling to read out the news thanks to the sound of an REM track blasting outside the gates of Downing Street. There was some wild-eyed Tory MP who you’ve never heard shouting about BBC bias on Newsnight. Once again, as we’ve grown used to these last few years, there were the TV news channel presenters fumbling with their ear piece, repeating the off-the-record views of their various contacts to set out why Boris must go, or why Boris must stay. It’s about the constitution, said some. It’s just a row about a cake, said others. I thought of the many people around the world watching the spectacle on BBC World asking themselves why the Brits were going bananas again.
To be clear, Britain is still respected by my family out in Malaysia. It’s just that they’ve begun to worry about us a little. We’re like an old uncle and aunt living nearby who has begun to act rather strangely. “What the hell are you guys up to?” “What on earth is going on there?” are common questions they ask. They speak for many more of our friends around the world who, likewise, respect Britain greatly but are beginning to wonder if we’ve lost it.
For my own part, it began with the independence referendum. My Malaysian family were just confused by it all: what was Scotland thinking of? Weren’t there more important things going on? What exactly was the point of separating yourself off from the country you helped to build and what gain would it bring? Answer came there none. But Scotland voted to remain, and they all assumed that was it.
Then came Brexit. Then, far worse, came the six years since. To my family watching from afar, British politics appeared to have gone completely potty. And they couldn’t quite get it. After all, they knew Britain. We’d been a beacon of stability, security, and dour conservatism. And now suddenly, our politics had decided to become Italy with bad clothes.
Can it stop now? Please? Because reputationally, I fear this is beginning to stick.
Part of the problem is democracy. You really can have too much of a good thing. Not since the 1970s – another decade when Britain’s reputation took a battering – has Britain been so assailed by it. In the last eight years alone, Scotland alone has staggered through two Scottish parliamentary elections, three general elections, and two era-defining referendums. The UK as a whole isn’t far behind. We have all suffered through a hyper-politicised decade: the Kuenssberg era. It feels as though it has left us all slightly deranged.
The greater issue is that this constant state of political high alert has put a premium on campaigning at the expense of governing. Within all political parties, there has been little time to embed reforms that might require a confrontation with vested interests or reluctant members of the public. Instead, the next electoral test must be prioritised. For parties which exist only to campaign – such as the SNP – this has suited them down the ground.
The Ukraine crisis has surely shown our political establishment of the need to keep our sights on the big picture. The slow-burn environmental crisis facing us does so as well. I’m afraid few of my Malaysian family think Boris Johnson is capable of rising to these challenges but I know what they expect. They are waiting to see whether we can rediscover the British way: a return to serious and boring statesmanship.
In London, such a government would see Ministers finally seeking to answer some of the key questions that we face post Brexit, in an era of low growth and deep international insecurity. As the Conservative MP Jesse Norman wrote on Monday in a letter to the Prime Minister, there is no “long-term plan.” The Prime Minister, he warned, is “simply seeking to campaign, to keep changing the subject, and to create political and cultural dividing lines.” That’s electoral politics, you might argue. But – whether measured in pounds or kilos – it would be nice to see some seriousness applied. To be fair to Mr Johnson, we have witnessed it already in British response to Russia’s invasion. Our response has shown we are still a key player on the global stage. Domestically, more heft behind to the Government’s admirable Levelling Up agenda might also show we mean business.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, rather than fill her diary with speaking engagements, Nicola Sturgeon might want to fill in the dots left by her Finance Secretary Kate Forbes last week and explain exactly how she intends to fund a governing system that is fast running out of control. The cat is now out of the bag; the Scottish public sector needs reform. No amount of good intentions will fill the gap. Failure to put in place a sustainable plan will place Ms Sturgeon among the ranks of all the other non-serious politicians who have bawled out from our TV screens these last few years.
The public, clearly, are waiting. It’s not just Malaysians who are wondering what’s become of us: so have many of us here as well. After a decade of tumult, self-indulgence, and political soap opera, we need a return to the politics of firm, sturdy competence. In London or Edinburgh, for whichever political party which can display such grit, a prize surely awaits.
ENDS
The article first appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail, 8th June 2022