Can you imagine Donald Trump staying in office for another three years, given the very obvious crises facing his presidency? I can't. Epstein is going to pull him down soon, even if his other policy failures don't, and they deserve to.
Similarly, can you imagine Keir Starmer remaining in office until 2029? Even Labour MPs, perhaps most especially, are struggling with that idea, so incompetent is he and his government.
Meanwhile, the French have reached the point where they presume that Macron will be appointing another government next week, because that appears to be his habit these days.
And, in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz might have only been in office since May, but his days are very clearly numbered, so lacking in confidence in him are the Bundestag and just about everyone else.
Other examples are available, but these will do for now. My point is that just about wherever you look, politicians who are almost universally lacking in authority because of their incompetence or scandal-prone nature, or who are just so very obviously hopeless that people have seen right through them and are desperate for change, are holding office at a time of international crisis. These incompetent people are creating some of those crises, and others will require their attention, but whichever it is, they very obviously have no ability to deal with whatever it might be that is now heading our way, from war to financial crisis to environmental breakdown.
As a result, some are looking to the far right for answers, but Trump is already proving that they have none, and his base is now falling apart.
Recent evidence presented in the Guardian in the UK shows how disparate the support for Reform in this country is, and how unlikely it is that someone with Farage's limited ability can keep those factions aligned as he seeks power.
Le Pen is too familiar to too many in France now to ever be credible, whilst the AfD in Germany has the problem that it is the party of what was the East, and the likelihood that, as such, it can rule what was the West is very low.
Therefore, those on the far right are not providing alternatives, as is also evidenced by their rejection in the Netherlands.
So, what happens now? That would appear to be the question of the moment.
This is the moment when political systems usually renew themselves. It is when the familiar falls apart under the weight of its own contradictions, and when those in power lose the consent they once enjoyed, that people begin to look for another story with which to make sense of their world.
What we are living through is not simply a crisis of individual leaders, although the personal failures are stark enough. It is a crisis of a whole political order that has run out of ideas, energy, and legitimacy. Neoliberalism, which for forty years promised competence, technocracy, and the management of decline, has now nothing left to offer beyond excuses and the enforcement of its own failures.
If there is hope, and I suggest that there is, it lies not in waiting for these exhausted governments to somehow reinvent themselves. They won't. It lies in recognising that people across the democratic world are crying out for something better: for governments that understand the crises we face, rather than manufacture them; for leaders who are willing to use the power of the state to solve problems, rather than claim that they are powerless; and for politics that treats people with respect rather than as a nuisance to be managed.
The far right cannot do that. Its only offer is resentment, at best. It has no solutions to climate breakdown, to economic insecurity, to failing public services, or to the collapse of social trust. It feeds off crises, but has no capacity to resolve them.
The alternative lies elsewhere.
It lies in the politics of care, and in the recognition that government is the only institution with both the capacity and the democratic authority to tackle the problems we confront.
It lies in the understanding that austerity was always a choice, and not a necessity, and a ruinous one at that.
It lies in acknowledging that every significant challenge we face, from public-service collapse to the climate emergency, is a collective problem that only collective action can solve.
What happens next, then, is up to us. These failing governments will not last for very much longer. They cannot, as is already very apparent. They are too divided, too discredited, and too inept to do that. The vacuum they will leave can be filled with fear or hope. It can be filled by those who wish to turn the clock back, or by those prepared to imagine a better future.
A moment of political imagination is opening before us. The question is whether we seize it.
You may say I'm a dreamer...
Lennon's dream is not my own: it lacks a foundation in reality, but dream we must.
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See these inspiring stories of a new kind of democracy from Jamie Kelsey Fry
https://youtu.be/nl3PAA9pqb8?si=KpCHYHTyyBAcd6PG (27 mins)
Don’t take this the wrong way but far from imagining something better all I can say is that I’ve always wanted something better because I know it exists. I think that just comes from being around real human beings and watching them in the field of everyday reality?
You see a lot of kindness, consideration, warmth, co-operation – and yes, the dark as well, but it does not dominate at all. All these years I cannot but help think that we had a lot of very dehumanised thinking imposed upon us from the top.
The quantum of human consciousness is not just competition or mindless self interest. It is reciprocal self interest if anything and much than that, even.
Hear, hear, Pilgrim
It is a systemic problem – coupled to a political selection process that aims at (clown) continuity.
2010 – 2024 – parade of shiny-faced clowns & incompetants (Tory gov)
2020 – 2024 – system grooms LINO to replace Tory incompetants with LINO incompetants
2024 – now: on-going shiny-faced clown parade this time LINO (Tory self destruct).
In the past, such political developments would brew for a couple of decades (France 18th century) and then go pop. Now, in the era of so-called global communication (more like global shouting) things are speeding up. I can recommend Nesrine in the G (what she describes could be almost any moment in the Tory “gov” 2010 – 2024 (just changes the names a bit) : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/17/labour-briefing-office-drama-no-10
I agree with your arguments and the need for a new politics of care. But see scant evidence that the required level of change is possible without a revolution in our democracy – nationally and internationally. Power has become unbalanced and as a result unstable.
Unfortunately commitment to massive change usually comes only after a crisis. That seems to be human nature.
Systems problem? The politicians and politics we have are the product of failing systems. Fifty years of neo liberalism. Democratic processes that have remained essentially unchanged for are longer.
I’m not convinced that these are collective action problems to be solved at the 70 million population by a Westminster Government. There is an equal case for devolution to units of between 3-10 million people for solving issues like how do we care for each other. You’re more likely to have a personal connection and not see it just as a direction of resources problem using money to do so.
A lot depends on how ‘the people’ get their information about what is going on. Radio 4 spent 25 minutes of the 8 am Today programme discussing migration – and then in the last ten minutes – had yet another ‘discussion’ about migration. No wonder Farage doesn’t say much about it – he doesn’t need to, Mahmood and Tories – doing it all for him.
If ‘the people’ are convinced its migrants and asylum seekers that are the cause of all our ills – all bets are off.
And the sheer relish that Nick Robinson or whoever the presenter was – gets his teeth into all the perspectives and minute details of the asylum/ migration /ECHR debate is nauseating. They still hardly mentioned that 90% of ‘migrants’ are here because we asked them to come to fill jobs. It was all in the breathless anguished ‘out of control’ perspective set by Farage and echoed by Mahmood.
Much to agree with
Thank you, Andrew.
I will spare Richard the libel risks by not disclosing how Robinson got that job.
Damn,
Now I’ll just have to make something up..
My business partner in his UK company employs a “migrant” (immigrunt???) Hmm, let’s see:
He is an electrical engineer with a masters, speaks fluent English, Chinese (cos he got his masters in China – in Chinese), Sinhalanese & is very very clever.
Oh & he’s working on an A.I. based control system.
Nah, let’s just chuck ‘im back in the sea ‘ees no bloody use to anybody (this comment being addressed to Fart-rage, Madmood and the other ghastlies/no-marks that infest the English political landscape).
Nothing guarantees a dramatic drop in popularity quite so much as governing. As you say, almost every centrist and right wing political party that you can think of which forms a government quickly becomes deeply unpopular. The only government I can think of which slightly defies this pattern is the Morena alliance in Mexico (notably a left wing party, broadly speaking).
Of course these parties which thrive in opposition fail in government precisely because they do not have any policy solutions to address the failures of neoliberalism. They all offer more of the same, dressed up with some racism, misogyny and other generally repellent ideas that provide scapegoats and easy solutions without fundamentally challenging the political system. Of course the left wing parties which come closest to providing solutions are the ones which receive the least opportunity, or give up on their most radical policies to get close to power.
I would love to think that the next step with all of this failure is a chance for genuine progressive governments to form. I fear there’s one more step before we get there however.
You ask if I can imagine Trump in power for 3 more years? Sadly I can, because I think the next step for right wing parties is to remain in power through autocratic means once they recognise they cannot do it democratically. I personally don’t think Trump leaves office voluntarily, no matter how unpopular he becomes. It’s possible there’s the equivalent of a palace coup, but he has such a weak inner circle it’s hard to see it. Even if it did occur, I think the autocratic plan continues under Vance…
I really hope I’m wrong, but I think the next step in this current political struggle is right wing autocracy before we finally get to a truly progressive and radical government.
In the UK a rethink of the relationship between the power of governance and the relatively powerless role of the people (1 day every 5 years) has to be a priority. It has to address issues like the reversal of centralisation of governance; the mantra that a Westminster gov’t with a commanding majority can do whatever it wants as it is ‘sovereign”; real proportional representation; the existence of other nations within the UK which have different values, cultures, histories, ambitions,legal systems etc and stop pretending that Westminster has the right to over-rule them; the same goes for the diverse regions of England (hint: they’re not all the same) etc, etc.
You get the picture: the people of these islands need a bigger and better say in their governance, and all of the UK’s nations need written constitutions to prevent arrogation of powers by their governments. There are plenty of examples of countries which have successfully devolved power downwards (any Scandinavian country can advise).
This problem has been recognised in Scotland for some time (by the people, if not by the government) and various groups are already at work in different topics. News of their activities appears occasionally online & in The National, but no other media.
Much to agree with
The Swiss referendum system has much to commend it but even that still has the Achilles heel of biased influence.
“Starmer, so incompetent is he and his Government. ” I would put it somewhat more strongly.
me too!
Yes to the Trump question. I believe he can hang on by subverting any democratic attempt to remove him. He’s already attempted an insurrection and spoken about ignoring the Constitution.
In the UK, we might end up with Reform, if we believe the polls, yet I don’t think people will put up with his nonsense in the same way as people in US have let Trump get away with it.
The great problem in our democracy is having two main parties, up to now, who are virtually the same, although this looks to be changing. PR might help, but it also has its problems, such as small groups holding the balance of power. Think DUP and the Brexit fiasco.
The main parties follow neoliberal policies despite all the evidence proving it is a failed economic system. It is proving very difficult to make voters realise this, because the media propogates the system. Thus, we have many voters who would benefit greatly from change to a more caring and equal economic system, believing the failure of neoliberal policies is caused by foreigners, shirkers, welfare cheats, overpaid workers and a national debt they cannot understand is really their national assets. If only they would take the troble to find out the truth, we might be able to make progress.
And the other elephant in the Room – Russia and Putin!
We’re obsessed with political personalities, but if the right mix of personalities might stand a chance of working more sensibly together than any Party. The recent surge in support for the Greens is largely the result of people liking what they hear from Zak Polanski but could other sane people currently in other Parties (or none) work with him, without necessarily joining the same Party? Clive Lewis? Some ex-Labour independents? Some old-style Tories even? An SNP leader? I would have said Zarah Sultana but, for all her leadership and oratorical skills, she seems to have difficulty agreeing even with Jeremy Corbyn and presenting a united front.