{"id":91886,"date":"2026-04-24T08:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=91886"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:31:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:31:58","slug":"is-the-uk-past-its-sell-by-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/04\/24\/is-the-uk-past-its-sell-by-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the UK past its sell by date?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a Prime Minister in office beyond their use-by date fails to recognise that fact, and has to be expelled from office by the members of their own party, however unwilling they might be to fulfil this obligation.<\/p>\n

This will, of course, become apparent in the case of Keir Starmer within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Peter Mandelson fiasco will hasten his exit.<\/p>\n

The fact that he is very obviously a straw man, put in place by others to achieve their objective of destroying the Labour Party from within, will, though, be inconsequential when most of those who must now get rid of him share that objective.<\/p>\n

The reason why he will have to go is that he will have so obviously failed.<\/p>\n

Look at these two opinion poll findings, published in the last day or so.<\/p>\n

The first predicts the result of the forthcoming elections for the Holyrood Parliament in Scotland, where Labour\u2019s presence will be reduced to a rump, when only two years ago, before Labour reached office in Westminster, it was thought by many that Labour had a real chance in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The expectation in Wales is almost as bad:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The second represents Westminster voting intentions. Labour\u2019s support now suggests that it is heading for oblivion in the way that the Conservative Party is already doing, and that it may have fewer seats in the next parliament than Plaid Cymru:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those Labour MPs in Westminster, now facing their own futures in alternative careers once their fate is determined, whenever the next general election might be, have only one desperate option left available to them, which is to replace Starmer, however poor the alternative choice might be, as, given the available options, must surely be the case.<\/p>\n

I am not going to speculate on who that new leader might be. No one thought Corbyn would win in 2015, and an outsider might achieve the same outcome now.<\/p>\n

What I will note is something else, which is that since 2015, the UK has had five Prime Ministers (May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and Starmer), and not one of them has been successful using any criteria that you might choose, and all but one (Sunak) have been removed from office by their own members rather than by the electorate.<\/p>\n

Three questions then follow.<\/p>\n

The first is whether the UK is now ungovernable. The answer would appear to be that it is. All our recent prime ministers have found this to be the case. Of course, it is also possible that this is because they were not competent to govern, but that then leads to the second question.<\/p>\n

This second question asks whether the UK is ungovernable because it has an electoral system that is incapable of selecting appropriate MPs from amongst whom can be chosen a person suitable to be Prime Minister. The answer to this question would appear to be that this is very obviously true, but that then leads to the third question.<\/p>\n

This third question asks whether this might be the case not just because the electoral system is no longer fit for purpose in the UK, but because the UK itself is no longer fit for purpose, and we are trying to find a person to govern a country that is no longer governable because it should no longer exist, since the people of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland no longer wish to partake in it. This will become very obvious after May 7, when those three countries are likely to be governed by parties whose ultimate goal is independence from the UK.<\/p>\n

Starmer, incompetent as he is, might then be indicative of a greater decay, however hard that is to imagine given the scale of corruption, incapacity, ineptitude and straightforward deceit which have characterised all that he has done. That greater decay is of the UK itself and suggests that, however strong the need for electoral reform, improved governance and greater accountability in Westminster might be, that reform has to take place within a government that is responsible for England alone, with each of the other constituent members of the United Kingdom being allowed to progress in their own independent way.<\/p>\n

Let me return to my opening statement in that case and suggest that it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a country that has ceased to represent the collective identity and purpose of those living within it no longer has a purpose and should be transformed into new jurisdictions that can fulfil that basic requirement.<\/p>\n

In other words, the malaise within the United Kingdom is caused by the fact that the United Kingdom is, itself, in existence beyond its sell-by date.<\/p>\n

It is time to move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a Prime Minister in office beyond their use-by date fails to recognise that fact, and has to be
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