Ever since Labour got into office they have told us everything they inherited was broken. They have broken a good few things, blamed the previous government and told us it takes a long time to fix it up. Meanwhile practically everything they do makes things worse. Now we have Mr Jenrick also telling us Britain is broken, as he flip flops from opposing the end of the two child cap to supporting it , from opposing proportional representation to welcoming it, from telling us in vivid language why he disapproved of Nigel Farage to telling us he now worships him.
In July 2024 on change of government inflation was on target at 2% Labour almost doubled it in their first year with energy, fare and other public sector price rises. In July 2024 unemployment had come down to4%, only for Labour to put it up by a quarter. UK educational standards were high, ready for Labour to attack the policies that had led to such good progress. Belatedly the previous government had toughened legal migration policy substantially with numbers beginning to fall, only for Labour to want to relax the new laws. Illegal migration was down by a third from an unacceptably high peak, so Labour relaxed the laws and saw it surge again. The UK had grown the fastest of the G& in the first half of 2024 after the damage of lockdown. Labour slowed the economy with two tax raising budgets that sandbagged the private sector.
When you take over government of course you can say the past government had made bad mistakes. But if you do so you need to promptly rectify the errors and by the second year be able to point to improvements. Instead Labour claimed everything was bad and instead set about making much of it worse. Conservatives hit their target of building 1 million homes in 5 years. Labour have presided over a fall in new housebuilding, particularly acute in London, so they have no chance of hitting their enlarged target of 1.5m homes in 5 years.
The UK despite its government is still growing a bit faster than the EU . Our exportable services are doing very well, and our technology sector is stronger than most EU countries. Manu UK people work hard, show enterprise and innovation and achieve a great deal despite the government and the taxes. It is not Britain that is broken but its government.
January 17, 2026
Who or what is “the government”?
It’s not Labour.
January 17, 2026
‘ It’s not Britain that is broken, it’s the government’
That implies that things were OK before Labour won the last election. That is not my view.
Yes there are still many people in employment, doing their best despite the current situation.
However, things are still bad. We pay top dollar for utilities that don’t work. Water companies pollute the environment with impunity. Travel either by car or public transport is a nightmare. Employment opportunities for the young are disappearing and they cannot afford to buy a home. Crime is far worse than it used to be and the police are more interested in punishing those whose views they disapprove of. You can’t say a Hail Mary outside an abortion clinic. The country is flooded with people who arrive illegally and are never sent back. People are punished by being denied the ability to have a bank account, which is the equivalent of the Chinese social credits – toe the line or you will be punished. Et cetera, Et cetera.
The issues above did not begin with Starmer’s Labour government. They are long seated issues which never seem to get better.
January 17, 2026
May I suggest a one letter change to ‘governmentS’ – plural. But our host doesn’t like to look for the causes of our present condition.
This lack of analysis and refusal to acknowledge the problems in the PCP, is why we have a Reform party, the Tories will be lucky to get any seats in the next GE.
January 17, 2026
“It’s not Britain that is broken, it’s the government” and has been all my life and certainly since Thatcher appointed the fool John ERM Major and let him joint the ERM.
But Britain is being hugely undermined by appalling and misdirected government. To be optimistic this vandalism is huge and could easily be reversed. The bad new is zero political will to do this and 3.5 more years of Labour still paddling the wrong way.
January 17, 2026
Steaming the wrong way not just paddling alas!
January 17, 2026
@Peter Wood – from comments in the Daily Telegraph on this premise about Britain – if you cant see the problem how can you fix it.
January 17, 2026
The worst is yet to come. Only now will the latest budget make its mark. The hospitality sector is in free fall which one can only sumise this is deliberate to appease certain demographic. The motor industry will continue its relentless decline same as most manufacturers.
After the latest windmill auction high prices are baked in for the next 20 years. Hopefully a Reform government will cancel these ludicrous subsidies.
Indeed Britain is broken as is Canada and Australia following the same WEF playbook, started by Bliar and continued by Starmergeddon.
January 17, 2026
Not just hospitality, the retail sector is now in complete free-fall as any trip to a town across the country will demonstrate.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs are going, many part-time and supplementing the main family income – and they are also the jobs which young people often rely on as their first experience of work. Yesterday I spoke to a young man working in a branch of a well known retailer which was on its last day of trading and asked him if he had another job to go to. He said “no …. there’s nothing out there.”
January 17, 2026
@Ian Wragg – agreed
January 17, 2026
Now Jenrick has joined Reform, presumably it strengthens the Conservatives and weakens Reform given his track record.
January 17, 2026
@Cynic. +1.
Are there any politicians from the Tory Party who would be an asset for Reform? Meanwhile Nigel is off to Davos this year. Is that why he accepts Tory defectors?
I’m concerned that the only apparent alternative to the old guard (Reform) is no alternative at all.
January 17, 2026
expect Farage to shake the foundations of Davos, just like he did in Brussels. Asserting the audience are uninformed cult followers of the Flat Earth belief.
January 17, 2026
Re: “Nigel off to Davos” – som was Javier Milei, to my horror. But then I heard his speech at Davos, which was a firecracker, ending in “viva la liberta, caracho!”, so let’s wait and see …
January 17, 2026
Lowe outperforms Reform on every point.
A single good MP is a powerful force.
Farage can NEVER compete.
January 18, 2026
yawn…
January 18, 2026
How can ‘Lowe outperform Reform on every point’ when none of them is in power? Or is comparing two sets of blablabla is enough of a proof of anything for you?
O/T ‘Ungovernable: The political diaries of a chief whip’ by Simon Hart, 355 pp is a wonderful look behind Parliament’s curtains between Dec’19 and July’24. Some here might benefit from reading it, they might learn a few things about our politics and how it actually works. And it certainly isn’t because of WEF or the other bogey-men that quarter-brained people think are the cause of the present situation.
As S.Hart is saying p.161 ‘given the nonsense observations from people who played no part in all this, a little segment of truth may not go amiss.’
January 17, 2026
Well Jenrick’s old track records was as a Libdem fake Tory for years, but of late he is now saying largely the right things. Is his Damascene conversion real? Let us hope so. He got a 1st in history so not too daft and surely rather better than PPE. The Covid “Vaccine” Tzar is far more worrying he still thinks (or claims to) that his fasted vaccine roll out in Europe (of net harm vaccines) was a good thing. Has he not bothered to look at the stats. After all he was a founder of a polling organisation, read Chem. Eng. & so should be able to follow the damning stats.
January 17, 2026
@Cynic – exactly, they moved themselves from being elected because they weren’t the ‘others’ into joining the Uniparty and being the problem
January 17, 2026
Bravo for criticising Robert Jenrick given you praising his conversion to your type of conservatism not long ago!
Reply He should have stayed with the Conservatives. If you want to change parties after being elected you should hold a by election.
January 17, 2026
Reply to reply. Yes, but by elections should be mandatory if the MP switches Party. Why don’t MPs legislate for that? Turkeys and Christmas?
January 17, 2026
@Wanderer – just having elections, would be a start. The UK Britain once the home of democracy should now follow the lead of the Worlds free Sovereign States and have elections every 2 years, after-all elections in a democracy are referenda on the direction being taken. When a Parliament hides behind the need for democracy its a Parliament we don’t need.
January 17, 2026
No he shouldn’t have stayed with the Tories along with labour they are both as bad when they get into number 10 promising the earth to get there but once in power then the rest of the parties show there true colours by blocking anything that the electorate put them there to do, we need fresh blood to give a chance to, after all what’s the alternative we are already on our knees and nearly bankrupt
January 17, 2026
My Lord,
Do I detect a change in your thinking?
I have asked similar questions when someone defects to a different party and you have always stated that under our system, one votes for a person, not a party.
January 17, 2026
Yes – U turns are common these days.
January 17, 2026
@Cliff.. Wokingham. – ‘when someone defects’ that could only have credibility when prospective candidates are selected and funded by their constituents. Successive Parliaments have trashed the concept of choice being part of Democracy, now its ‘Gang’ bosses that choose candidates for loyalty and arrange campaign funding. That the Communist State way, State approval is the only democracy permitted
January 18, 2026
👍🏻
January 17, 2026
Well in his case a by-election might not be wise as he would be high profile and a Green, SDP, Labour agreement might vote Tory just to oust him. Though I suspect on balance he would prob. still win!
January 17, 2026
Why should he have stayed with the LibCONs? So he could be contained ….. and go down with the ship?
January 17, 2026
He was trying to change the Conservative Party but realised it was pointless…and so it is.
January 17, 2026
I am increasingly of the view we should bin political parties altogether, and get political candidates to stand on their own name, on their own policies. I dont see the value the parties themselves are adding. Most of the good stuff is done by mavericks anyways.
January 17, 2026
Why a by election? He has just defected from one centre right party to another. If he had radically changed his views, or defected to the Labour party maybe.
If I had been in his constituency and voted for him, I wouldn’t care whose ribbon he wore.
January 17, 2026
Reply to reply: he was sacked by the Conservatives and only then joined another Party. I cannot see he has any duty to submit himself to a by election
Reply He lied to his electors, changed his views and was planning to switch before he was sacked.Of course he should stand in a by election with his new views and party.
January 17, 2026
A sovereign nation has walls that need defending.
Starmer acted like Humpty Dumpty.
Rotten Labour has caused the irreversible state of a broken egg on the ground.
The foul slippery mess needs disposal and clearing up.
January 17, 2026
No! SJ it’s not the Government that is broken it’s British politics – the whole thing is in the doldrums and it makes no difference how you dice and slice it you come up with the same results – Britain’s going nowhere – what money there is is going round and round there is no growth only visible poverty and the politicians are stuffng themselves as usual unable to bring in the changes that are necessary unable to admit to past mistakes that have so seriously damaged the economy.
January 17, 2026
@herebefore +1
January 17, 2026
One of the problems we have is that money isn’t going round and round. It is leaving the country never to return. If it were just going round, taxes would claw the majority back into the Treasury’s coffers. Instead, we have millions of migrants sending it to their home countries and our Government giving it away to the most dubious of causes in foreign lands.
January 18, 2026
Correct. One of the UN’s “benefits” of migration is the ability of the migrants to siphon money out of their host country and send it “back home.”
The Establishment has recently, reluctantly admitted, that a low-wage migrant is not a fiscal benefit to the country … over their lifetime they will cost us a fortune. In the last 5 years, we have been “blessed” with around another 5 million low wage or unemployed migrants …. most claiming welfare. When you factor in that they will also be sending money “back home” it is not surprising that the economy isn’t growing.
January 18, 2026
Christine.
Agreed, does anyone know how much ?
May I suggest it may be even more than people think, because the use and payment of a Uk credit card to purchase stuff for abroad is also perhaps more common than people think !.
January 17, 2026
Sorry John, this is facile nonsense. As a result of government incompetence, across both main parties, Britain is in decline in many social, cultural and economic aspects. It is truly broken and can only be re-assembled if those in charge have the courage to reassert moral values, stop pandering to woke nonsense, and take the tough, and often unpalatable, decisions that this requires.
January 17, 2026
Correct. By all means stop using the term ‘broken’. Reset is interesting – it ought to mean going back to policies that created a great nation over decades if not centuries. Now it seems to mean destruction without the build back better!
January 17, 2026
@Remington Norman – agreed, but whose in charge?
January 17, 2026
I agree. JRM said the same thing yesterday—wise words from a wise man.
January 17, 2026
Does anyone really expect Reform to be the party ‘to take the tough decisions, and often unpalatable, decisions that this requires’?
If Reform comes to power I am afraid the ‘woke’ nonsense will be (possibly a bit) more ‘populist’, see ‘Priorities for a new Government’ (Establish, Decentralise, Establish, Reboot, Link) reform.uk July 2024, 15pp.
It does not augur well seeing the job that Reform-led councils have been doing since last May.
January 17, 2026
And of course that’s what he meant. There is no point in setting out a litany of what I think are Tory failures suffice to say that their response tells me they are still in denial because agreeing would highlight their failures over the last 14 years.
It was clear from Cameron on that the views if the ordinary voter were distasteful and so to be ignored. Candidate lists stuffed with social democrats elected on a lie, namely the Tory party was low tax, secure borders, tough on crime, a choice on Brexit and then getting it done, reforming Civil Service etc.
Just on Brexit and migration we got a shambles,May cut police numbers, we had the beginnings of the on line censorship, lack of courage pushing back on the growth of ‘Muslim extremism, the Trans lobby, high taxes, move to nanny state, diversity and so the list could go on.
If your brand of Toryism had been that of the HMG this discussion would not be necessary.
They let you and us down. Obviously as loyal politician you make the best of a poor job. I and many other voters don’t,
January 17, 2026
very misguided spin from the conservative party john, of couse britain is broken. you should not have joined in with this drivel from whoever in central office came up with this.
very disappointing.
its not even remotely good politics.
Reply There is much good in our country and amongst its people. This government is a disaster. The last government made mistakes that I criticised and tried to correct at the time. You cannot govern and spend the whole time like Labour saying everything is broken. You need to stress the good and mend the bad.
January 17, 2026
but this spin from Conservative HQ which has been coordinated amongst you all is primarily about what Robert Jenrick has been saying, not what Labour have been saying.
the problem is, of course, that every single person I know, of all parts of every spectrum… think the country is far more broken than any politician from any party is saying.
turning into a glass half full, glass half empty, psychology lecture is laughable. take the positive/negative dimension out and just concentrate on the true/false spectrum. nobody is interested in infant teacher psychology, they are interested in substance.
January 19, 2026
And what is the ‘substance’ of Reform or for that matter Restore Britain?
January 17, 2026
Reply to JW
“The last government made mistakes…” No it was utterly disastrous. The current situation hasn’t happened just through 18 months of Labour.
As Jenrick said the Conservative Party doesn’t even accept it was useless let alone know how to put things right.
January 18, 2026
yes they have to say sorry for allowing both legal and illegal immigration to get completely out of control.
they have to say sorry for anti motorist, anti freelancer, anti father, anti grandparent, extremist in its own way of the blob stuff.
they have to say sorry for letting the public sector get so big, inefficient, and low quality.
they have to say sorry for the anti white working class male prejudice.
the liberals in the conservative party who delayed brexit and turned it into brexit in name only need to go.
January 19, 2026
Don’t you find a bit rich that the ex-SoS for HC&LG, ex-MoS for Immigration, ex-Sec2Treasury, ex-MoS for Health and more recently Shadow SoS for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor … took more than 10 years to realise that the PCP was rotten? If not he must really be a slowcoach.
January 17, 2026
@Reply – then Parliament should give people the say.
January 17, 2026
Sir John ‘the bad’ in Britain is the political class. It can’t be mended, only replaced.
The Sovereign British people need to assert themselves using our traditional democratic power and select those they wish to replace the incumbents.
The alternative is horrific, look at Persia which became Iran with 90 million people subjugated and held hostage.
January 17, 2026
PS Jenrick etc ‘reinventing and rebranding’ themselves is not sufficient.
We need all of those failed individuals REPLACED.
January 17, 2026
Reply to Reply – exactly who are its people? Politicians over the last few decades have given away our country to foreigners who are bleeding us dry and seem to hate us. Anyone not contributing to and sharing our values needs to go and go soon.
January 17, 2026
I see Jenrick is already being accused of racism the rather dire Robert Buckland “pound shop Enoch Powell!” Par for the course I suppose!
Truss accused of wrecking the economy. So was it 13 years of the tax to borrow and waste Con-Socialists the £billions on net zero, duff “vaccines”, lockdowns, QE or a few days of Truss and a budget that never even came into force?
January 19, 2026
That Truss/Kwarteng’s ‘budget never even came into force’ might have been a blessing given that it cut corporation tax, income tax, the 45p top rate, the NI, lifted the bankers’ bonus cap and all that … on borrowed money.
Some of the ‘business people’ on this blog appear to have a very limited?/curious? view on what is a balanced budget.
January 17, 2026
In 2025 electrified cars – either battery-electric, hybrid-electric or plugin-hybrid – reached a market share of nearly 50% in the UK. The SMMT reported 473,000 all-electric vehicles were registered, making the UK Europe’s second-largest EV market by volume after Germany
Unfortunately, the majority of these vehicles were manufactured in the EU, or in China.
Sunak’s ill-considered change to the timetable for the introduction of EV’s to the British market – which was opposed by the SMMT – resulted in Nissan stopping production of their popular Leaf EV in the N East, BMW moved production of their electric Mini to Germany, Honda shut their Swindon plant completely and Aston Martin gave up on EV’s altogether. Stellantis stopped development of their electric white van and announced that the future of their Ellesmere Port facility was in doubt. Sunak’s deluded anti-net zero political decision has cost us thousands of well paid manufacturing jobs
We face a choice as a once-great manufacturing nation. Either we accept the end of ICE vehicles and the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, or once again the world will move on and leave us behind.
January 18, 2026
It was 473,000 EVs sold in 2025 SG, but this isn’t 50% it is 23.4% of the total new cars sold.
January 18, 2026
SG
I think those Manufacturing decisions were already in the pipeline way before Sunak’s announcement because it is simply too expensive to manufacture stuff in the Uk because of our huge electricity costs.
I actually visited the Mini Factory for guided tour a couple of years ago and they were concerned then that the Electric Mini was going abroad, to be followed by the streaky demise of the ICE plant at Cowley a few years later due to legislation over the emission regulations due in 2030 – 35
January 19, 2026
a lot of EV’s are registered but sitting in a field somewhere without a real end customer…
January 17, 2026
Only practising politicians criticise other politicians for changing their minds and their party allegiance! As a simple voter I am willing and able to change my mind and I have no objection to politicians doing the same. When the facts change, I change, what do you do? At the time of the last election my top voting priority was the performance of the NHS; this is still high on my list but the continuing aggression by Russia in Ukrain, in Europe and in the UK persuades me that our military defence capability is even more important than the NHS. This is a personal decision that is more important to me than party politics or party loyalty and will likely determine my vote at the next election.
January 17, 2026
Britain is broken and the Conservatives cluelessly helped break it (with higher taxes, especially on businesses, more bureaucracy) and as Suella Braverman said should have apologised. Labour have made things a great deal worse by deliberately doing things that can only make things much worse. Social and long term factors have also contributed greatly (reluctance to work, especially post-Covid – a decline in integrity,even police Chief Constables thinking they can lie, get found out and still not resign – an educational system where virtually everyone can get a devalued degree that signifies virtually nothing).
I don’t really blame Zahawi and Jenrick for defecting to Reform (though I do agree there should have been a by-election but that is not fashionable) as I would have done so if I seriously wished to be elected to anything and there is a lot of overlap between many Conservatives and many Reform supporters.
January 17, 2026
I agree Sir John but it is the governance of the country that has been broken by fraudulent Politicians and a Civil Service, Police and Judicial establishment corrupted by socialist ideologies and elitism . The Military is less effected by this malaise but has simply been starved to death. We have buried ourselves in regulation to the point where it is becoming impossible to do (or build) anything. We have decided to martyr ourselves on the altar of Climate Change and killed off our Industries. Our traditional beliefs, culture and history are being attacked and diluted.
This is what happens when you lose your way. We may not be broken but we are lost. I like to believe that we can find our way back to some kind of meaning & sense but nothing will change under these despicables.
January 17, 2026
There’s a lot of ruin in a nation, opined Adam Smith. Perhaps Britain isn’t fully broken and still has some ruin left, but surely there’s a lot less than 30 years ago.
On the other hand, Macaulay held that the very worst that governments can do counts for little against the eternal ambition of every individual to improve the lot of himself and his family.
So let’s not despair. The main thing is not to split the Right again and let in the bandits and crazies of the Left for another five years of plunder and sabotage. So support the party most likely to win, give it a socking majority, and all will come right in the end.
January 17, 2026
Britain is most certainly broken. Broken by succesive governments full of charlatans, who get elected by telling us anything they think we want to hear. Then doing everything to destroy the country for the majority population, whilst pandering to special interest groups.
The whole edifice is a corrupt sewer.
January 17, 2026
We’re up to our necks in debt. So-called public services are in free-fall. The Establishment Parties have legally imported about 12 million people (most low-paid and many from the 3rd world and claiming welfare) in the past 20+ years against the clear wishes of the electorate. They have refused to control our borders so we are being steadily invaded by “undesirables” and refuse to deport them. Pakistani rape gangs and Islamist extremists have been given “free rein” to prey on the British people for decades. The Covid Tyranny was an absolute outrage in a country which claims to be a democracy and to operate under the rule of law.
A clear instruction to LEAVE the EU has effectively been ignored. Now local elections are being cancelled by both Labour and Tory Councils for fear of the results. And Two-Tier is attempting to stop Jury Trials.
The country looks pretty broken to me – and it is both the CONservative and Labour Parties which have done it, with a bit of assistance from the LibDems.
January 17, 2026
I agree things have got worse under this Labour lot (hardly Governing) but:
The Conservatives you may argue were constrained by Cameron (a man with a weak backbone) and the LibDems for a few years when they took office, but they were a disaster under May, poor under Johnson, although I thought he tried hard for Brexit whilst being frustrated by Parliamentary manoeuvring (sabotage) and tried hard to get to grips with Covid, which certainly caused major financial problems and difficulties for everyone, including the rest of the World. Truss perhaps had some vision, but was sadly out of her depth on management and presentation, and so the system took her down, Sunak was just a weak Conservative/LibDem.
Put that together with the Blair and Brown Years, and yes we have survived the last 30 plus years, but only just, the whole fabric of our Country, our standards, our work ethic and way of life has been trashed by successive Governments during those 30 plus years, and is almost unrecognisable from the Thatcher years when we started to make some real progress.
You are right John, poor Government has broken the UK, and certainly the traditional Party’s offer little more than the same old, same old failure type of policies and thinking, which has got us into this mess in the first place.
We need a very big change of thinking if we are to move forwards, and I do not see that as being possible with most of the traditional Party Politicians.
January 17, 2026
Just to add, fully aware that you tried hard, along with few other good people, but the system and those in charge took little notice of many of your comments/suggestions/proposals, yes you and your colleagues won a few battles on the way, and I sincerely thank you for that, but sadly the general downwards direction remained unaltered, and has continued at pace for those 30 plus years.
January 17, 2026
It’s not just government that is broken , it’s the British establishment , and that has been rotten to the core for a long time, with governments being just the front men to the wishes of the Civil Servants .
This we have seen with our entanglement with the EEC -EU for this was a project of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office , who decided it was beneath them to be fighting the corner of a mere country when they had been born to rule an empire , which we saw when they boasted about being a ‘Rolls Royce’ service that allowed us to ‘punch above our weight ‘, or them claiming they needed to ‘manage our decline’ . They had no ambitions for us , they sold us out to the EU. The plot to remove Mrs T came from the FCO after she said ‘No, No, No’ . Go forward 26 years and we had the same establishment treachery as they tried to burry Brexit in the EU negotiations, gifting away key points of leverage without getting anything in return , and right up to today where we see them handing away our fishing territory .
Chagos is proof positive which shows we are allowed to change government , but not policy , here the Civil Service found an easy mark in Cleverly to entertain the idea , Cameron was a temporary block, but when they get another idiot in place with Lammy , out comes the same old policy.
I also believe the removal of Dominic Raab was part of the blob agenda, for he was working on a British Bill of Right to replace the Human Rights Act , a policy which would have curtailed the excesses of the blob and their internationalist obsession, so he was removed for aggressively throwing a cherry tomato into a rubbish bin.
If we want our country to have a future then we need more than a change in government , we need to rip out much of the establishment , Civil Servants, Quangos, Charities , and all the other parasites feeding off the corpse of the British state.
January 17, 2026
If you concentrate on economic issues alone to judge whether Britain is broke/not broken, you miss the bigger picture. We are broken culturally, having abandoned our Judeo/Christian family-focussed heritage and replaced it with a fragmented culture that is becoming ripe for an Islamo-Marxist takeover where we can no longer criticise hostile forces that want to rule over us and must kow-tow to an overweening state.
January 18, 2026
Yes. The British can no longer depend on the law enforcement services either.
Every person attacked or bankrupted IS broken.
Johnson’s says ‘Britain is in breakable’ and therefore can be abused at will.
They said the same about Mrs T, but they broke her.
January 17, 2026
That sums it up nicely.
What happened to our society that allowed a communist inspired globalist seeking regime to take over so much and embed so much useless woke into our young? They may have taken over so much but they’ll never get our soul.
There is no reason for this government to remain – they do more damage by the day. Apart from a realistic Guy Fawkes intervention just how do we get rid of them?
January 17, 2026
It’s not so much Britain is broken, but Britain is bankrupt. We’ve been bankrupted by decades of Labour, coalition and Tory borrow and waste. The last government lost control of the country’s finances, so now we are in a debt spiral. The only way to fix the economy now is to implement measures the foolish electorate will reject.
January 17, 2026
I read Kemi’s out pouring in the Daily Telegraph, very embarrassing. The consensus in the comments section was if you don’t believe it is ‘broken’ how do you fix it when you can’t see the situation for what it is?
I disagree with JR’s summation, I don’t see it as the Government, this Government of today it is Parliament and it has been Parliament for the last generation.
Blair started the rot by tearing up things that worked and stood the country and its people in good stead. Then Cameron continued the path, he had the opportunity to undo the damage he refused. Every Government leader since – May, Johnson, Sunak and now the ultra-terrorist Starmer all opened the door enough for the next one to cause even more damage. Not one of the addressed the flaws, the inhibitors of the previous incumbent.
Its Parliament, its MPs that own the break up of society, our laws, and our sense of purpose. Each individual was elected, empowered and paid to stand up for their constituents and the nation, a responsibility well ahead of party or gang leader. The have the full responsibility for holding the Executive to account, that matters even more all the while democratic elections, the referendum on Parliament is not held every 2 years. It also seems their ownership of their duty has been lost by them on the back of personal ego and self-gratification. They appear to see their position as MP as the chance to sit on their hands and free-load, glorified local councils waiting for someone to hand them instructions
Britain is Broken because those in Parliament chose to break it. I cant see one of them being fit for purpose to turn it around.
January 18, 2026
Correct.,we have their names. None should ever be returned.
January 17, 2026
Three situations I personally am aware of or involved in.
Trying to get Stem support for an educationally challenged 10 year old. Budget shortages, bureaucracy etc only the tenacity of the mother ‘battering’ those in authority got it sorted eventually.
An old gent having to wait two and a half years in severe discomfort for a hip replacement.
19 year old young women, abusive alcoholic drug taking mother (stole her Christmas present money) self harming/suicide risk befriended by the daughter of a family I know who ultimately took her in on a semi temporary basis in a house that didn’t have a spare bedroom so they converted the lounge.
Local authority aware but despite pleas for accommodation did little/nothing. Council chiefs ignored e mails/calls/pleas to get there act together. Bureaucracy, denial/sloping shoulders etc. again only the tenacity of one person who had her own job/life/family to look after got a resolution after months. Obviously an illegal migrant woukd have been sorted straight away.
If I know of these multiply them across the vountry.
Our military have been hollowed out by budget cuts and bureaucracy/appalling inefficiency.
Waits for ambulances, state of roads, public servants/politicians rewarded after failure, no accountability etc. public sector performance declining.
And what do we get. Smooth talking/looking, never acknowledging any failure at all, politicians well distanced from the issues we face, telling us we are wrong.
Whatever your personal efforts, that’s your legacy.
January 17, 2026
There is no doubt that it is the Government that is broken, not the UK. But this Government will break the UK by the end of its term. Just take its energy policy, driven by Miliband the madman, which is driving up the cost of energy. Cheap, reliable energy is the basis of a successful modern economy. But the time Miliband is finished,
we will have very expensive, unreliable energy which will cripple the UK.
If Starmer gives the go-ahead for this mega-sized Chinese embassy, allowing easy access to vital cable networks,
under or close to it, he is inviting the Chinese to shut down cables vital to the UK economy.
On another point, Jenrick’s defection to Reform will damage them more than it will the Conservatives. I also think there are signs that Kemi Badenoch will rebuild the Conservative Party.
January 17, 2026
Its the whole system, a system managed by parliament and the civil service
”Benefits (£400 per month)have been forked out for a US asylum seeker, originally from Las Vegas, who has remained in the UK for over a year despite a court ruling his case was “clearly unfounded”
https://www.gbnews.com/news/migrant-benefits-american-asylum-system
January 18, 2026
And a Bulgarian fraudster, who helped milk our welfare system of £54 million, is back on welfare!
You really couldn’t make it up.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/12/bulgarian-welfare-fraudster-back-on-benefits/?recomm_id=f6ebc00d-20fe-457a-b4c5-3a201676ec66
January 17, 2026
Yes it is government that is broken. To be clear, it is the permanent staff of government those who preside over our affairs no matter who is elected. The issue we have to deal with is power in the hands of the established bureaucrats. We need to return the authority of government back into the hands of the elected representatives.
That simple change is however resisted at every turn by the establishment for obvious reasons.
The old, you scratch my back and I will scratch yours habit of Westminster lives on.
If anyone witnessed the police actions outside the Iranian embassy last night, you will know we have moved into a very dangerous new phase of public control by the establishment and its forces.
January 17, 2026
Britain is not broken? From my perspective, a well to do suburb of Birmingham, it certainly looks and feels broken. Everywhere feels grubby and uncared for. Over a ten year period, I no longer recognise many of the faces and languages of those walking the High Street. Policing appears virtually non existent. My car was stolen and allowed to be shipped abroad. Interpol stopped it in Lithuania. What about smashing the gangs in this Country? We attended our grandson’s Bar Mitzvah and a grand party abroad. By reputation, West Midlands Police would probably have banned it. The rot set in some years ago.
January 17, 2026
Is Kemi going to repeal business rates, the climate change act & the ECHRs and state the same in the manifesto …..no
The change happened under blairs government and continues today; the elite politcians know best
Communist and left wing socialist ideas are never going to fix britain; only democratic capitalist views can
Reply Conservative policy has changed on the 3 topics and will be different in the next Manifesto to tackle the big problems you raise.
January 18, 2026
The big-wigs policy may have changed but what about the root and branch Tory MPs? We don’t know what camp each has allegiance to, and plenty seem to do a ‘Trump rethink’ when it suits.
January 18, 2026
JR – we don’t believe them.
January 17, 2026
Ugandan, that well known seat of democracy has return a president for the 7th time with over 70% of the vote, 40 years of democractic government …no doubt they’ll get a letter of support, grants & aid from the UN and UK
January 17, 2026
Britain is broken, and we should take steps to repair it. How about an elected upper house for a start ? No, thought not.
January 18, 2026
Why elect another house from a curated short-list? How will that help?
January 17, 2026
Well appart from getting a bit miffed at Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform, you are basically correct.
In terms of political leadership, the ability to manage almost anything, and politicians arrogant dismisal of the 2016 referendum result and conspiring to reverse it, Britain is unquestionably broken. Elements act traitorously, witness the Chagos and Chinese Embassy fiasco.
I know from my career as a twenty year old mountaineering instructor that the youth of this country, irrespective of financial status, educational experience, colour of skin or religious upbringing, can, presented with the right sort of challenges, and led by people of character and experience, rise to levels of achievment that surprises them and their parents. Take those lessons through life and apply them to however life may challenge them, and we have the formular for remanufacturing Britain.
My hope is that Reform realise this and give our youth all the tools and encouragement to throw current trends into reverse.
January 18, 2026
Vain hope.
January 17, 2026
“It is not Britain that is broken but its government.”
It is not the government that is broken but our governing system. The current government was elected by a measly 20% of the electorate and are governing just as could be predicted. In addition, we are effectively governed by the Civil Service, quangos and the judiciary. For instance, since Net Zero by 2050 was made law by PM May (without a proper debate, without a vote and without a costing) our energy policy is now decided by tax-payer funded climate activists and judges. This is not democracy. We need Parliament to take back control from Civil Servants and quangos and important decisions for major issues such as EU & ECHR membership, energy/climate policy, immigration or the giving away of territory should only be made via a referendum.
Reply I agree with much of this as you should know from reading my blog.
January 17, 2026
Given this accurate, albeit rather depressing summary, it’s unsurprising ordinary law abiding citizens are profoundly disillusioned with politicians. Neither of the two recent defections to Reform fill me with confidence nor does the manner of their ‘switch’. For an MP to change political party
mid term betrays their party and their constituents, especially those who voted for them denying them effective parliamentary representation. It would be more open, honest and democratic for a by election to be triggered. Furthermore, the resultant media circus, was unedifying to say the least. This is not democracy in action, it’s a circus!
January 18, 2026
So Churchill was a traitor?
January 17, 2026
I’m worried about Jenrick, he voted remain in the referendum
Surprised Nigel accepted him
Good at “talking the talk”
Tells us what we want to hear
Nigel is consistent in his views even if unpopular but Jenrick just goes with the popular view
Have to wait and see
January 18, 2026
you describe a characteristic of most politicians.
January 17, 2026
Did President Trump kill Brexit this afternoon?
January 18, 2026
Very up beat. It is easy to make the Conservatives look better than Labour. But to the average ordinary bloke it seems to be a choice between lousy and even more lousy government. Reform may not be up to scratch as a government in waiting but it is a lot closer to the British people than any of what used to be considered the main parties. Reform is now the most popular party in polling.