Politics 2026

Politics 2026 in the United Kingdom. Where are we at? To summarise: we have a far-right populist who is telling his fanbase, the rich and the racist, exactly what they want to hear. He’s not afraid of upsetting people, although his recent success means he is at least trying to pretend that he didn’t spend his youth advocating for Jews to be gassed. We have a far-left populist who’s is doing much the same but whose message is aimed fair and square at the poor, and folk who still think Jews should be gassed. Above Hadrians Wall is a bunch of folk with nationalist dreams, but I’ve no idea what they’re saying anymore, and I’m not sure they do either. The Welshists are all probably very nationalist too, but it’s spoken with that delightful, soothing sing-song Welsh twang from the valleys, so it sounds lovely. But in the big scheme of things, it doesn’t much matter.

There is the natural party of government, currently on the opposition benches, and they say whatever the far-right populist says, but one week later. They’re having to play a losing game of catch-up because what’s left of their membership are old, wealthy and naturally inclined to the rose-tinted rhetoric of the far-right populist. And then we have a party that is actually in government. They are striving to make some basic, fundamental changes to the direction of the country but are living in constant fear that they might say or do something that might possibly upset anyone at all, especially their own MPs. As a result, they are upsetting everyone. Especially their own MPs.

Most of what anyone is saying is point-scoring guff that dodges the questions and issues of the day. We need a couple of per cent on income tax to balance the books. We need another couple per cent on top of that to pay for increased defence. We are on the brink of war with Russia. We need to be part of the EU, either formally or informally, because the future will be decided by the main power blocs, and we are not a power bloc. And the US, China and Russia are not our allies, they are actively out to get us. We need an independent European nuclear deterrent, in partnership with France and Germany at least, and probably including Poland. We need to reduce our welfare bill. We need national infrastructure projects to be built, not argued about in courts for decades with costs inflated by fees and delays. We need a free speech policy that doesn’t involve knocking on doors about tweets that are not crimes, but does tackle white supremacist run social networks peddling child porn. And more.

We need someone to tell the population what they need to hear, and have them understand that that is also what they want to hear. This is the mark of a good politician. Because the alternative is a lie, and will make things worse. That’s the job of the grifting populist. We do not currently seem to have a candidate to take a stand for what’s right and that’s an increasingly existential problem. All is not lost. But it may soon be. I’m pessimistic.