Consider This from NPR - Britain's 2022 Was A Year Of Epic Turbulence

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

The United Kingdom is, for many, synonymous with stability. But 2022 has been a year of turbulence and change for the U.K.In one, chaotic four-month stretch, the U.K. went through major transitions involving three prime ministers and two monarchs. We look back at what this turbulence meant for the United Kingdom, and ahead to what new leadership could bring, with NPR's London Correspondent Frank Langfitt.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. This has been a difficult year for the United Kingdom. A few moments ago, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Over 10 days of mourning, people lined up for miles to see the Queen's casket, including a mother and daughter who drove overnight from the north of England. This is Ruth Dixon followed by her mother Dorothy. We were absolutely prepared to do this. We just had to be here. She was just an

amazing person and she cared about everybody. In my lifetime, I'll never see anything like this again. This was also the year that Number 10 Downing Street became a revolving door. The UK had three prime ministers in less than two months. After one of the most dramatic weeks in British politics, in the end, the pressure on the prime minister became just too much. Boris Johnson was forced out of the top job after nearly 60 MPs quit his government. Johnson took no responsibility for his downfall. Instead, he blamed lawmakers in his own party.

The herd instinct is powerful. When the herd moves, it moves. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them's the brakes. And now, at the end of December, the UK faces a series of strikes. Immigration officers, nurses, postal workers and rail workers have all recently walked out. They're demanding higher pay as inflation climbs above 10%. Matthew Lee is a train conductor who picketed outside London's

King's Cross station. Lots of my colleagues are really struggling financially and it's hard and it's been years now without a pay rise. I want to get back to work. I don't want to stand out here on a cold day having a strike but there comes a point where you have to make a stand and just say that's it. Consider this. 2022 was an epic year of turbulence and change in the United Kingdom. We look back at what this means for a country that was once synonymous with stability and ahead to what new leadership could bring. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Friday, December 30th. It's Consider This from NPR. To look at the chaos that the UK experienced in the last year,

you could start at the top with the head of state and the head of government. NPR's London correspondent Frank Langford has covered all this turmoil over the last 12 months. And Frank, the departures of the Queen and Boris Johnson were obviously very different. But what has been the impact of these two major figures leaving the stage, starting with the Queen? Yeah, you know, Ari, the Queen, as you know, because you covered the United Kingdom, the death of the Queen creates this big vacuum. She was more popular than the monarchy itself, much more popular than her son, King Charles, who's now 74. And so the royal family now sort of faces this generational challenge, how to remain relevant when its most popular and unifying leader is no longer there. And how would you rate the first three months of King Charles's

reign? You know, Ari, I think better than expected. He delivered his first Christmas address as king last weekend, and it was kind of tailored to the times, acknowledging the challenges that the country faces. I particularly want to pay tribute to all those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donations, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those around them in greatest need. Now, I got to say, expectations for the king were pretty low in September, but we've seen a jump in support, in part, frankly, just now because he is king. I mean, soon after his mother's death, the percentage of people who thought he would

make a good king nearly doubled from 32 to 63% in one poll. This month has been rockier for the royals. You know, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, they dropped that six-part Netflix series that probably quite a few people saw. Harry spent a bit of it criticizing his brother, Prince William, his father, and his grandmother, the queen. Let's give it a listen. It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren't true. And my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and sort of take it all in. Yeah, I've heard a lot of discourse about that series. How did the royal family respond to it? You know, it was kind of classic royal family. They didn't respond. They

sort of went along business as usual. The day after the final three episodes dropped, King Charles, he visited a Jewish community center in London. And here he is dancing with Holocaust survivors, including the stepsister of Anne Frank, which in a way was kind of the royal family's response, which is, you know, when it comes to criticism, sometimes they think the best thing that they can do is just do their jobs. Dancing to a tune from Fiddler on the Roof there. So the king is enjoying a bit of a honeymoon in the polls, but what is the likelihood that such a privileged white old man can represent an increasingly diverse country like the UK? Well, Ari, there are clear limits, as you point out. I mean,

that said, I was talking to a guy named Sundar Katwala. He's the director of British Future. It's this think tank that looks at issues of race and identity. And he says he thinks Charles is making the right kind of steps. He's reaching out to people from different faith and ethnic backgrounds, just like what you saw there at that community center in London, and showing support for a more multicultural Britain. Here's Katawala. For the king to be a source of bridging or unity, he's actually got to be more proactive. I think by getting out and showing that the crown wants to be a source of cohesion in British society

when our politics are quite divisive and quite clashing and quite polarizing will be well received by quite a lot of people. Okay, so let's talk about those divisive, clashing, polarizing politics. It was only a few years ago that the British political brand was steady, predictable governance. How's that going? Pretty badly. I mean, as we've talked, Boris Johnson was forced from office. And the reason he was officially was really sort of lying to parliament about these parties that were banned by his government's own COVID rules. Now, one party he didn't attend it involved a suitcase full of wine. And this was the night

before Prince Philip's funeral. And the next day, there were all these pictures here and around the world of the Queen sitting alone, masked in a pew, waiting for the funeral to begin. And so there she was setting this example, following the rules. And this was devastating for Boris Johnson. Now, after he resigned, members of the Conservative Party chose Liz Truss as the next prime minister. She tried to solve what was basically a $67 billion budget gap by lowering taxes.

The markets rebelled, the pound tanked. And this is how Britain's ITV described the situation at the time. It has been a night of astonishing scenes at Westminster, with reports of jostling, manhandling, bullying and shouting outside the parliamentary lobbies in a supposed vote of confidence in the government. In short, it is total, absolute, abject chaos. Now, Ari, as probably a lot of people would remember, trust was actually forced out after just about six weeks. That's the shortest tenure of a prime minister in British history. And she famously did not outlast a wilting head of lettuce that was shown in a parody online video stream.

Now, enter Rishi Sunak. He's the new prime minister, former chancellor of the Exchequer, has a better finance background, and it's sort of a more realistic approach. He's talking about major tax increases and spending cuts. The conservative party, they're now still about 20 points behind the labor party, and there's an election probably going to be in 2024. The conservatives are still expected to lose that, and that would be after 14 years in power so how do you explain the revolving door that number 10 downing street became and what that tells us about the ruling conservative party in british politics well you know the real questions

here ari about how the party chooses its leader remember trust was elected by just 81,000 Conservative Party members, and this is in a country of 67 million people. Patrick Dunleavy is an emeritus professor of politics that I know at the London School of Economics, and he says, you know, rank-and-file party members in the Conservative Party, they tend to skew older, and they're not representative of the country, nor does he think they're particularly good judges of politics or economics. This is how he put it. You know, the whole incident of Liz Truss coming into power, appointing a not very well-known person as chancellor, pushing through a whole series of unfunded tax cuts and a budget without any economic forecasts, and then having to tear it all up within four weeks. That is a very good example of what happens when you don't have checks and balances in your constitutional system. And there's this other conflict between more conservative membership of the party and more pragmatic parliamentarians.

And this goes back to at least the Brexit vote. Here's Tom McTagg, who writes about British politics for The Atlantic. You had a referendum in 2016 that provided a surprise result that the government did not expect. Nobody in Parliament expected. Nobody in Parliament wanted. And so they were left holding this baby that they didn't know what to do with. It's really striking, Frank, how often talk of British politics returns to the impact of Brexit. It's been just about three years now. How is it going? Not well, Ari. You know, there was a recent survey.

More than three quarters of firms say the UK's post-Brexit deal with Europe isn't helping them in terms of increasing sales. There was another survey. 56% of people now say it was a mistake to leave the European Union, with only 32% still supporting Brexit. I was talking to Matthew Goodwin. He's a political science professor at the University of Kent. And here's what he says the country's in store for. Without any doubt, this sense of regret has become a more prominent feature of British political life. There will be a growing political pressure to turn this public opinion reality into something at the ballot box calling for a much closer relationship with the European Union. So, Frank, are there any silver linings to all of these clouds that you've been describing? is after leaving the EU, the United Kingdom was once again kind of looking for a place on the international stage. And it found one in the war in Ukraine, pouring in a lot of weapons into

Ukraine, training Ukrainian soldiers here in England, and really taking a really robust position on one of the major events of the year. So what are you looking ahead to in 2023? I'm pretty interested in the coronation of King Charles, which is going to come in May. This is going to be an opportunity to rally the country around a new monarch. It's not going to be an entirely love fest, though, because while most people here still support the monarchy, a vocal minority, they'd like to see an elected head of state. One of them is a guy named Graham Smith, who I've talked with off and on. He's head of a group called Republic, which wants to abolish the monarchy. And this is what he said recently. These three men, George, William,

and Charles, are the only three men who are going to be head of state for the rest of this century. And I think that the people are just going to look at that increasingly and go, what the hell are you talking about? It doesn't make any sense anymore. Of course, Smith is referring to the king, Prince William, and William's son, George, obviously all white males. And to be fair, as the British like to say, there was big progress in diversity this year. Rishi Sunak became prime minister in October. He's the first South Asian, the first person of color in number 10 Downing Street. Sunak wants to work with the royal family at the coronation, he says, to improve the United Kingdom's image, sort of buff up what's become a

pretty tarnished brand, Britain. As soon as spokesman talked about it last week, he said, it will be a moment for us to show the best of Britain. And he and the Royals hope put this year behind them. That was NPR's Frank Langford. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges. Groundbreaking investments in neuroscience, climate change, Alzheimer's research, and cybersecurity mean IU sets new standards to move the world forward,

unlocking cures and solutions that lead to a better future for all. More at iu.edu forward.