Consider This from NPR - Seven Years Of U.K. Drama

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

The past seven years in the United Kingdom have been intense. The country struggled through Brexit, royal scandals and the pandemic - and then Queen Elizabeth II died.NPR's global democracy correspondent Frank Langfitt covered the U.K. through all of this and more. As he wraps up his time in London, Frank reflects on all the history and drama he's covered in the last seven years. 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

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. The United Kingdom used to be a relatively steady, predictable country. At least that was the image many of us had of the UK. Then, in 2016, things began to change with Brexit. The British people have voted to leave the European Union, and their will must be respected. That's then Prime Minister David Cameron announcing the results of the Brexit referendum.

Voting for Brexit was the easy part. Getting legislators to actually agree on how to leave the EU proved extremely difficult, with lawmakers defeating the government in vote after vote in Parliament. The ayes to the right, 202. The noes to the left, 432. So the nose have it, the nose have it. Unlock! A couple of transitions later, and Boris Johnson became prime minister, and then came the COVID pandemic, which initially Johnson didn't take too seriously. Tonight, Prime Minister Boris Johnson now in intensive care,

less than 24 hours after being hospitalised in his battle with coronavirus. And if British political institutions were in disarray during those years, so was another major British institution, the Royal Family. Buckingham Palace has confirmed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be returning as working members of the Royal Family. Then, last September... A few moments ago, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Consider this. The past seven years have been the most tumultuous in the United Kingdom

since the end of World War II. And Frank Lankford, our correspondent in London, was there to cover it all. Coming up, as he wraps up his time in the UK, Frank joins us to try and make some Coming up, as he wraps up his time in the UK, Frank joins us to try and make some sense of the history he's witnessed there. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Thursday, April 20th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies.

Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Five prime ministers and two monarchs. That's one way to sum up Frank Langford's seven years as NPR's correspondent in the United Kingdom. As we mentioned, those years also happen to have been the most tumultuous in the UK since World War II. So before Frank moves on to his next assignment, I sat down with him for a quick debrief of his time in London. So I want to start with this. You arrive in London in June 2016,

a week before the Brexit vote. I blame you. You're not the only one. In other assignments I've had, big things have happened not long after I've arrived. It's a good streak. But let's rewind to that moment before all of this change. What do you recall Britain being like at that moment just before Brexit? I mean, it was a pretty normal place. It was considered a quiet, relatively quiet news posting. I was coming out of China and was worried there might not be that much to report about. Britain was still a part of the European Union, the massive single economic market of half a billion consumers.

And the UK, you've got to remember, Scott, this seems like a long time ago, it was synonymous with dull but dependable methodical governance. So you're just settling in. The British voters surprised the world. They decide to leave the UK. What was that like? It was really wild.

I mean, I awoke to the news in the morning and then ended up working 30 days straight traveling all over the country. And you got to remember the Brexit campaign. It was led by Boris Johnson. They had no plan for actually how to leave the European Union. So the result was political chaos. And this is the moment you lost your first prime minister, David Cameron, immediately resigns. Theresa May takes over. And is it fair to say that her main legacy is trying and failing over and over and over again to come up

with a plan and get it through parliament to actually implement Brexit? I think that's fair. I mean, her tenure was a disaster in many ways. At one point, she had a Brexit bill that lost by a modern parliamentary record 230 votes. Ultimately, she was forced to resign. And at that point, the British political system, which had been well-respected for so long, was a bit of a laughingstock. And then along comes Boris Johnson. Yeah. And he wins a landslide election in 2019. He finally passes Brexit. It's been about three years since that went into effect. What's the impact been?

Well, I think it clearly has damaged the British economy. Nearly all economists predicted this is what was going to happen. And the government's own fiscal watchdog expects the British economy will become 4% smaller than it would have been otherwise. And this comes, of course, at a difficult time because Britain's still struggling with the COVID hangover and high inflation triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So going back to the initial vote, British people voted for Brexit 52% to 48%. How do people feel about that decision now? And what do you think years later the big lessons are? Yeah, I think they're clear signs of regret. Scott, the recent polls show 58% would vote to rejoin the EU if they could. And part of that is some

older Brexit voters passing away. But the other thing is the sense that there really has been an economic cost. And in terms of lessons, I think never take something so complicated as this, which is, you know, untangling a decades-long economic and legal relationship. Take it to voters because I think to some degree you're maybe asking too much of them. The second lesson is don't lie to them, which is what Boris Johnson did. You remember before the referendum, he was driving around in this red double-decker bus with a banner that said Brexit would bring back more than $400 million to the National Health Service. That wasn't true at all. And by the way, the National Health Service, the NHS is a wreck now, and part of the problem is indeed underfunding. And these days, I'd say, certainly in Europe and in certainly parts of the UK, Brexit's seen as this big self-inflicted wound.

And yet, despite taking the hits for lying, Johnson goes on to become the dominant political actor in the UK for much of that post-Brexit period. He wins this big landslide election. How did he do it? Johnson is a very complicated character, far beyond the performance that he puts on. And many people think it's absolutely a performance. He was very, very good at political messaging. He is funny and disarming. I've seen him in the, you know, on the stump, and he's very good. He has this gift of making people feel good about Britain. And here he is after the Conservative Party elected him leader. This was back in 2019.

We are going to energize the country. We're going to get Brexit done on October 31st. We're going to take advantage of all the opportunities that it will bring in a new spirit of can-do. And we are once again going to believe in ourselves and what we can achieve. And like some slumbering giant, we are going to rise and ping off the guy ropes of self-doubt and negativity. I don't know if can-do spirit really summed up everything that happened since then, huh? No. I mean, you know, what happened, of course, is we ended up with political chaos. And Johnson, to some degree, kind of ignored the downsides to a great extent. Part of his brilliance was his ability to make people World War II, the British Empire. Britain, when it was much more powerful and wealthy, makes some people of that generation

feel pretty good about it. Older conservative voters in his party, they love that stuff. And speaking of the British nostalgia machine, I think, honestly, we could have spent this entire segment talking about all of the changes to the royal family during your tenure. And just to tick off some of them, Prince Andrew had to settle a civil suit after he was accused of sex with an underage girl. Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, they moved to the U.S. They publicly attacked the royal family on charges of racism using Britain's tabloid press against them. And of course, last fall, Queen Elizabeth, this iconic figure, this symbol of stability, died. How is the monarchy holding up? You know, I got to say, pretty well. King Charles, he's avoided making any big mistakes, and his approval ratings have been going up. Meanwhile, Meghan and Harry's attacks have really backfired here. They're widely seen, honestly, as whiners. I think they've actually released two new books since we've started talking. But I mean, what all does this tell us about the monarchy? Because as you reported,

there was such skepticism about Prince Charles becoming King Charles. And yet, it seems from here, at least, like the public's accepting him. I think it's a fairly resilient institution. This has been, as you just described it, some of the worst years, certainly since the death of Princess Diana back in 1997. And it endures in part by, I think, weathering criticism quietly. And then, you know, in the case of King Charles, not making further mistakes to make things worse. And let's get back to the actual system of governing. How is that looking these days as you're looking to depart London? Is it getting better?

I think it is. I think it might be settling down a bit. You know, one reason is Boris Johnson's party, you know, the lawmakers there basically forced him out for lying over COVID lockdowns. Then you had Liz Truss as prime minister. She put in a budget that tanked markets. And again, the lawmakers pushed her out very quickly. I was talking to Brian Kloss. He's an American political scientist who teaches at University College London. And this is what he said. Conservative voters did not approve of her. And when she failed, they turned on her. And she lasted for 49 days precisely because British democracy is still resilient. And I think that, you know, Scott, that kind of captures the narrative arc here over the past

seven years in the United Kingdom, you know, began with complete chaos. And you have this sense now that the system, whether it's the royals, whether it's the British parliamentary system, is able to self-correct. And we now have a Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, former Treasury Secretary, a technocrat, and he's so different than Boris Johnson. He seems to some degree a return to, you know, frankly, a dollar, but also a more dependable politics. And I mean that in the best possible way. That's Frank Langfitt, who's about to Brexit from NPR's London Bureau and begin a new assignment back in the U.S. Thank you, Frank. Hey, great to talk, Scott.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org

Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org.