From healthcare to immigration, Britain isn’t working under the Tories

Before Margaret Thatcher’s election victory in 1979, the Tories produced a devastating poster, which read: “LABOUR ISN’T WORKING.” It went down in adland legend. It showed a long, snaking queue leading to a sign, which said: “UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE”. I am not sure what graphic we could use today, but the devastating truth is: Britain isn’t working.

Every day, the news is dominated by chaos – public or private – and a government seemingly utterly incapable of comprehending the situation, let alone doing anything about it. Before Easter, we saw chaotic scenes at our airports and the tens of miles of trucks stranded on the M20 in Kent trying to get across the Channel, garages running out of fuel and main rail lines shut down. But the rot goes much further and deeper. Right across government, and much of the private sector, the public is being fobbed off with shoddy, incompetent and uncaring service. It is damaging to individuals, families and communities and our image as a country – especially as we once had a reputation as a fairly well-run nation.

The Home Office is in the news over the Channel boats and the Ukrainian visas but these are only symptoms of a completely dysfunctional department. Priti ‘useless’ Patel expresses frustration about the situation and throws tantrums, but does nothing about it. Indeed when she had her famous spat with ousted Mandarin Philip Rutnam, my reaction was to echo Henry Kissinger about the Iran/Iraq war: “Why can’t they both lose?” The price, however, is being paid in human misery by thousands of our residents who are stuck in endless Kafkaesque queues and unable to get on with their lives.

Many of those that have arrived in the UK are prevented from working while employers bleat that they are unable to find workers. Some are trained medics and nurses, yet the constipated Home Department and Health and Social Care Department are incapable of getting their act together to assess their claims and use their skills. And after Covid restrictions lifted, many British citizens are still having their hopes of visiting family or having a holiday in the sun dashed as holidays are put on hold because the passport office can’t process their applications or even renewals. If they do manage to get a passport in time then the airports, airlines and passport control have created chaos at the airports.

Another area of skill shortage we are told is heavy-goods vehicle drivers, but the once excellent DVLA seems incapable of getting licences to truck drivers, let alone car drivers who need to be able to get to work. ‘Gobby’ Grant Shapps seems too busy forcing cycle lanes on local councils to sort out the crisis for drivers, quite apart from the eye-watering fare rises imposed for unreliable rail services.

Of course, underlying this is the deep-seated weakness of British management public and private, partly based on our appalling class system, which is why our car industry had to be rescued by German and Japanese engineers. However, it has rapidly deteriorated under a decade of incompetent Prime Ministers, each worse than their predecessor, and the situation has worsened from chronic to acute. Current ministers seem unwilling and even incapable to get a grip.

The public are crying out for someone to get a grip. But for Labour to be their champion, we must clarify our thinking. As I’ve said to colleagues, the cynical deal the Tories offer the public is that while they may be ‘heartless and uncaring’ – they are competent, heartless and uncaring. The public have had enough. And Labour must give a voice to their frustration and rage #BritainIsn’tWorking to highlight that, in fact, the Tories are incompetent, heartless and uncaring.