The revolving door at Number 10

Britain isn't ungovernable — each PM since Cameron *had* to go

For a certain brand of very online politico [editor: is there any other kind?], the first day back at the office can prove quite disconcerting. Not the unread emails or the unpleasant realisation that the world is perfectly capable of turning without you. But the discourse gap.

You log in (having first contacted IT support because you forgot your password management insists you change every three months, after that time Giles from commercial clicked on a phishing link), fire up what was then Twitter and find yourself faced with the task of reconstructing context from an endless stream of meta jokes, memes and shorthand in which everyone except you seems to be a native speaker.

In not spending quite so much time camped out on text-based social media sites these days, I’m better insulated from the emotional residue of strangers’ opinions, and less inclined to unconsciously draft and re-phrase experiences as potential posts. The downside, of course, is that I can be less certain of which is the herd view and which the contrarian one.

In this instance, is it a good thing that Britain no longer seems able to hold on to a prime minister for more than a couple of years?

Low on confidence, high on supply

When the funeral service was held for Margaret Thatcher on 17 April 2013, there were just three former prime ministers in attendance: John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Should any of them tomorrow fall under one of Andy Burnham’s fully franchised, locally controlled busses in Greater Manchester — the list of former PMs would barely fit into the nave of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Put another way, sources close to Wes Streeting say the health secretary is considering turning down a tilt at the leadership in favour of a shot at the Watford FC manager’s job¹, citing job security concerns.

Clearly, this level of turnover is bad. All other things being equal, one would like the leader of a nation to actually have time to govern. But if the Covid-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is to be alive to lagging indicators. Before we come to that, the boring but obvious point: each prime minister of our current turbulent era had to go:

David Cameron could not negotiate an exit from the European Union, having vigorously campaigned for remain. Theresa May had demonstrated to the point of destruction that she could not get her Brexit deal through parliament. Boris Johnson could not form a government following dozens of resignations due to his penchant for untruths. Liz Truss sparked a gilts crisis while Keir Starmer seems oddly uninterested in governing.

Of these, only Rishi Sunak actually lost a general election. How retro, practically Heathite.

Say “ahhh”

This rapid turnover is not the disease. Prime ministers must command a majority in the House of Commons and if they don’t, then better out than in. The problem — and I’m not exactly pulling up any commentariat trees here — runs deeper.