Being Prime Minister of our divided nation is a poisoned chalice: Yorkshire Post Letters

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

The poisoned chalice – who would want to be PM of today’s UK? The challenges and problems are immense both here at home and abroad. Our country is split down the middle. Across the entire UK we disagree on Ukraine, The Middle East, China, America, Trump, tax, welfare, education, the police, the death penalty, immigration, gay marriage, LGBT+, trade, environmental regulation, the size of government, and the role of the courts, child poverty, climate change and much more.

We no longer have a sense of common purpose. We think that most politicians are ‘out of touch’ and we do not trust any of them. We fear, with good reasons, a ‘politically correct’ elite. The trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just another diversion.

We view Westminster as just a group of paunch-bellied gladiators, a type of sport, and we paint our faces red, blue, green, orange, pale blue or black and cheer our side and boo the other side, and if it takes a scandal or a cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it - as winning is all that matters.

We tend to think, hope, that so long as individual men and women are free to pursue their own interests, society as a whole will prosper. Our type of government and free market economy depends on the majority of British folk adhering to these values. Thankfully most are no longer bothered by race or religion.

We do all value good behaviour, honesty, fairness, humility, kindness, compassion, courtesy and a regard for one another. Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem!

Our long history proves that we can achieve better outcomes, and if we follow the maxim of Abraham Lincoln: that we will do collectively, through our government, only those things that we cannot do as well or at all individually and privately so good luck Andy Burnham - you are going to need bucket loads of it.