The first prime minister of Queen Elizabeth II was Winston Churchill. The last one was Liz Truss. Most would not consider this progress, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Successive outbursts by four Tory prime ministers – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Truss – have made the once most successful party in the Western world a laughing stock. In his view, the Labor Party has thankfully freed itself from the tyranny of Corbynism, but after 12 years of wandering in the wilderness, its ability to govern remains in doubt.

With no experience of governing and a disjointed Brexit, Labor is better placed to win the next general election than to provide coherent leadership in a time of crisis.

The decline of the Kingdom is easy to exaggerate. Even as the country stagnates economically and suffers political setbacks, outside the halls of parliament the Kingdom has pride.

Culturally, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to the hobbits of Middle Earth, Elizabethan Britain far exceeded its potential. British universities and research continue to be winners. Britain’s financial industry has recovered from the turmoil of the last world war to establish itself as a leading innovator in the most complex and integrated financial markets in history.

British writers and journalists are read all over the world. The British monarchy occupies a unique place in the world imagination. Fans everywhere root for British football teams, follow the lives of Downton Abbey characters and admire Harry Potter and James Bond. And perhaps the most amazing thing is that British chefs and their cooking shows are enjoying international success.

It is not Britain that is failing, but only its politicians and diplomats. Because, despite the dynamism of its entrepreneurs, bankers, artists and scientists, the Kingdom is steadily falling behind its economic competitors in Europe and Asia. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2021 the UK’s GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power fell behind Germany, France and Ireland, being slightly below the OECD average.

An economic downturn may not be what the British people want, but it is the natural and inevitable result of their preferred policies

This mismatch between external ambitions and domestic policy preferences has dogged the United Kingdom since the Labor government of Clement Attlee [1945-1951 – n.trad.] introduced major socialist changes in the British economy, trying to maintain its status as a world power.

The Thatcher years were an exception, not a turning point. The minority of British conservatives who have embraced Thatcher’s economic and social vision are not strong enough to control their own party, let alone impose their policies on a skeptical public.

Brexit has compounded the dilemma. Leaving the EU could only work if the Kingdom reverts to an even more radical version of Thatcher’s free trade policies, turning into what supporters call a “Singapore on the Thames” — an aggressive, soft-law economy free from EU rules and restrictions. But that is not what the majority of those who voted for Brexit wanted.

From the perspective of many Tory and Labor voters, a vote for Brexit was a vote against change. They wanted less immigration, less development and devastation in rural England, and less control over British life in the hands of nosy bureaucrats in Brussels and metropolitan elites in London. They were like hobbits voting to keep the Shire as it is, not radicals voting to change it completely.

Due to the collapse of the Truss cabinet, the hobbits decisively defeated the Thatcherites. Which will most likely mean a shift from the “hard Brexit” championed by Boris Johnson to a softer version in which the Kingdom harmonizes its laws more closely with those of the EU in exchange for greater access to the single market. This is not an auspicious path to economic or diplomatic revival, but – pending a long and bitter debate about a possible return to the EU – it is the path that British voters seem to have chosen.

This fundamental impasse in British life has been accompanied by a long-term decline in the quality of political leadership. A country that once produced a cavalcade of political stars now seems doomed to rummage through its pockets in search of easy mediocrity. Apart from Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, few post-war political leaders have inspired or impressed.

The most capable Britons today do not even want to hear about politics

Perhaps the problem is that the rewards of a political career in the Kingdom have diminished along with the role the country plays in the world, while the chances of success in business, culture and sport are as high as they were in the height of the Victorian era. . The Kingdom’s bankers, musicians, businessmen and soccer stars can become as rich and world-famous as their Victorian predecessors, while some drunken politicians fight for crumbs in the shadow of fallen grandeur.

60 years ago Dean Acheson [secretar de stat american – n.trad.] he noted that the Kingdom had lost its empire but had yet to find a role. This long search continues now as Rishi Sunak prepares to meet King Carl.

The material was made with the support of the Rador agency