For those of us who wish to see Britain leave the EU it is fair to say that watching the negotiations has been painful. Less than a year from when UK should be leaving most of the big issues remain unresolved, largely because of a lack of political courage to deal with them: Theresa May, the Prime Minister, is trying to please everyone by not committing to any of the difficult decisions that must eventually be made. Delivering Brexit will inevitably disappoint those who wish to remain, and conversely, to please Remainers she must betray those who voted to leave. Both are large constituencies, in her own Conservative party and as well as among voters, so, afraid of offending either group, she is kicking the tricky issues into the long grass.
But Mrs. May is of course not the first Prime Minister to be afraid of making big decisions. In fact, her indecisiveness is par for the course for politicians: there are countless of examples of similar wobbling and refusal to face up to decisions which can prove divisive.
Take the endemic housing crisis in the UK: way too few (and too small) homes are being built; according to the government’s own figures there is a need to build up to 300,000 new homes every year to keep up with demand. The reason for the lack of supply is, of course, government imposed restrictions that have suppressed building – but when the Tories devised a new plan to address the issue last year it was laughably unambitious and showed zero willingness to deal with the elephant in the room: the UK’s planning laws, and in particular, the “green belt” around major cities on which no-one can build.
Then there is the disastrous lack of capacity in the airports serving the capital. London is losing out to competitor cities in Europe due to the inability to schedule new flights to Heathrow and Gatwick. Over two decades, succeeding governments have refused to deal with the issue and approve any plans for expansion or a new airport, so committee after committee have been established; they have made recommendations (broadly to allow Heathrow to build a third runway); and they have then systematically been ignored by governments petrified of making a decision which is bound to prove unpopular. This summer there is another attempt at ending the farce, but no-one will be the slightest surprised by another delay.
But perhaps the best example of politicians’ inherent inability to deal with problems with unpopular solutions is the so-called austerity, which the governments of David Cameron and Theresa May have presided over under the banner of being fiscally responsible. The extend of the spending cuts amount to a ridiculous 0.5% per year, and in eight years of government they have failed to run a budget surplus. Their profligacy has brought debt to £1.8 trillion and government spending to an all-time high of more than 92 billion in the first quarter of 2018. The cuts that have been made are symbolic, sporadic and insufficient to make any dent in the colossal government budgets. It is farcical.
The fact is that politicians are desperately scared of making difficult decisions. It is straightforward enough for them to make decisions which play to politically correct issues, have significant public backing or are unlikely to create major resistance – in fact, they make way too many laws, dealing with everything from our online behavior to micro managing the price of candy bars and sugary drinks. But when it is big, difficult and may have parliamentary consequences, they are petrified. And big decisions must be made all the time. The only solution is to take politicians out of being in charge of making them in the first place.