FWithout social shock absorbers, economic shocks are often felt more violently by the population in the United Kingdom than elsewhere on the European continent. The economic and social storm rising across the Channel confirms this observation. With an annual inflation rate above 10% and an expected peak of 13% as early as October, the British are enduring the worst price increases of the G7 countries. The cost of foodstuffs is soaring while that of energy, for lack of a tariff shield, will have almost tripled in one year.
Combined with sluggish growth, this staggering rise in prices is producing the worst economic situation since the 1970s. If we add the damage of Brexit and Covid-19, the United Kingdom threatens to regress in an emerging market », Analyzes the Danish bank Saxo. Coming out of their reserve, the leaders of the National Health Service (NHS) warn, for their part, of the risk of“a humanitarian crisis linked to the impoverishment of the population.
Blow on the embers of discontent
In this context, the proliferation of strikes aimed at obtaining wage increases is not surprising. After the railway and London Underground workers, the 1,900 members of the Unite union employed in the port of Felixstowe (east of England), which handles 40% of British container trade, began a strike on Sunday August 21 eight days to claim “a decent salary increase” not the 7% proposed by management. In addition to these movements, there are civil society movements, such as “Don’t Pay UK”, which threatens a strike to pay energy bills.
The political situation only reinforces the impression of a freewheeling country. Less than two months after being ousted as leader of the Conservative Party, the long-vibrant prime minister Boris Johnson is just getting on with the day-to-day business. The burden of appointing his successor, whose name will be known on September 5, falls oddly to the 200,000 members of the Tories, who, rather old, wealthy and very conservative, do not represent the population at all. The two candidates vying for votes – poll favorite Liz Truss and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak – compete with promises of tax cuts and reverence for icon Margaret Thatcher of the ultraliberalism of the 1980s.
By promising clear cuts in social budgets, by striking, like Mme Truss, which the British should “work more”without proposing a solution to the weaknesses of the British economy – deficient training and infrastructure for lack of sufficient public investment – they only blow on the embers of a discontent to which the Labor opposition struggles to offer a credible political outlet.
The pre-eminence given to ideology over pragmatism – a supposedly British virtue – which has already led to the Brexit disaster, risks prolonging or even worsening the already degraded situation left by Mr Johnson, whose lies have amplified the divorce between opinion and politics. The economic crisis and instability could increase the temptation to use anti-European and nationalist rhetoric. At a time when threats are accumulating all over Europe, highlighting the need to strengthen solidarity, the crisis in the United Kingdom sounds like a warning to all its neighbours.
