UK politics cognitive disonance
2023-08-26 18:53:00 +0700 by Mark Smith
I was listening to the US politics discussion on the latest All-in Podcast earlier, it's very good you should give it a listen, and I was struck with how much more grandiose US politics is than UK politics. It makes sense because they are the world super power so everything they do is in that context.
The slightly odd thing about UK politics is that because we used to be the world super power, all the places where politics happen still have the grandiose vibe, yet the politics isn't in comparison. It's sort of commical in a way. All these politicians acting out their careers on this incredible stage, yet the plays they perform are children's plays. I wonder how that affects their ability to govern. Are they out of touch with the people?
And yet perhaps it is still important to be on a big stage. When we were participating in the European Parliament, would we have been able to have a big impact had the politicians not been trained on the world class british political stage? At the EU level, politics is a much bigger game so to speak. I'm not sure how to square the circle, or indeed what I'm trying to say. I worry british politics is the wrong shape, bigger on the inside than on the outside.