We get the politicians we deserve

Thomas Jefferson, George Bernard Shaw and Joseph De Maistre all make the same point.

(Paraphrased and blended)

"We get the government we deserve."

The last few years have proven their point. Indeed, in the UK, their point has been rammed home by the Truss administration’s disastrous demonstration of ideological incompetence.

The United Kingdom has been forced to confront the reality of the great Brexit lie, "taking back control." In today’s world,?control?is qualified. It is not the easy absolute control extolled by populist politicians.

You know all this, but here’s the ugly truth. We’re all to blame.

When we elect politicians that promote easy solutions to ever increasing complex and wicked problems, we should be sceptical. When we accept those plans, that are so simplistic they don't bear the slightest scrutiny, it is our fault.

Let's take some of them in turn:

I’ll start with a personal story, I was at a business lunch in London when the then Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was asked several simple questions about aviation post Brexit. Now, I've always been a remainer, but I wanted to give him an open minded hearing. However, as I listened to his complete ignorance of his brief, I was struck with horror. It became clear, there was?no plan for what came next.?

There was nothing, a utter void of consideration or contemplation. There was a complete absence of thought for how Brexit would affect a strategically vital industry for UK Plc. How it would be promoted, regulated, controlled and staffed. Anyone who has travelled through a U.K. airport in the last two years can bear witness to the consequences.

All of the leave campaign’s intellectual resources had been poured into winning. With precisely zero placed into planning post Brexit reality.

This scenario has been repeated time and time again in the UK. Promised trade deals, unfunded tax cuts in the face of a huge current account deficit, it goes on and on. And it will continue.

Populist fantasies are not just a British disease. In the US, MAGA (make America great again) is just as full of deception and possibly even more dangerous in its demonisation of "the other."

Trump’s wall, paid for by Mexico, is the most concrete example of the failure of things that are easy to say, and impossible to build. Despite this, American’s voted for it in their millions.

Not only that, contary to all the evidence, a substantial segment of American voters also believe that the election was stolen, rather than the simple reality, Trump lost.

Other countries are dancing with the populist versus reality tune. France comes close to electing Le Pen. Italy is saved by a technocratic leader only to blow it all again on the promises of populist demagoguery.

Every time we allow ourselves to be seduced by the lazy mindset of simplistic populism, is another step closer to making our problems worse.

Climate change, global inequality, and war, none of these will be fixed when we vote for populists.

We need only look at Covid-19, one of the gravest crises that has faced the human race in living memory, was fixed by science and in many cases only made worse by populists and their conspiracy theories.

And now in Russia, the most powerful individual populist is blackmailing the very existence of the world with his personal control of nuclear weapons.

If we want the world to survive and prosper, we need to grow up. We should expect our leaders to acknowledge reality and the truth, no matter how hard it is and plan for it. We in turn, need to hold them accountable for it. We have our part to play in accepting the truth.

In a recent interview in the FT, Michael Gove said that his comment that the people of this country have had enough of experts would probably be written on his gravestone.

Quite rightly too. Those same experts that he'd so easily dismissed, allowed him to "follow the science" whilst they saved countless lives a couple of years later. It was one of the most moronic and yet ironically insightful quotes of the age.

These last few weeks, the UK has suffered another Suez moment. This time it wasn't a military humiliation, it was James Carville’s famous bond markets. Populist politicians were finally confronted by economic reality. Taking back control means planning and policymaking in the world as it is, not the world as you want it to be.

We all have a responsibility to elect leaders who acknowledge that truth.

Next time you read a story of the incompetence of our leaders, remember that if we vote for them, we deserve them.