THE media loves giving us bad news - because we seem to like that much better than we like good news - we get what we ask for.
2017 must have been something of a disappointment to those who long for disaster of some form or another because it was actually not a bad year.
Mrs May’s miscalculation that calling an early election would bring a thumping Tory majority isn’t a disaster - it is quite the reverse. The country is uneasy and divided - especially on our place in Europe - and now has a House of Commons which reflects that. Southern Tory arrogance cannot do what it likes but must build delicate coalitions which actually better represent where Britain is. The prospects of a more balanced Brexit are greater rather than smaller as a result.
In Scotland a complacent SNP Government got a bloody nose, the Conservatives are back as an ably led party you can actually vote for and Labour, at last, is off its knees and fighting back.
As 2017 ended the SNP’s political mastery of Scotland had begun to look like a temporary thing and, surprisingly, Mrs May was on a bit of an up. There will be endless difficulties over Brexit in 2018 - this time next year things will look at their worst - but the chances of a sensible arrangement being in place by March 2019 are actually better than they were.
For business also the world did not fall off a cliff. Profits, employment and the stock market were all up . Of course Brexit is an issue but not the biggest issue business has ever faced - it will manage.
There are, however, deep and interlinked problems which are both political and economic in nature and which - if they go much further the wrong way - could do lasting damage.
The unhelpful cocktail is mediocre economic growth and very poor productivity growth, leading to real wages which have been stagnant for a decade and likely to remain so for a considerable time to come . Intergenerational unfairness abounds - the baby boomers have nicked all the pies. Many people have given up on the one thing we all need - hope - a feeling that things will get better for us and our families. Without that , battles over the economic cake increase, people start to imagine that political change such as Brexit or Scottish independence will provide some relief when the reality is that one is, and the other would be, destroyers of prosperity.
What is to be done? I would suggest three things.
First, we need to address intergenerational unfairness. I should be paying more tax and my children and grandchildren should be paying less. Some politician has to have the courage to say this and act upon it.
Second, politicians should resist vainglorious frolicks. No more referendums, no more wrenching political change which creates a climate of uncertainty for business which in turn dampens investment and the rising wages and wealth which that brings.
Third, as well as delivering stability, politicians must concentrate on supporting economic growth. Social justice should play second fiddle to faster economic growth - because the latter is a proven creator of the former - but it doesn’t work the other way around despite politicians desperately hoping it does. Each regulation, each law, each well intentioned policy, should be tested against the criterion of whether it will help or hinder growth. We need to get out of the doldrums or trouble will follow.
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