So it's going to be July 4th.
The Sunak led (sic) government has decided it is the right time to hold a General Election.
The previous four and half years has been a mixture of dysfunction and incompetence. A governing party has treated the country with a fair measure of disrespect, playing out their internal fights in open sight and not seeming to care much. This political instability has cost the country effective decision making and has lowered standards in public life this seems to rubbed off in people's everyday behaviour.
When Sunak appointed Braverman as Home Secretary he knew she had breached the ministerial code just weeks before, this grubby political deal would backfire on Sunak and it did, but this a clear demonstration of his words and actions so clearly at odds, with the "integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level", nowhere to be seen.
The fact that the then Prime minister and the chancellor both were served fix penalty notices for breaches in COVID restriction law, for fragrantly flouting restrictions that were put in place to protect people, cocking a snoop at everyone else, they clearly decided they were above the law.
This parliament has also seen a number of MP's resigning for issues around standards of behaviour which clearly breach the code of conduct and common decency, these resignations have led to by-elections with voters turning their backs on the Conservatives, electing other parties candidates.
This government has been found to be law breakers, with successful court cases against them on environmental issues, with holding COVID messages or losing cases in the Supreme Court including parts of their immigration plans, as they seem to believe they are above the law.
The governments inability to be honest, there is a difference between not telling the whole truth and dishonesty, has undermined public trust.
Lets take police numbers, when the Labour Party left office in 2010 they were ( according to statista.com) around 172,000 people officers, Labour spent £18.6 billion on policing, under the Conservative Lib Dem coalition police numbers fell to 154,000 police officers, spending £15.6 billion on policing, since then the number of police officers have risen back to the 2010 levels, currently we spend £17.6 billion, so for the government to boast of a huge increase in police numbers, not true if we go back to "Square one", no plan there! During this period the confidence in policing has fallen with only 69% of people now saying they have confidence in our police.
Since 2019, all regions of country are less well off, with real terms cuts in living standards with a squeeze on wages and the very real hike in the cost of living,child poverty on the increase, generally we have very low productivity, we are not earning enough and this has led to low economic growth.
With this mood of economic depression and political chaos, people are showing the strain of everyday life, the stresses of life are manifested in actions such as being abused whilst driving, being shoved in the supermarket or lack of respect bred from the belief of rampant individualism, it is hard to understand whether it is our society that shapes politicans or vice a versa.
Many things in government are not just about policy, it is about setting the moral compass for the nation, during the last four years we have seen a sharp decline standards.
This would be the first change, legally binding codes of conduct for government ministers and MP's, if dishonesty was proven by an independent panel, then this should lead to removal from office, police investigation and prosecution.
This to set a clear message that selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership are the standards we expect from politicians and public servants.
