It has been a strange year. Labour’s less than convincing victory in share of vote terms is causing the government all sorts of problems as it unsteadily takes unpopular decisions upfront. Politically, populism remains on the rise with Reform rising in the polls in the UK, Trump winning in the US and the Far-Right marching ever closer to power in France.
Speaking to friends, most of whom I would call moderates, they voice frustration at excessive political correctness, ‘wokeism’ if you like, bureaucracy, mounting regulation, government incompetence generally and government economic illiteracy in particular. It feels like Brexit all over again when surprising people came out of the woodwork to vote Leave. It seems further populist gains will be made in the year ahead.
However, what are the grounds to believe next year will be better than this one?
Trump will not be the all-conquering president he and a large slice of the rest of America believe. Trump and Musk (what is it about this strange billionaire getting off on extreme libertarian politics) have already lost a key vote in Congress removing the debt ceiling, with dozens of Republicans rebelling. Good. It’s called fiscal discipline.
Four years will quickly pass, and Trump may be rendered impotent in the last two… Meanwhile, he is softening his stance on Ukraine, and it is no bad thing that he is forcing Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defence.
Second, the Labour government has to deliver and will probably just do enough to be reelected. We are a moderate country that will cap Reform. It is the lost Tories you should worry about…
Third, whilst France might head into the abyss, Germany is on course to elect a sensible centre-right government in February, and that is probably more important.
Fourth, and most crucially, there are growing calls for a reshuffle of Christmas trees in London. The Norwegian twig in Trafalgar Square covered in weak white lights is now deemed unacceptable. About time.
A painful contrast: Trafalgar Square v Rockefeller Centre
We don’t need a bullying Trump administration to tell us it is time for a Rockefeller Christmas tree or even a transfer of a few pretty Covent Garden trees to our principal Square.
Momentum is growing, and this will happen. That alone will cheer us up at the end of 2025, whatever happens in the meantime…
Merry Christmas!
Inside Right Politics 