The dominant message from Britain¡¯s recent local government elections is that the extreme right Reform U.K. party has swept the country, gaining hundreds of council seats, while the major parliamentary parties, Labour and Conservative, are left devastated. The extreme left Green Party achieved more modest gains, but still their best result by a distance. The moderate left Liberal Democrats held their ground, though failed to make significant advances.
The country faces a bleak political prospect. We continue to be governed by a Labour prime minister who seems incapable of leading the country toward a credible economic and social future. We are becalmed, getting no place, with government borrowing costs hitting multidecade highs recently. Yet any of Keir Starmer¡¯s plausible successors seems likely to be worse.
It is striking to contrast the performance of King Charles III on his visit to America and that of Starmer. Before Charles acceded in 2022, there were widespread doubts about his ability to fill the throne because of his history of eccentricity and self-absorption.
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