𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A new report backed by Jacob Rees-Mogg has set out in stark terms how young Britons are beginning to abandon faith in democracy. The paper by the Centre for a Better Britain, entitled ‘Do we live in a democracy?’ Warns that the steady transfer of powers away from elected politicians to unelected bureaucrats is destroying voters’ belief in the establishment.

It warns that the UK is showing “the early signs of a political legitimacy crisis”, with the author warning that the warning light on the dashboard of the British state is ‘flashing amber’. The think tank, with links across the right of British politics including Reform UK, says that the British state has become “unresponsive both to the needs of the British people, and the demands of a changing international economic and political environment”, leading to a “profound crisis of state legitimacy”. It points to political issues like the migration crisis, the energy crisis and the NHS as examples of key policy areas voters demand action on but see ministers unable to tackle.

According to various polls, younger voters in Britain are increasingly becoming less opposed to dictatorships.

In July, one survey found that 38% of 18 to 34-year-olds had a fairly positive view of a “military strongman with no government or elections”.

While in January Channel 4 found that 52% of 13 to 27-year-olds believed the UK would “be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with Parliament or elections”.

The paper criticises a number of the Blair-era reforms to parliament, the separation of powers and the courts, which were continued at pace by subsequent Tory PMs.

Ahead of further papers set to be published next year, the CfaBB report suggests Britain’s constitution needs to be rebooted to ‘factory settings’, allowing elected governments with a mandate from voters to actually get on and enact their policies.

This would include the repeal of ‘legal cobwebs’ that tie down ministers, and restoring ministers to full control of their departments by addressing the never-ending growth of ‘quangos’.

Writing a foreword for the paper, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg warned that changes in recent decades “took power away from the Crown in Parliament and dispersed it to other less democratic bodies, some foreign”.

He added: “It was deemed wrong… for mere politicians to be trusted with monetary or climate policy. Heaven forfend they might do things that voters like.

“Hence an elite cadre of bureaucrats grew up who preferred international symposia to the rigours of a town hall meeting aided by supposed experts who could read the auguries as if they were an ancient Roman looking at our bull’s liver.

“Unfortunately, this destroyed accountability and thereby legitimacy.”

Speaking in Parliament yesterday Sir Keir Starmer appeared to finally accept criticisms figures in the previous Tory government had been making about the inability to get things done in government.

Addressing the Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister voiced frustration at the speed of getting change enacted.

He told senior MPs: “My experience as Prime Minister is of frustration that every time I go to pull a lever, there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations and arm’s length bodies that mean the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be.

“Which is among the reasons I want to cut down on regulation generally and within government.”