We’re not asking for too much. Really, we’re not. In fact, we’re not really asking: this is more of a demand, but it’s a very reasonable one. Kindly pay attention.
The UK is a highly-developed country and the world’s fifth largest economy. We have access to tremendous resources, an awful lot of talented people, incredible science and technology, and decent infrastructure. On paper, life in the UK should be good for the vast majority of people, and we should be doing good in the rest of the world. Sadly though, this isn’t the case.
Things are getting harder year-on-year. Homes are increasingly unaffordable, and wages are have been falling in real terms for decades. Public services are at breaking point, the cost of living is sky rocketing, and the climate crisis is starting to impact all our lives. Yes, the pandemic has had an impact, but things had been getting increasingly worse for a long time before March 2020, and as we start to recover from COVID-19, there’s no sign of any of that changing.
This makes no sense. The majority of people in the UK are fair-minded, hard-working people with reasonable expectations. We don’t expect to be billionaires or even millionaires, we don’t expect to live in the lap of luxury, and we’re comfortable with the fact that we’ll never be a household name or own a super-yacht. We just want to be able to live a full life, come somewhere close to reaching our potential, and make our own modest contribution.
It’s clear that the system we have in place – essentially the same one that’s been in place for most of our lifetimes – isn’t working for most of us. It’s working great for the very wealthy, who continue to get richer even through crises like the pandemic, but most of us are seeing our lives getting harder, and the prospects for the next generation getting worse.
Clearly something has to change: the system we have now is broken. We don’t really care what system replaces it or what changes are made. We don’t care about your ideology, your party political machinations, or your personal ambitions. Instead, we simply want you to focus on building a system that will provide us with the following:
- Secure, fairly-paid, meaningful work.
- A suitable, safe, affordable home with essential utilities and services.
- Effective health and social care when we need it.
- Security, both when we’re young and in old age.
- Fair access to the education we need to reach our potential.
- Freedom to express ourselves and live according to our values, while respecting the views and values of others.
- Time and opportunities to enjoy ourselves, spend time with friends and family, and pursue our interests.
- A clean, healthy natural environment.
Critically, we want these things for everyone, and we want to know that our way of life is sustainable.
It’s not enough for these things to be available to the lucky few, or even slim majority. We don’t want to feel like we’re competing with our neighbours to have a decent life. Those of us who can afford to live in catchments for good schools don’t like the fact that there are kids who won’t have the same chances as ours, and it appals us all to see families having to resort to food banks and elderly people freezing and starving to death.
It’s not enough to have these things for a while. We need to know that our way of life is sustainable during our lifetimes and the lives of future generations. We need to know that our way of life isn’t hurting our environment or other people in other parts of the world. We need to see the UK leading by example, and helping countries that are less well off on their own journey to stability and prosperity.
We understand that this kind of change doesn’t happen overnight. We understand that it’ll require hard work and sacrifice, and we’re willing do play our part in that. Those of us who are better off understand that we need to shoulder our fair share of the burden, and those of us who run businesses understand that business is about more than just turning a profit.
We understand that not everyone will agree with us. We know there are people who are very happy with things as they are, or who don’t believe it’s possible for us to do better. However, we believe that our views are those of the majority, and as such, these are the demands we place on you. It’s not too much.