With a regularity approaching that of Swiss train timetable, the UK has once again changed Prime Ministers, making the latest incumbent the seventh in the post in just 10 years.
For those readers based outside of the UK you might be wondering: “What on earth is going on over there?” Well, unfortunately, we don’t really know either. Once a democracy reaches the stage where a leader’s time in office can be reasonably measured against the shelf-life of salad ingredients, government turmoil can begin to feel like little more than background noise.
Anyway, this week’s holder of the highest office in the land is Andy Burnham, former Mayor of Greater Manchester and a Member of Parliament (MP) before that, who was recently catapulted into the top seat of a nuclear power, permanent UN Security Council Member, and the world’s fifth largest economy after getting the support of roughly 0.05% of the electorate. No, that’s not a typo.
Now, I know what you’re thinking; this all sounds terribly like sour grapes on my behalf; that I’ve exaggerated things; that what I’ve outlined above sounds rather more like North Korea than Northern Europe and can’t be true. Now, admittedly, the full story is a tad more complicated: Burnham recently won a local by-election for the constituency of Makerfield with 54.8% of the vote (24 927 votes as compared to the full UK electorate of ~48 million) after the previous MP for the region resigned specifically to allow Burnham to stand in his place, thus giving him the chance to become an MP and contest the leadership of the ruling Labour party. After it became clear to Keir Starmer (last week’s PM) that he had no support from his own party, he resigned. Ultimately, as nobody else from within the Labour party launched a leadership bid, Andy Burnham walked into the job unopposed.
And that, dear readers, is the state of the UK political system today: working as designed, if not as intended. We need not get into the fact that another controversial (to put it very mildly) political figure is currently fighting an election campaign against a man dressed as a bin. Not only would you not believe me, but I haven’t allocated any money for libel suits in this month’s costs. The trouble with all these political manoeuvrings is that each change of leader brings a new round of uncertainty, which raises concerns for industries (like cement) that have long-term investments and major commitments dependent on ongoing government support. And as we’ve seen in recent years, a change in PM (even if the ruling party stays the same) can lead to a significant change in the direction of government and very real consequences for all concerned. For further reading on this point, I suggest you check out the Wikipedia page entitled ‘Premiership of Liz Truss’ – it won’t take you too long.
It’s far too early to judge our current Prime Minister, but in his first speech on the job, Andy Burnham promised to re-industrialise Britain “using public procurement to back British industry.” That certainly sounds promising for the UK’s cement industry as it struggles to raise production levels over those of the 1950s, pressured by painfully high energy prices, and undercut by cheap foreign imports. Time will tell.
