Why Britain Is Feeling Bleak

The pound is weak, jobs are scarce, and the economy may slip back into recession. But few Britons believe the next government will fix what ails their country

By Catherine Mayer/London Monday, Mar. 29, 2010
    • Peter Dench for TIME

    Barking, not biting Liberal Democrat Dominic Carman chases elusive votes being wooed by the hard-right British National Party

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    Someone to Blame
    Expecting little from the main parties that failed to arrest Dagenham's decay, some locals are turning to the British National Party (BNP), a hard-right party that proposes to repatriate residents of foreign descent and stop all immigration. Charisse, a young, unemployed mother who declined to give her last name, says people will vote for the BNP "not because they like them but because we're so pissed off." Her own grouse: she has three children, and thus her one-bedroom public-housing apartment is too small. Her companion, who has turned his back, growling that he doesn't wish to discuss politics, suddenly interrupts. "She's been trying to get a decent place for 12 years, but they're giving the houses to them," he says, jabbing his finger in the direction of a black passerby.

    Barking and Dagenham — the two neighborhoods elect separate members of Parliament but make up a single London borough council — have witnessed rapid demographic change since the last national census, in 2001. At the time, 80% of locals identified themselves as "white — British." There's been a big influx of nonwhite families since then, with many blacks and Asians — British-born as well as new immigrants — looking for cheap housing. "There's a sense of competition for finite resources," says Jon Cruddas, Dagenham's MP and a Labour Party member. "These are generic forces, but they collide in an intense form here."

    The racial tensions suit the politics of the BNP, which controls 12 of 51 local council seats, making it the second largest party after Labour. There are concerns it will grow even stronger after the May 6 council elections. And national BNP leader Nick Griffin is campaigning to unseat Barking's veteran Labour MP, Margaret Hodge. Griffin, once convicted of inciting racial hatred, has pledged to represent "the interests of our people instead of all sorts of others and all sorts of greedy banks who ponce on [freeload off] every council in the country."

    It's hard to remember now, but Labour rose to power in 1997 on a wave of optimism, even idealism. "A new dawn has broken, has it not?" said the fresh-faced Prime Minister Tony Blair, greeting the sunrise of his victory. Now 73% of Britons distrust politicians, according to a recent report by the Hansard Society. For many, the last straw was the revelation last year that MPs from all parties had taken advantage of a loose expenses regimen to subsidize their pay, some of them charging taxpayers for such essentials as moat cleaning, duck houses and sparkly toilet seats. Charisse can't even be bothered to cast a protest ballot for the BNP. "I don't vote," she says. "What's the point? Politicians are only out for what they can get."

    How Did It Come to This?
    The last time Britain felt this bad about itself was in 1976, when soaring inflation and unemployment forced the Labour government to seek a humiliating bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives took power in 1979 and went on to abolish exchange controls, cut taxes and engineer the 1986 deregulation of financial markets, known as Big Bang, restoring London's position as one of the world's most important financial centers. Blair's New Labour did nothing to restrict the unfettered growth of the City, as London's financial district is called. In 1998, Blair's adviser Peter Mandelson, now the most powerful member of Brown's Cabinet, said Labour was "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich."

    The expansion of the financial-services sector and growth of the British economy masked a sharp decline in manufacturing. Faced with Britain's notoriously tetchy industrial relations and high costs, many companies chose to relocate their factories to countries offering more pliant workforces and cheaper real estate. With the strength of the pound making its Dagenham plant look wincingly expensive compared with similar subsidiaries in other countries, Ford closed its car-production lines there in 2002 after 71 years. Dagenham MP Cruddas describes the resulting job losses and social tumult as "globalization ripping through a microclimate at great speed."

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