Brexit is an opportunity to fix our crumbling institutions

Autumn is upon us. As scripture says – to everything there is a season. As it is with nature so it is with human affairs and institutions. We can see signs of change in our civil environment as well.

The Archbishop of Canterbury goes to the TUC conference and roundly attacks the prevailing economic settlement and the government’s flagship welfare reform policy. Gamely the media tries to report it as a great clash but it is apparent their heart is not really in it. Neither the Church and nor the trade union movement are the forces they once were. Both are hemorrhaging members. Neither organisation much interests the governing party while both are subsidised by the tax payer. Where Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury was subjected to a full on assault by No 10 and Cabinet Ministers for publishing the ‘Faith in the City’ report in the eighties, Justin Welby is attacked by a couple of obscure backbenchers. The ripple of discord barely penetrated No 10.

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police launched a head on assault on government pay policy amidst an on-going row about the police’s ability to keep our streets safe. Not so long ago a Home Secretary facing this level of challenge would be in serious political trouble, instead Mr Javid is a favourite tip for Number 10. Parliamentary scrutiny and accountability means little when it cannot be seen to have real impact.

The Institute for Government launched a damning report on the capability and experience of Treasury civil servants. What they say about the Treasury can be reasonably said of departments across Whitehall. It can be said of ministers, and their advisors too. The lack of professional depth and experience is beginning to tell in the quality of public administration and the quality of political debate.

Trust between business and politicians has been eroding for some time. Increasingly criticism is becoming public. Some ministers and some of those that seek to replace them are increasingly careless about a relationship that is vital for both sides. Without successful business you cannot have the jobs and the profit you need to pay for the nurses, doctors, teachers, pensions, welfare system and the politicians you want – and need.

Meanwhile, the judiciary struggles to recruit good candidates and to fill top slots. They are not alone. The Armed Forces are struggling to recruit those they need. Every public institution, national and local, is struggling to change, to adapt, to meet their budget and deliver their service. Obsessions about diversity and equality, important as they are, fill official social media timelines as apparent substitutes for a focus on excellence, efficiency and effectiveness.

Our public institutions are vital to the stability and structure of our country and communities, but everywhere are signs of strain and struggle.

Increasingly the plea for a billion pounds here or a billion pounds there goes up to help dig this or that activity out of immediate financial trouble. The health service succeeded in prising more money out of the Chancellor – but it did not quell the calls for more. More spending on its own is not, never is, the answer. Spending needs to give effect to an aim, a plan. It cannot be the sole determiner of a policy.

When David Cameron called the Brexit referendum he was doing much more than holding a vote on whether Britain should be a member of the European Union. What he did was to unleash a complex range of political and social forces, hitherto corralled and contained by the Westminster voting system. In calling and losing the referendum he exposed every British institution to a tidal wave of further scrutiny and change. Brexit is not just about trade and business. It is bound to unleash a profound cultural, social and political realignment.

It is a great political con trick, one for which the media and the public have largely fallen, to be hoodwinked into just discussing what type of trade arrangements we want with the European Union. The real discussion should be about what sort of a country we want to be after Brexit.

How can we re-configure our institutions to deliver it? How can we ensure we have a news media that informs, a public service that delivers that attracts the very best and most able talent, and a military that is given clear tasks and properly resourced? We need a business community re-attached to the wider community that commands respect for what it does.

Above all we should be asking how we produce a politics that elevates debate, attracts widespread participation, and produces a vision that helps draw people together rather than driving them apart.