The artist Tracey Emin is no political sage. But she seemed to strike a chord recently when complaining about British tax levels, the high costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even the burden of hosting the London Olympics. Does she speak for a new Little Britain?
You didn’t hear this during the party conference season, but whoever wins the next election will lead a smaller and weaker country. And one of the unsung tasks of the next government will be to manage a renewed decline in Britain’s global status.
For the three decades after 1945, the British story—at least viewed from abroad—was one of relative decline. In the 1980s Thatcherism restored national prestige and economic confidence, which by and large continued under New Labour. Tony Blair’s five wars signified, for good and ill, an activist outward-looking country that more than justified its seat at the top table.
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