Stop pretending that all politics is local

To turn Tip O’Neill’s celebrated dictum on its head, all politics is global. Our energy prices depend on what happens in the Middle East, Russia and, now, Ukraine. China’s central bank decisions affect British jobs and investment. Many, perhaps most, of Britain’s remaining big factories are foreign-owned. Bad harvests in Asia or Africa disrupt our food supplies. Climate change could devastate the lives of our grandchildren. So could nuclear weapons ending up in the wrong hands.

However, even as we follow with horror this week’s two huge stories, the conflict in Gaza and the disputes over the destruction of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, most of us want the rest of the world to go away. We are wary of taking on Russia and want little or nothing to do with the long-running problems of Israel and Palestine. More widely, YouGov polls have shown consistently that we don’t like immigration, overseas aid or “Brussels”. We told MPs to keep our armed forces out of any action in Syria and, looking back, reckon we were wrong to get embroiled in Iraq or Afghanistan.

My point is not to deconstruct any one of these viewpoints but to observe their overall pattern. The default sentiment of most Britons is to pull up the drawbridge, stick our heads under some vast, comforting national pillow and hope the rest of the world goes away. Yes, most of us realise that in practice that’s impossible, and that our political leaders have to tackle issues that we would prefer to ignore. But that didn’t stop us giving more votes to Ukip than any other party in the recent elections to the European Parliament.

So, here’s a proposal to the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats as they plan how to fight next year’s general election. Europe apart, you share a broadly common view on how Britain should engage with the rest of the world. You know that the last thing Britain should do is pull up the drawbridge. You say so when you need to, as you have this week, but once next year’s election campaign gets under way, you will steer well clear of these foreign policy issues and any suggestion that you agree on more global issues than you disagree.

Admit it: you all understand that getting these things right is vital to the lives of voters here in Britain. Lead a grown-up conversation in which you say so. Abandon the pretence that you are able to supply complete solutions to all our problems, and that your outlook is completely different from those of your opponents. Ignore Tip O’Neill and adopt E. M. Forster’s far more profound maxim: “only connect.”