I think the “Lost” finale* is a pretty good metaphor for where we are as a country right now. We’ve just woken from thirteen seasons under Labour to find out we died the day Tony Blair walked into Downing Street. Whether the Coalition Government can breathe life into our corpse of a country remains to be seen, but for the sake of all of us, I hope they do.
The early signs look good, and Cameron and Clegg are brushing off some witless criticism that they have each “sold out” their respective Parties. Cameron, we are told, should have struggled along as a minority government and then gone to the country for an early election and a full mandate. But that advice is coming from commentators who write strident columns without bearing any responsibility for what happens in the meantime, so I’m happy to give Cameron credit for actually trying to deal with the problems facing our country instead of grandstanding.
We need to deal with the fundamental problems of the country, they include, but are not limited to, a bloated bureaucracy with an obsession for targets and form-filling; a dysfunctional banking and business sector with a culture of personal enrichment at any cost to the consumer; and an inverted society where the rights of criminals, illegal immigrants and even terrorists trump the natural rights of the law-abiding citizen.
That doesn’t even touch on any special interests of mine, such as the appalling level of care we give to wounded soldiers and the shoddy equipment we provide them with in the first place, or the creeping European superstate that is taking us over without any democratic process of any kind.
But I remain hopeful that at last we seem to have a government that is addressing them all.
* The “Lost” finale reveals that all the castaways actually died when the plane crashed onto the island.