Reform UK, the party leading in Britain’s polls, has an uninspiring slogan: “Britain is broken”. The fact that even the populists’ bumper sticker carries none of the hope of “Make America Great Again” says a lot about Britons’ mood. Nothing illustrates the malaise more strikingly than the state of their beloved National Health Service (NHS). Hospitals are crumbling, sometimes literally. Waiting lists in England are 7.4m, twice as long as before the covid-19 pandemic. Public satisfaction has collapsed from 70% in 2010 to 21% in 2024. “Broken” was also how Wes Streeting, Labour’s health secretary, described the service on his first day in office last year.
