An atmosphere of defeatism and relentless negativity can only make things worse.

Britain is in fiscal dire straits, faces an imminent threat of serious civil disorder, is seeing many of its wealthy head for the exits, and has a rudderless and divided government that's unequal to the task. But the sense of crisis pervading much reporting and discussion on the state of the nation isn’t doing the public psyche any good. The country badly needs a better story.

Are things really as bad as the drumbeat of doom emanating from social media and newspapers would suggest? The picture is skewed, I would argue. The UK has some real and pressing fiscal challenges, but it’s hardly alone in that; France’s situation is arguably worse. The protesters who descended on asylum hotels in Epping and Canary Wharf were relatively small in number and included the usual suspects from far right and left — hardly evidence that Britain’s entire social fabric is coming apart. Reports of a wealth exodus have rested on some dubious research commissioned by vested interests. The government, for all its missteps, remains in place with a huge majority. And so on.

Whether it is objectively true that Britain is going badly wrong may matter less than the reflexive effects of such a discourse. Narratives aren’t just a neutral mirror of reality; they help to shape it. You become what you give your attention to, the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus observed (clearly a man who wouldn’t have an X account if he was around today). If you read every day that the country is sliding into a dystopian abyss, you may start to believe it and act accordingly. People become more anxious about the future and therefore less willing to spend. None of this helps Britain’s prospects for an economic recovery.

So perhaps some historical perspective is useful. Britain has been in far worse predicaments in the past. This columnist can remember sitting in a darkened living room lit only by candles amid power cuts during the 1974 miners’ strike. Two years later, the Labour government went to the IMF for an emergency loan to stabilize the pound and prevent a collapse — a humiliation for a country that was once the world’s foremost financial power. Yet less than a decade on from that, the Lawson boom was underway.

Crises come and go. The whole of Britain’s postwar history can be viewed as a succession of periodic crises — from Suez to the 1967 devaluation, the IMF bailout to Black Wednesday in 1992, and from the global financial crisis to, most recently, Covid. The nation always survives them, either muddling through, taking a radical turn (as under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives), or being forced by circumstance into a new economic direction that lays the groundwork for recovery (as when Britain was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992).

This, too, will pass. But an atmosphere of defeatism and relentless negativity doesn’t help the process along. The Labour government of Keir Starmer must take its share of blame for creating this syndrome. It boxed itself in with unduly restrictive fiscal rules and a promise not to raise any of the three main taxes. The government’s budget arithmetic was then blown apart when it failed to push through planned welfare cuts. This has had an enervating effect on the public mood, feeding a sense that the worst is yet to come — in the form of higher taxes, spending cuts or some unforeseen catastrophe — and triggering a heightened sensitivity among news outlets to anything that pertains to the fiscal situation.

The IMF released a report last month that was broadly positive about Britain’s fiscal plans, saying they strike a good balance between supporting economic growth and safeguarding financial sustainability. Almost all reports zeroed in on one line in the 91-page document, which suggested the UK could consider replacing the pension “triple lock” and introducing co-payments for wealthier residents using the National Health Service — at a point “beyond the medium term,” meaning more than five years away. It’s often the nature of news to focus on the negative (if it bleeds, it leads), but it need not have been this way. In a less febrile climate, distant fiscal decisions might have been deemed less newsworthy. This was all self-inflicted.

When you’re stuck viewing the world through a negative mental filter, the answer is to change your focus. There are options! Britain is currently reveling in the reunion tour of Oasis — an event that has brought back memories of the “Cool Britannia” era of the 1990s, when the band was in its heyday and economic growth was strong. Nostalgia is a double-edged sword, though — it can also serve to impress on us just how much better the good old days were.

There’s also sport. Last week, a far vaster crowd than seen outside asylum hotels turned out in central London to welcome home the England women’s football team after their victory in the UEFA Women’s Euro final in Switzerland. There have been other summer sporting successes — the British and Irish Lions rugby team clinched their first series win in 12 years in Australia, while England’s cricketers have been locked in a pulsating test series with India. But the triumph of the Lionesses, as England’s soccer champions are known, has a special resonance.

The team was several times on the verge of going out during the tournament. In the quarter-finals, the Lionesses came back from a 2-0 deficit against Sweden and then won on penalties despite missing three of their first four spot-kicks. They equalized at the death against Italy in the semi-final after trailing for more than an hour and then won in extra time. In the final, England met a technically superior team in Spain but again recovered from a losing position to prevail on penalties. It appeared wildly improbable at times, but champion teams have the spirit of resilience that refuses to countenance defeat.

There’s a lesson here for Starmer’s team, and for the rest of us. Things can go wrong, quite badly wrong — repeatedly — and yet still come good in the end. The doom-loop rut depressing Britain isn’t permanent or inevitable. All that’s needed is the courage to change the script.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-08-04/the-doom-mongering-about-britain-is-overdone

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5758170&forum_id=2...id#49155821)