On 6th November, Parliament was dissolved and Britain set course for an election on 12th December. Election campaigns are supposed to be a time when would-be leaders of the nation tell voters what they would do to address the big challenges that face that nation now and in the future.
Yet this election, perhaps even more than most, has been notable for politicians’ failure to address or even mention important issues. The list of important things omitted from the campaign is long indeed, but SMF staff today set out their thoughts on some of the issues they think the public really should be told about, and which politicians really should be talking about.
This list is, of course, not intended to be exhaustive. We have instead sought to range beyond the familiar omissions – social care, technology, demographic change – and looked to the more technical or awkward issues.
As a cross-party think-tank, we take no view of who should govern Britain after the election. We simply hope that whoever it is will give some thought to addressing the challenges we set out here.
Politicians aren’t talking about…
- The fraud epidemic – read full comment piece here.
- Local government debt – read full comment piece here.
- Central banks – read full comment piece here.
- What should be done about the hostile environment for immigrants – read full comment piece here.
- The parlous state of productivity in the public sector – read full comment piece here.
- Teacher recruitment and retention – read full comment piece here.