This country is experiencing a decline in national morale like no other

When you speak to normal people, they display a sense of hopelessness: that we are in an accelerating downward spiral and there’s nothing we can do about it, writes Ed Dorrell

At best, the country feels discombobulated, at worst it feels febrile (EPA)

“There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing they [politicians] can do. It’s all out of our hands.” Thus spoke one exasperated electrician when asked in a very recent focus group whether Keir Starmer’s Labour Party was a better option than the Conservatives.

The other participants jumped in immediately. The anger was palpable, both about the state of the country and the seeming inability of elected officials to do anything about it.

This focus group was not a one-off. In research exercise after research exercise, my colleagues and I have found people at their wits’ end.

I would argue that this anger is also evident beyond the privacy of our focus groups. There is an undoubted sense in this country that it is teetering on the brink and there’s very, very little we can do to change things. It is more pronounced and more pointed than the standard “it’s all going to the dogs” vibe.

This mood is hardly surprising. We are on the brink of a vast recession; inflation is staggeringly high; energy bills have gone crazy; Covid still hangs threateningly in the air; workers are walking out on strikes all over the place; the transport network appears to have fallen over (I’m looking at you, Avanti); Brexit is not exactly giving us back control; the government has fallen.

And now, the Queen, who is the only head of state the vast majority can remember, has taken us by surprise by doing exactly what most 96-year-olds do and dying.

At best, the country feels discombobulated, at worst it feels febrile. There is certainly a tangible crisis in national morale.

And at the same time, there is, through no fault of the general public, a vacuum of national leadership. The Conservative Party has rid us of Boris Johnson, and nature has taken Queen Elizabeth II. The nearest thing we have to a leader most people are prepared to get behind is the Money Saving Expert.

Into this gaping hole steps Liz Truss, lacking a clear popular mandate, supported by a new King.

Truss’s challenge is not just about mood, it is about control. When you speak to normal people in focus groups, but more broadly too, they display a sense of hopelessness: that not only have they lost control, but so has the government, and that, as a country, we are in an accelerating downward spiral and there’s nothing we can do about it.

The international energy prices are just one – but perhaps the best – manifestation of this sense of collective alienation. Is there anything, really, that we can do about it, people ask?

It is staggering to realise that it is only a decade since the summer of 2012, when the Queen’s golden jubilee filled our hearts with nearly as much joy as the spectacular show over in the East End. The country seemed to have thrown off a decades’ long era of national depression, and optimism, for once, was the order of the day.

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It is, obviously, way too much to imagine that Truss’s government, aided by the new outfit in Buckingham Palace, can return national morale to those heady levels. But we do need it to demonstrate confidence and wrestle back a sense of control in these troubled times. That is, in itself, a huge ask.

If Truss fails, as I fear she will, Britain will require Starmer to step up. To become a genuine prime minister across the water – more than just a shadow. To show leadership where it is absent. To make us believe that we can regain a sense of national pride and national autonomy.

And if not, who knows what happens next? One recent political earthquake was brought about by a desire to “take back control”. Perhaps we’ll be due another one.

Ed Dorrell is a director at Public First