A lack of leadership is resulting in a lack of purpose
MPs are
gathering in the UK parliament today to debate and vote on Brexit
Plan B. As we watch the lack of leadership in the UK parliament play
out in practice, it’s difficult to see the sense of vision or purpose in this
ongoing debate.
Where is the sense of why we are a great country,
what we are most proud of, how we can play our part in the world in the most
effective and responsible way? Where is the vision for a nation that
contributes to the 21st century world by being a hotbed for
innovation, improving life for people across the globe?
Reporting
from Davos in The Times, Callum Jones wrote that, ‘Angela Merkel has urged
world leaders to defy populism and save the established order, calling in
nations to “hold together” and halt the fragmentation of the multilateral
system’. Merkel added: “A global architecture will only be successful if we’re
open to compromise.”
If our political leaders spent time working to
understand and articulate the side of the British spirit of which we can be
most proud, we could perhaps unite around a vision which others would respect
and want to be associated with. Our sense of why we exist as a nation could be
based on a new purpose in the world, as we move on from our history of empire,
domination and cruelty. We could reinvent ourselves as a nation that other
nations want to work with, a nation of collaboration and mutual respect – one that
focuses energy and resources on creating better solutions to problems like
energy, food, water, and peace.
We need visionary political leadership right now.
Leadership that can recreate our sense of purpose in the world. Leadership that
builds connections, not partitions.