Alex Ritson:
“Liz Truss’s resignation means the UK will have its 5th prime minister in 6 years.
Such political turnover is unprecedented in the postwar era, prompting The Economist newspaper here to brand the UK "Britaly", a tongue-in-cheek comparison with Italy, which has had 59 prime ministers since 1945.
Is the comparison fair?”
Barbara Serra:
“I can see the point that they were making, and the article was a measured account of the similarities there are between the two countries.
If nothing else, the incredible power that the markets seem to wield now on deciding what policies can or cannot happen.
But what I found a little bit offensive was that there was something specific about the British situation.
Most Europeans do see it linked to Brexit.
Obviously, Italy has known a lot of political instability, but it never did anything that would equate to the self-harm that most people see Brexit as having done to the UK. (…)
I do think that there has to be a reckoning with the decision that was made.
I think sometimes, because of other things like COVID, perhaps that conversation hasn't been fully had, and perhaps we haven't fully appreciated the impact it's also had on politics.
When we look at instability in Italy, it's due to coalition governments, often made up of quite small parties.
Here, what we're witnessing, is one party basically eating itself over the past couple of years, and it's causing all that instability. There's quite a difference there.
The lack of trust in politics that now I hear among my British friends and colleagues is very similar to the lack of trust — the lack of respect, I think is a better analogy — that I've often been hearing in Italy towards politics.
And you don't just get that back with an election, or a change of government, or a change of party in power.
Once that goes, that's just not good news for democracy in general.”
Source: Global News Podcast: Pakistan’s election commission bars Imran Kahn from office
