On 22nd June, 2026, Keir Starmer announced that he will resign as Prime Minister after less than two years in office, bringing another abrupt chapter in British politics to a close. His departure follows mounting political pressure, declining public support and growing unrest within his own party.
Watching the news unfold, I found myself thinking less about one man and more about a pattern that has increasingly affected my own sense of wellbeing – and, I suspect, that of many others.
I have been watching politics on and off for around two decades. In that time I have seen governments rise and fall, parties reinvent themselves and voters repeatedly invest their hopes in the promise that this time things will be different. But I cannot remember a period quite like this one, when dissatisfaction has become almost a permanent feature of democratic life.
Politics has always been messy. Governments have always disappointed. Leaders have always made mistakes.
Yet something feels fundamentally, different today.
It isn't simply that people have become more dissatisfied. It is that disappointment and distrust have become the default response to politics.
Across the democratic world, governments are voted in with enormous expectations and, often within months, declared failures. Approval ratings collapse before policies have had time to take effect. Social media fills with declarations that the latest Prime Minister or President is "the worst ever", until the next one comes along and inherits the same problems and labels.
Britain is hardly unique in this.
France remains deeply divided. Germany is grappling with economic uncertainty and political fragmentation. The United States has become so polarised that every election is portrayed as a battle for the nation's survival. Across Europe, coalition governments struggle to satisfy electorates whose expectations often exceed what any government can realistically deliver.
Perhaps the more important question is whether the problem is simply poor leadership, or whether modern governments are trying to solve challenges that have become far more complex than those faced by previous generations.
The problems facing modern democracies are global. Inflation, migration, housing shortages, ageing populations, technological disruption, climate change, geopolitical instability and disinformation do not respect national borders. Yet we continue to hold politicians responsible for outcomes that are increasingly shaped by global forces.
They don't.
Governments still matter enormously, but they no longer operate in a world where domestic policy alone determines domestic outcomes. A war thousands of miles away can affect energy prices. A conflict in one region can trigger migration in another. Decisions taken in financial markets can undo years of careful economic planning.
None of this excuses poor leadership. Politicians should be held accountable, and some are undoubtedly not up to the job. But even competent governments cannot solve, within a few years, problems that have taken decades to create.
Another worrying trend is the way politics has become entertainment. We reward outrage over competence, slogans over substance and personality over policy. A thoughtful compromise is condemned as weakness while a simplistic promise is celebrated as strength: until reality inevitably intervenes.
Perhaps this is why democracies appear trapped in a cycle of perpetual disappointment. We replace leaders hoping for transformation, only to discover that structural problems remain stubbornly resistant to quick fixes.
Changing faces does not automatically change realities.
There is another consequence to this constant churn. Public trust erodes a little more with every election. Citizens become convinced that all politicians are the same, that institutions are incapable of solving problems and that democracy itself is somehow broken.
That is a dangerous conclusion.
Democracy has never promised perfection. It has promised accountability, debate and the peaceful transfer of power. It is designed to manage disagreement, not eliminate it.
Maybe the question we should be asking is not why every leader eventually becomes unpopular.
Maybe we should ask why we have come to expect leaders to solve in a few years problems that have taken decades to create.
Democracy isn't struggling simply because some politicians are incompetent. It's struggling because politics increasingly demands certainty in an uncertain world, instant solutions to long-term challenges and simple answers where none exist.
That is the real crisis of our time.
When politics becomes a source of constant outrage, uncertainty and disappointment, it doesn't just shape governments. It shapes our wellbeing, our relationships with each other, and the way we see the future. Politics is never just about those in power; it's also about the emotional climate in which the rest of us live.
Thank you for reading.
The CP Diary has been exploring health, wellbeing, society and the wider issues that shape our lives for more than 16 years. If this article resonated with you, I hope you'll take a moment to explore some of my other articles on the website.
