Has Brexit binging left U.K. sleepwalking toward decay?

House of Cards was a U.K. series that ran from 1990 to 1995. Twenty years later, it was made bigger and, some would argue better, by Netflix.

The current administration in the U.S. upped the stakes by turning House of Cards into a reality show in which we are all part of a new episode almost every day by reacting to the latest tweet or offensive speech by the president.

But the U.K. has taken back the political spectacle with the Brexit train-wreck. In the U.K., the ins and outs of the Brexit negotiations, the infighting in the Conservative party and the undermining of Theresa May have taken centre stage away from the U.S. It is a national preoccupation.

When you are in a Netflix binge, you can lose track of time. It seems, however, during the Brexit binge the U.K. lost track of the country. And what is worse, it seems that is not newsworthy. Last week is a case in point. I was in the U.K. when Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on poverty and human rights from Australia, delivered a stinging assessment. He said that the U.K. government had inflicted “great misery” on its people and its austerity policies had been “punitive, mean spirited and often callous.” He added this was not because of economic necessity but because of a political desire to change society.

He was concerned the U.K. was unravelling the human rights that have been the fabric of progress over the past six decades. They are in breach of four UN human rights agreements relating to women, children, disabled people and economic and social rights, according to Alston.

Alston demonstrated how hard the austerity policies were hitting — with U.K. child poverty rates set to reach 40 per cent, one in five adults in the U.K. living in poverty and huge cuts of 50 per cent to local council budgets.

He concluded that his child poverty findings were “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and economic disaster.”

But this news did not lead to public outcry. It was given few column inches in most papers and little screen time on the news compared to Brexit.

On the same day, the whole night of programming on the BBC was devoted to their charity extravaganza Children in Need. This raised a stunning £50 million for disadvantaged children and youth. It demonstrated the generosity of a nation. But it was devoid of any analysis of why the next generation of the fifth biggest economy in the world should have to rely on charity rather than their government.

Spend time in London as a tourist and you will be amazed at the high-end stores, spectacular buildings, fabulous galleries and shows and, of course, how expensive it all is.

Spend time with people who live in London day in and day out you will see the soaring homeless population, the increased use of food banks and the decaying social safety net and public services. The National Health Service I left 11 years ago is a pale shadow of its former self.

With the U.K. government’s 2018 tax cuts overwhelmingly benefitting the rich, poverty spiralling out of control, public services being cut and underlying currents of xenophobia and racism in the Brexit negotiations, it was difficult not to feel that U.K. is entering a neo-Dickensian age.

I had a visceral reaction to what I saw. Maybe the U.K.’s deterioration is more shocking to outsiders like me or Alston — most Brits I spoke to were strangely accepting of the U.K. as it is. Or maybe, the soap opera politics have lulled people into a Netflix binge haze.

Economic development in a knowledge economy is built on human and social capital. High income counties are the envy of the world because of human rights, functional democracy, progressive taxation, education, workers’ rights, a good safety net and investment in social development. These should be the focus of any government and its people.

If it feels like we are developing our own version of House of Cards provincially or federally, I just hope that we and the media reject it and refocus on what matters. If we start discussing personalities rather than policies and get caught in rhetoric rather than reasoned argument, if we descend to vilification rather than proving the validity of the approach — then we have truly lost our focus.

A good drama and reality politics may be entertaining but we do not want to sleepwalk toward decay like the U.K.