Despite Labour's election win, UK is crying out for change like it's Hogmanay 2023

Preparing for the bells 12 months ago, the two words uppermost in my mind were change and stability. Political change at home and stability on the international stage.

A year on, it seems one has been only partially achieved while the other seems further from our reach. Last Hogmanay, looking forward to 2024, it seemed that the only doubt about a general election would be the date.

After five years of political chaos and economic stagnation, it seemed Labour was poised to remove an increasingly incoherent Conservative government from power. While that was how it panned out, what few of us anticipated was that a country crying out for positive change would still be looking for it as Hogmanay 2024 approached.

Keir Starmer and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, need to find some green shoots of economic recovery (Picture: Carl Court) | Getty Images

National renewal

It’s increasingly clear that we need to see, and quickly, the emergence of some green shoots, some growth, not just for the economy but for public well-being and confidence. We are all tired of hearing about the black hole left by the Conservatives. We know.

The coming year needs to be one of renewal and rebuilding. One of hope. In 2012, the Conservative government was able to lean on the spectacle of the London Olympics to create a moment of national unity and renewal.

In 2025, we will need much more to take our minds off economic problems, crumbling public services and what many fear is a growing threat to democracy itself. What we need from our government now is to end this pantomime, and tackle the day-to-day issues affecting us all.

We need leadership and we need solutions. Simply repeating the fact there's a problem isn't enough to fix it. Over the next 12 months, Keir Starmer needs to rise to that challenge.

Tory identity crisis

But so too do the Conservatives. They are constantly struggling to convince the public of their identity. It often feels as if they no longer know what it is themselves. In parliament, my own party, the Liberal Democrats, is working to establish itself as the actual opposition, constructive and clear, with policies to tackle the nation’s woes.

But all of us, across the political board, need to recognise that the British public deserves something more. People want a vision of how we ensure that their children are not the first generation to live lives less economically fulfilling and of a lower quality than their parents.

We had become used in this country to seeing poverty and deprivation as challenges which, if not defeated, were at least being tackled effectively. Increasingly, it feels as if they are rising again and that politicians need to find not just the antidote but the resolve.

At the same time, we see rising threats abroad. The world is becoming an increasingly unstable place. Another year has passed without any sign of an end to the war in Ukraine or Putin’s ambitions. And the future for the Middle East is becoming increasingly depressing to contemplate.

Governments are always eager to say their first responsibility is to look after the people. There is no shortage of areas demanding fulfilment of that responsibility at the moment.

Let's hope the government was on Santa’s nice list this Christmas and were gifted solutions to bring us all a ”Guid New Year”.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West