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Boris Johnson’s woes are the least interesting aspect of last week’s local election results. The man has become a colossal distraction. The commentariat and the Tory party are obsessed with

this shifty narcissist. Britain has bigger fish to fry. Inflation is heading to a 40-year high; the economy is stagnating; the war in Ukraine foreshadows more instability; going carbon

neutral is stuck; Brexit is proving thorny; relations with Europe have yet to get away from Euro-bashing and find a new equilibrium; people are hurting. The real story of these mid-term

polls is that seismic changes, triggered by the rise of nationalism and a perpetual struggle with living standards, continue to shake Britain’s political landscape. Established legacy

parties are struggling to keep up, in Britain as elsewhere. The importance of Sinn Féin’s victory in Northern Ireland — caused mainly by the splitting of the unionist vote — is almost

impossible to overstate. Meanwhile, the Scottish nationalists’ convincing performance in Scotland after 15 continuous years in power poses continuing questions about the future of the Union.

Local elections, of course, are not national polls. But they are a weather-vane of how people feel at a local level. The Conservatives, with around 30% of the vote, appear to be in real

trouble which is not surprising after 12 years in power and a leader who has lost pretty much everybody’s confidence. So-called red wall territory in the north has held up, but the south of

England is a disaster zone. Labour, despite some spectacular gains in London, are on 36% of the popular vote. This would not be enough to give Sir Keir Starmer an overall majority. Starmer’s

problem is not his character. It’s the absence of the vision thing. Clement Attlee had the welfare state; Harold Wilson the white heat of technology; Tony Blair a new Britain. What does

Starmer offer? It’s not obvious. The Liberal Democrats have done well at the expense of the Tories. The Greens are rising. The Lib Dems remain the thorn in the Conservatives’ soft

underbelly. But they nearly always do well when the electorate wants to give the ruling party a kicking. They are the go-to substitutes. Most of the time they’re on the bench. This

compulsive obsession with Johnson, fuelled by his outsize ego, overshadows all else. The neo-Tories who put him in power fear that sacking him would wreck their libertarian project.

Traditional Tories, aghast at his casual relationship with the truth and the law, want him gone. But they don’t know who else might rescue a party running out of steam. Meanwhile the tidal

wave which could overwhelm the United Kingdom gathers pace. The question of who rules England remains up in the air. But there is little doubt about who rules the other nations. The

likelihood that a working girl from a small Republican village in County Tyrone, whose father was an IRA prisoner, will become Northern Ireland’s First Minister is — for once the word is

justified – historic. The late Ian Paisley, scourge of “papists” and liberals alike, will be turning in his grave. More consequentially, traditional Ulster unionists will be holding their

breath. The elephant in the room, of course, is the reunification of Ireland. Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s chatty and cheerful leader, has been restrained, careful to concentrate her fire

on the cost of living. Her move from deputy first minister to the top job may be largely symbolic but she now heads the biggest party. Ulster was set up to be run by unionists in perpetuity.

This was not supposed to happen. Peace since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998 has been fragile. The Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont is a case-study in how power is polarised.

It was intended to underpin peace and stability. But even when it has operated, extreme partisanship has driven nationalists and unionists into green and orange blocs. The immediate

challenge will be to find a way out of the cul-de-sac in which the Northern Ireland Protocol finds itself. Signed to prevent a hard Brexit it drew a border down the Irish Sea. Michael

Collins, the Irish revolutionary, said in 1922: “There can be no question of forcing Ulster into Union with the 26 counties. If Ulster is going to join us it must be voluntary.” Irish unity

still needs a route map to lasting reconciliation between nationalism and unionism. But the momentum is building. Northern Ireland voted heavily in favour of remaining in the EU. Free

movement across the Irish border to the south and free trade with the EU’s market of 500 million consumers beyond will prove a powerful draw — especially for a younger generation of

enterprising unionists. The same logic applies to Scotland. There too a second independence referendum does not seem imminent or (yet) winnable. But the desire of Scots to be ruled by their

own and not by Westminster — or its proconsul — has been resoundingly reaffirmed. The UK faces two overarching challenges: The first is keeping the Union intact. Brexit has put that into

play. A break-up is neither imminent nor inevitable. But the sense of belonging is fraying. Putin’s war has drawn the international community together. A bit more “better together” abroad

might have a soothing effect at home. The second challenge — which is not unique to Britain — is resetting the free market to iron out deep inequities, build decent public services and help

millions break out of the cycle of poverty. The liberal capitalist order has delivered prosperity for many over the past 50 years. But it has also caused a lot of pain in pursuit of higher

profits and shareholder value at all costs. The tripling of energy costs for consumers, for example, at the same time as two oil company profits in a single quarter equalled the GDP of

Lithuania, is problematic. Attacking Johnson for his many failings is good knockabout stuff. And it has paid dividends. But if Starmer is to plant a flag that he can claim as his own then

resetting capitalism as a social as well as an economic force is fertile ground. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an

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