THE end of freedom of movement, eh? How ironic that it is our ability to cross the channel without let or hindrance that seems to be at risk. To the Far East, then. Europe be blowed. Who wants to go there anyway? Overnight, we seem to have become part of the Pacific region.

The near-term effect on GDP appears marginal but it is no use trumpeting longer-term opportunities if we don’t then set about creating the conditions to capitalise on them. Otherwise, precisely because these are two-way deals, we risk other nations taking advantage of our ponderous processes, our lack of infrastructure and our centralised bureaucracy.

The spin is exactly that: slogans on buses, promises on Social Care funding, getting tough on Illegal Migration, Task Forces for this and that. How does it go… “these are a few of my favourite things.” Fine words on selected topics and targets but in reality just a gloss on flimsy, fragile fabric.

As we head into the election season, one that will be with us for the next 12 to 18 months, we should look deeply into what is said, think long and hard about our experience of the last 13 years and consider the qualities of the people involved.

At the end of the day, parliaments and councils at every level are made up of people. It has been said of those who run large organisations that once at the top, they need to lose the mindset and behaviours that got them there. As we look at those putting themselves up before us, we should consider the balance between personal ambition and serving the public interest, between a partisan outlook and an impartial, evidence-based approach for the good of all.

On the doorstep, the issue of balance comes up time and again – more pay for nurses, doctors, teachers and public sector workers, more investment in clean water, more investment in our decaying roads, more money for Social Care and new hospitals and an equally passionate cry for less tax, less costly utilities, petrol, rail travel and so on.

It is often said a camel is a horse designed by a committee and what we need is ‘strong leadership’ for the ‘right’ decisions on tax and spend. The problem is such leadership quickly becomes remote because of our national mania for centralising decision-making. More importantly, such leadership also comes to believe what a French politician said during the 1848 revolution: “There go the people, I must follow them for I am their leader.”

Individuals cannot be perfect, but teams can get very close. So, I would prefer to hear how we can harness the strength, decency and innate fairness of people in the teams that are communities.