LONDON — When I arrived in the United Kingdom in 2014, I was faced with an endless debate about Scottish independence, which always seemed innocuous to me.
However, in these 10 years I have learned that, above all, the British love debate for the sake of debate, because they believe in the power of exchanging ideas and testing hypotheses.
I encountered the same behavior here in private companies, which made me feel like a huge waste of time. However, today, I recognize the power of provoking discussions from different perspectives to improve decisions.
I was surprised by the way DIT (Department for International Trade) was paying attention to my decision to come to the United Kingdom and do business. Then I noticed that, in addition to the state strategy to encourage business, the entire English civil service is focused on guaranteeing citizenship.
I saw in the behaviour of Elizabeth II a model of how to act with discipline on public issues – and also that the example comes from the top. I saw the Queen strip her son of his royal titles because he was involved in a scandal. So I had the unique experience of living within a liberal democracy, which is defined by equality of opportunity promoted by public state policies. It is not perfect, but there is clearly always a desire to improve.
On June 24, 2016, I woke up at 3am due to insomnia, and I was shocked to see that contrary to all the surveys, Brexit had won with 51% of the vote.
I consider this the stupidest decision ever made by a country – after all, why give up being the financial centre of the European bloc, especially staying within the European Community with its own currency?
To me, it was clear that the economic elite would push the world to overturn this decision before it could be implemented. My conviction was short-lived, because no matter who I asked, I heard the same answer: ‘I’m against it, but it took us a long time to build our democracy, so no mistake means the election will not be honored’.
We all learned later that that election was the first in which the far right used their truth manipulation techniques, and we understood what “Cambridge Analytica” and other tools were.
However, the British still honored their pledge without blinking. In these 10 years, I saw the hegemony of the English Conservative Party erode due to a series of mistakes – to the extent that, on the 4th, Labor won a historic victory, winning 412 of the 621 seats in Parliament.
I saw the Labour Party radically change its leadership – from the far left of Corbyn to the “semi-Blair” of Sir Keir. A big break after 14 years.
The baton passing, as usual, took place over a single day. One-day changes are only possible where the reversion of power is a valued and expected part of the process. The Tories, exhausted, leave the government smaller than ever, but wish good luck to those who come in.
In his last speech as prime minister, Rishi Sunak said: “Although he was my political rival, Sir Keir Starmer will soon be our prime minister. In this role, his successes will be our successes, and I wish him and his family all the best.
After 10 years, I have become convinced that debating is part of the process of living in society – and this is something that should be taught in schools; that public policies are the basis of liberal democracy; that the vote is sacred; and that you can make a lot of mistakes in governments, but there is always a way to correct mistakes, as long as the basic principles of the rule of law are a value for each of us, guaranteed by a peaceful and civilized alternation of power.
Amidst the noise of radical voices that we are seeing in the politics of some countries, amid an environment of digital transformation that both mesmerizes and threatens. remain so And amid the intolerance that dominates public debate, the example of the United Kingdom is a breath of fresh air.
Fersan Lambranho is Chairman of the Board of GP Investments and G2D.
Fersan Lambranho
