faith Archives - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Is the Social Contract in the UK Broken?

Friday 19 June 2026 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 5 minutes

A social contract is an implied agreement between The Government / Members of Parliament (MPs) / Institutions and The People. Both sides of the agreement have rights, responsibilities and expectations. But is the social contract in the UK broken?

To answer this question, we need to discuss the expectations of each of the group’s people:

The People are Expected to:

Work and/or contribute to society in other ways.
Pay taxes.
Abide by the law.
To be treated with dignity, fairness, equality & respect.
To treat others with dignity, fairness, equality & respect.
To exercise their rights to vote, petition and protest, if they choose to do so.

The Government / MPs / Institutions are Expected to:

To keep citizens (The People) safe – usually achieved through the Military and the Police.
To ensure all of The People have access to shelter (housing), food, water and appropriate clothing. To ensure that these basic survival needs are affordable.
To ensure of of The People have access to the NHS, safe and high quality healthcare. This ensures that the majority of the population are in good health.
To ensure that children / young people and vulnerable adults have access to Social Care services that keep them safe and support them.
To ensure all of The People have opportunities to learn through education establishments, libraries and apprenticeships. This develops a knowledgeable and skilled workforce for all of society.
To be financially responsible, ensuring the economy grows and benefits all. This includes ensuring employment opportunities for working-age people, ensuring pension schemes for the elderly and Welfare (benefit payments for: people on low wages, unemployed people, people who need extra support due illness or disability, support for families with children and support towards the cost of housing).
To develop, support, maintain and ensure accessibility for all of The People to key infrastructure such as water sanitation, waste disposal/recycling, energy/power systems, roads/public transportation and telephone / communication systems.
To create new laws for the good of The People.
To ensure that there is a system for individual people that brake laws, which includes both justice / consequences and rehabilitation. In the UK, this is through the Police, the Courts, Prisons and Probation services.
To ensure that all institutions adhere to Human Rights, are accessible and don’t discriminate or harass any of The People.
In Parliament, to represent and act in the best interests of both The People in the communities that elected them and the larger UK society.
To promote good diplomatic relationships globally and to advocate for / encourage peace.

I understand that the The Government / MPs / Institutions have a large number of complex expectations to meet. However, in the last few decades, it feels like on every single one of these expectations The Government / MPs / Institutions are failing to deliver. Not only are they failing to meet expectations right now, but it also appears that they are setting society up for further failures in the future.

In the last few decades, The Government / MPs / Intuitions have appeared to work for a select group of people within The People: the wealthy elite (see rising wealth inequality).

My opinion is that everything is broken. The social contract is broken, politics is broken, all public services are broken. It feels likes society in the UK is disintegrating right in front of my eyes.

This week Andy Burnham won the by-election in Ashton-In-Makerfield, Wigan. At one time, this would of given me hope. Andy Burnham is an experienced politician and to give credit where it is due, he was the Health Minister when I started my career as a Student Nurse.

Back in 2004 – The Labour Party’s bursey for Nurses scheme enabled me to go to University to become a Nurse. I was the first person in my family to go to University. The policy documents, ideas and follow through actions whilst Andy Burnham was Health Minister were good.

One basic but excellent idea I remember for the NHS, is calculating how many Nurses the NHS would need in the next 3 years. They then doubled the number of training places to ensuring we had enough Nurses qualifying at the right time.

I do have reasons not to hope for too much, or put my complete faith and trust in Andy Burnham as a Prime Minister though.

Before I list these, I want to say that what I’ve heard so far from Andy Burnham seems promising. Bringing back public transport, utilities and energy into Government ownership would not only go along way to addressing the cost of living crisis, but would also ensure the Government’s wealth security for future generations.

My reasons for not putting too much hope, faith or trust in Andy Burnham include:

Josh Simons was the former MP for Ashton-In-Makerfield in Wigan. Josh appeared to well respected and liked locally, but suddenly gave up his seat to make way for Andy Burnham. This makes it feel like political game playing and acting in self-interest, rather than in the interests of The People. I am almost expecting that Josh Simons will get a peerage to the unelected House of Lords. Not because he earned it, not because The People will benefit, but because Andy Burnham promised him, in return for giving up his elected seat.
It is rumoured that the proposed Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was Andy Burnham’s idea when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester. I should make clear that Andy Burnham now denies this, stating that it was the previous Conservative Government’s idea. But this doesn’t ring true for me. Before the CAZ, there was a proposal for a Congestion Charge for Greater Manchester. This would have reduced traffic, as only people with the money could afford to drive into the city centre. However the majority of The People in Greater Manchester voted to reject the idea of a congestion charge. The CAZ to me feels like another way Andy Burnham tried to implement this idea. It also doesn’t feel right that The Conservative Party would bring in a charge for motorists for ‘clean air’ or that they would want it to cover the whole of Greater Manchester.
Another rumour relating to the proposed CAZ was that either a company that Andy Burnham’s wife owns or works for got paid £100m for all of the signage. I have never read anywhere that Andy Burnham has acknowledged this rumour or responded to it. Sometimes, silence from politicians makes me feel that they are covering their back, not saying anything to avoid incriminating themselves. If Andy Burnham was involved, influenced or was even aware of his wife’s involvement, this feels like a very real conflict of interests. What was done about this? We don’t know, because the rumour hasn’t been acknowledged, confirmed or denied.
If the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which the perception is that Andy Burnham was the leader of, did pay £100m for signage, that’s feels like a lot of tax payer’s money that has been wasted for a scheme that never materialised.
Even if Andy Burnham has all the best of intentions and only wants to serve The People, there is a chaotic Labour Party and a whole political system set up that seems pretty happy with the status quo. Can Andy Burnham have the influence, charisma, ideas, motivation and energy to make the transformational change required?

I have never wanted for any one to prove my concerns about them wrong as I do about Andy Burnham right now. I want the social contract back. I want a fair and good society.

If you look at the collapse of every empire in history, they all have one thing in common. They happened (at least in part) because their ruling class (those with power) stopped serving The People and started serving either themselves, the wealthy elite or both.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

Write soon,

Antony

More Content From Antony

Here are the books that Antony has published, click any cover to learn more:

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A Tale Of Overcoming Adversity

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time. I’ve started it countless times, looking at adversity from many different angles. In the end, I decided that the best way to express what I want to say about adversity and overcoming adversity is through a little tale.

Growing up I had difficulties with reading and writing because of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. At sixteen years old, I had a reading and comprehension age of fourteen. I remember when I was younger, having to read paragraphs two or three times to get the meaning of the words. The thought of reading a book at this age, was like the thought of climbing a mountain.

I couldn’t write my name until I was ten years old. I understood what we were taught in classes, but just couldn’t write it down on paper in an organised and structured way. I got very good at talking and verbal presentation to compensate.

Fast forward to now. I have overcome adversity in relation to reading and writing. I’m always reading at least ten books at any one time. I read nineteen books last year (see Book List 2015) and I read twenty-eight books the year before that (see Book List 2014). I regularly get sent books by publisher’s publicists to read and review. Thankfully I no longer need to re-read paragraphs two or three times to understand them. I write creatively on a regular basis. I’ve recently published a short story entitled Soulmates and write for The Gay UK.

In addition to the above: I have done well academically. I have been to university twice and about to go back to university to complete a further module. I have gained a HE Diploma in Children’s Nursing and a Honours Degree in Nursing, graded at a 2:1.

The reading, the writing and the university wouldn’t have been possible without overcoming adversity. But what’s really interesting is that I’ve learned some fundamental things that were required in order for me to overcome adversity. These included:

Grit or determination. Not giving up. Continuing to read and write, even when I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.
The support of others. My mum fought the education authorities to get the professional help I needed to learn to read and write. Teachers, Teaching Assistants and Volunteers all spent countless hours teaching me to read and understand what I was reading. My mum fought the health authorities to get the practical support from a brilliant and professional Occupational Therapist. And of course my mum helped and supported me in so many other ways: spending time reading with me, taking me to my Occupational Therapist appointments, just listening when I needed to vent my frustration, etc.
Practice. Repetition is the key to learning and the way of getting good at anything. Think of when you learned to ride a bike as a child.
Being driven by my love of literature. Even with my difficulties in reading and writing, I used to be captivated by the stories my mum would read to me at bedtime. By how words could ignite my imagination and make me feel very real emotions.
People having belief and faith that I could overcome my reading and writing difficulties. This includes both family and friends.
Believing in myself, or at least hoping that I could overcome these reading and writing difficulties.

I would imagine that these fundamental things are essential for anyone trying to overcome adversity. I wanted to share these thoughts, for anyone currently struggling with adversity. If you have overcome adversity, how did you do it? What did you need in order to overcome adversity? Leave a comment below.

Blog soon,

Antony

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