In many ways, life feels fragile right now.

So many interactions that people have with public services or major industries can leave you with the impression everything is about to fall down. 

The cost-of-living is skyrocketing, with people struggling to meet soaring bills – especially the poorest, who spend a higher proportion of their income on essentials like energy. 

NHS waiting lists are growing and ambulance response times are putting lives at risk.

Even families looking for respite are finding their holidays ruined by cancelled flights.  

Most frustratingly, the Government apparently has no plan to solve these problems and is instead preoccupied with day-to-day firefighting – and fire starting .  

Seemingly out of ideas and out of steam – but with no shortage of hot air – they are instead attempting to ignite culture wars and attacking some of the UK’s most iconic institutions to distract from their utter lack of vision.  

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is a notable culprit: hellbent on privatising Channel 4 despite public opposition and a flimsy economic case, while threatening the BBC with an end to the licence fee. 

National pride isn’t just flag waving and singing the anthem – it’s also about ensuring everyone has access to better work, a better life and a better future.  

That requires a plan and some long-term thinking. 

But with Boris Johnson’s allies rallying round ‘Operation Big Dog’, the government is beset by short termism. 

Downing Street’s response to the PM scraping by in the confidence vote this week was a press release saying Johnson would be setting out his ‘vision for the coming weeks.’

Were they letting slip just how little time they think he has left?

But for now, Boris Johnson remains the Prime Minister, and it’s no good just to gripe and moan about his government’s shortcomings. 

When delegates from across my union, Prospect, meet in Bournemouth this weekend for our conference, we’ll be discussing practical ways to meet the challenges our country faces. 

So, if the Prime Minister wants to ‘get on with the job and deliver on what matters to the British people,’ then here are a few places to start.  

Start now on properly investing in renewables and nuclear power – pushing us towards Net Zero, providing good, skilled jobs across the country and ensuring we never again face such appalling energy prices by reducing our dependence on foreign gas. 

Dithering on extending the lives of nuclear power plants has already seen EDF confirm the closure of Hinkley Point B this year. 

With all but one of our remaining plants due to close by the end of the decade, the government must immediately heed union calls to ask operators to explore the safe extension of these plants.

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Boris and his ministers must also get real on Brexit – by stopping the bombast and starting to address the deficiencies in a deal that was never ‘oven-ready.’

Trade barriers with our closest neighbours are driving up prices for Brits.

This isn’t about refighting the referendum: it’s about making it work for the British people who are desperate for pragmatism that delivers rather than puff and posturing.   

Unions warned the government that ending furlough while international travel restrictions remained would hit the aviation industry hard, and we’re now seeing the consequences of their failure to listen. 

To get travellers ready for take-off, aviation staff need to be put on the Shortage Occupation List, a government scheme, which relaxes immigration criteria for those industries deemed to have a staff shortage. 

Making speeches about ‘cancel culture’ might seem clever to ministers, but it’s the cancelled flights that people really care about.  

Public servants find themselves overworked and without the pay to match rising inflation, while the government threatens them with the sack.

Prospect members helped to co-ordinate the pandemic response, reopen our schools and ensure workplaces were safe to return to – and their reward from this government has been a threat to cut 91,000 of them to return to pre-Brexit staffing levels. 

Whatever your view on Brexit, it resulted in the repatriation of powers, responsibility and ultimately workload from Brussels – so we won’t apologise for saying these cuts are nonsensical vandalism that will only damage essential services.  

We also want the government to commit to a vision for a future of work that’s fair and flexible for all workers – not just flexible for employers. 

Flexibility is about so much more than some people having the option to work from home a few days a week: it’s the ability to juggle work around caring responsibilities; a right to disconnect from an always-on working culture; and ensuring people are working to live, not living to work. 

They should also bring forward the long-promised Employment Bill to make life better for working people – and to ensure the scandal of the P&O sackings can never be repeated. 

So, Prime Minister, if you’re staying – then get on with it. End the culture wars and governing by press release and start building the economy the people of this country deserve. 

I imagine the events of the last week have focused your mind on what legacy you leave.

Now’s the time to make sure you have one worth speaking of – whether it’s measured in metric or imperial.  

Mike Clancy is General Secretary of Prospect trade union, which represents 150,000 workers in the public and private sectors. 

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