UK politics is focused on short-term crises, at the expense of thinking about and acting on long-term problems. Among other things, this is a barrier to building a fairer society, undermining opportunity and growth and damaging our democracy and our society more broadly. Thinking and acting in the long term is possible, as the Welsh government has proven over the last decade, and brings multiple benefits. Many of today’s thorniest political problems in the UK would have been ameliorated, if not averted, had previous government paid more attention to long term issues. There are a range of institutional, systemic and psychological barriers to thinking and acting in the long term, but there are also many practical solutions that can help to overcome those barriers.
The Fairness Foundation and two expert speakers - Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, and Cat Tully, Managing Director of the School of International Futures - discussed the need for UK politics and policymaking to focus on long-termism and on the welfare of future generations, the barriers to change, and how to overcome them.
This webinar marked the launch of the Fairness Foundation’s new report, Mission to the Future.
Summary of the discussion
Will Snell summarised the report’s findings and conclusions:
- UK politics is dominated by short-term crisis management, which undermines efforts to build a fairer, more resilient society. This approach leads to missed opportunities, growing inequality, and erodes public trust and democratic legitimacy.
- International examples, especially Wales’s Well-being of Future Generations Act, show that embedding long-term thinking in policy can deliver real benefits-such as lower emissions, better public health, and more engaged citizens. Other countries like New Zealand and Singapore have also institutionalised foresight and intergenerational fairness.
- Three barriers to change were identified: lack of leadership and incentives for long-term policy at the centre of government, insufficient public engagement in shaping long-term policy, and psychological obstacles that make it hard to prioritise future generations.
- The report proposed two practical ways to embed long-termism into UK politics: appointing a UK-wide Future Generations Commissioner to champion long-term, intergenerational fairness, and launching a national dialogue to engage citizens in shaping the future.
The discussion with Derek Walker and Cat Tully covered:
- Additional policy measures, such as a parliamentary committee for the future and embedding intergenerational fairness in policy design
- Learning from Wales, which demonstrates that long-termism can be embedded even within short political cycles if there is broad stakeholder buy-in, a positive vision for the future, and genuine public involvement; collaboration across government levels and sectors is crucial
- The growing global trend toward long-term, intergenerational policymaking, with countries in the global north and south experimenting with new institutional models
- How success depends on public engagement, and on making long-termism relevant to people’s everyday lives, demonstrating real impact, and ensuring citizens can hold institutions accountable for future-oriented decisions
The panel concluded that embedding long-term thinking and intergenerational fairness is essential for a fairer, healthier, and more resilient UK, and called for urgent, collective action to overcome political and institutional inertia.