Is Britain broken? Strikes, schools at risk of collapse expose broader challenges facing U.K.

One of the most surprising details to emerge after a recent prison escape in Britain wasn't that a terrorism suspect managed to sneak out of London's Wandsworth prison by clinging to the bottom of a delivery truck.  

Or even that Daniel Abed Khalife, the former British soldier facing terrorism charges, was only being held in a category B security prison. 

It was that on the day of his escape 80 members of the prison staff — nearly 40 per cent of its workforce — were absent. And according to government figures, the prison operating with staff absence levels of between 36 and 48 per cent was more or less normal. 

The news prompted a scathing editorial from the Times newspaper: "Living conditions are often inhumane and unsanitary, levels of rehabilitation unsatisfactory, and prison officers are both inexperienced and overstretched following years of cuts," wrote the editorial board.  

The exposed failings of the prison join a growing mound of public infrastructure problems feeding a deep sense of gloom spreading across the United Kingdom, England in particular.

Two years before the Sept. 6 prison escape, a prisons watchdog report described Wandsworth as "crumbling, overcrowded," and infested with vermin. 

"There is a belief that things are just broken and will stay broken," said Robert Ford, a political science professor at the University of Manchester. "There is a loss of faith in government [and] a belief that these problems can't be solved."  

The Wandsworth example, he says, is a microcosm of the broader challenges facing Britain.

"Why did something like that prison break happen? Because of low staffing levels. Why do low staffing levels happen? Because pay isn't high enough. Better pay is available in the private sector."  

Britain has been wracked by a series of public sector strikes over the past year, from teachers to rail drivers to health-care workers.  

"It's like a house with dry rot or Swiss cheese," said Ford. "It's just hopping from one crisis to the next."  

At the end of August, just a few days before the start of the school year, the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ordered more than 100 schools to close buildings it said were at risk of collapse. 

Weak and aging concrete with a shelf-life of about 30 years was the culprit. But the government had been made aware of the problem as early as 2018 after the collapse of a school roof in Kent. 

For children prevented from attending classes in their actual schools — government numbers show 174 are now deemed to be at risk — it was a grim reminder of the remote learning that defined the COVID years.