Lasting success often requires patience

On 7 January 1990, I went with my dad to watch Derby County play away at Port Vale. Following Derby around the country with him was my happy place growing up, so those memories stay vivid. On the radio and in the newspapers that day all the talk was that if Manchester United lost to Nottingham Forest, Alex Ferguson was going to be sacked.

Derby drew that afternoon but lost the replay three days later. Manchester United, meanwhile, won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Mark Robins. Ferguson kept his job, won the FA Cup that season – his first trophy at United – and by the time he retired 26 years later he had won 38 major honours. Had that one header not gone in, football history might look very different.

The lesson is simple: lasting success often requires patience.

Ironically, Manchester United themselves seem to have forgotten that. Since Sir Alex retired, they have gone through 12 managers in 13 years and still have not won another league title.

I sometimes think British politics has fallen into the same trap. During Ferguson’s 26 years at United, Britain had only five prime ministers. Since he retired, we have already had more than that in half the time. Constant upheaval may create headlines, but it rarely solves underlying problems we face or creates long-term progress.

And after another noisy week in politics, with conflicts abroad and uncertainty at home, it is worth us all taking a moment’s pause. 

I understand and indeed share people’s frustration at the pace of change. For years many families have felt worse off. Wages have struggled to keep pace with prices, and public services have often seemed to move backwards instead of forwards.

If there was a quick fix for these problems, as some would have you believe, we would have grasped it with both hands. Some things do take time and the hard work we have put in is starting to bear fruit.

Last week, despite everything else dominating the news, Britain was confirmed as the fastest-growing economy among the world’s major nations in the first three months of this year.

New NHS figures also showed waiting lists in England falling by nearly half a million since we came to power, with the biggest improvement in treatment times for 16 years.

And after months of negotiations, Britain joined 45 other European nations in backing tougher interpretations of the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to deport foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers. With small boat crossing down this year and having already closed 40% of the Conservative’s asylum hotels, we are quietly getting on with the job of securing our borders. 

Closer to home, we helped Buxton Opera House secure visas for two-star performers for this year’s festival, while continuing local community work across High Peak, including a fantastic coffee morning in Peak Dale.

Politics can sometimes feel dominated by social media outrage, by personality rather than policy and demands for instant results. But lasting change throughout Britain’s history has often been quieter than that. It takes persistence, patience and a willingness to stick with a plan long enough to see it through.

That was true for Alex Ferguson. And I believe it is true for our country today as well.