Britain has just appointed its seventh prime minister in a decade. In his first speech, Andy Burnham said the country needs to show that it can regain its stability.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England’s April report contained no central forecast at all. It set out three scenarios instead — three possible versions of the next few years, offered without a preference between them.
The official word for this is uncertainty.
But uncertainty does not remain in politics, markets or headlines. It enters meetings, businesses, homes and bodies.
And somebody usually absorbs it.
The country’s answer was to appoint someone to be responsible for it. Organisations do the same. So do families.
It is usually the person everyone already sees as capable. The one who interprets the latest change, reassures the team, checks the figures, anticipates what might go wrong and quietly keeps things moving.
I think of this as the stability tax: the extra mental and emotional work you take on because the systems around you feel less reliable.
It rarely appears in your job description. It looks like competence.
But the body knows the difference.
You remain alert. You think further ahead. You find it harder to switch off, because some part of you is still scanning for what may change next.
The answer is not necessarily to become more resilient.
It may be to ask:
What instability have I quietly made myself responsible for — and does it actually belong to me?