A loveless landslide and a depressing disenfranhisement

JVL Introduction

Nesrine Malik captures well the huge disconnect in British society represented by the defeat of the Tories and Labour’s accession to power.

Labour’s mandate has been described as a “loveless landslide”, a “broad but shallow” majority, “a landslide on the ballot sheets but indifference on the streets”.

The Institute for Public Policy Research reports that just 52% of UK adults voted on 4 July (it was 67% only 5 years before), the lowest since genuinely universal suffrage was introduced in 1928.

“Put simply,” the IPPR report said, “the ‘haves’ speak much louder than the ‘have-nots’ in British democracy.”

Or, as the Economist put it, the “left behind” have been replaced by the “well ahead” in terms of political significance, with Labour winning its lowest share of the vote in deprived areas, its highest in affluent ones.

People now exist for whom working hard and playing by the rules will never pay off. And Labour is not about to change the rules. Malik’s conclusion is painful: “it’s profoundly sad and disturbing that what is emerging is a political caste system”.

RK

This article was originally published by the Guardian on Mon 15 Jul 2024. Read the original here.