right, coining the Distracted Guy Meme decade - there's technically space out there for both a broad Labour voting coalition or a broad Tory voting one but neither party actually likes the look of their voters, they'd much rather have that other voting coalition over there, thank you very much - ThreadSky

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com • 13 days ago

right, coining the Distracted Guy Meme decade - there's technically space out there for both a broad Labour voting coalition or a broad Tory voting one but neither party actually likes the look of their voters, they'd much rather have that other voting coalition over there, thank you very much

Reposted from Ben Ansell

I think there’s a deep intuition that the Labour Party’s actual voting base is the ‘wrong one’ and it should be the one it had in the 1970s/80s. What’s funny is this is the opposite of what the Conservatives did, when they abandoned their old yuppies/managerial base.

Comments

rupertstubbs.bsky.social•13 days ago

Ed Davey:

drfraserking.bsky.social•13 days ago

Except it's not a coalition; it's a minority being oxygenated by the politically weak-minded.

joshuamurraynevill.bsky.social•13 days ago

I think for the Conservatives, they were always rather envious of the UKIP/Reform pick-up as it developed and adopted a reactionary base that many of them craved in darkest golf club dreams. Labour are envous of the UKIP/Reform base because they're Labour voters from 1974 who live in the homelands

alpinemigrant.bsky.social•13 days ago

It's the classic story of unrequited love.

Sorry Labour/Tories.

S/he's just ... not that into you.

Tories/Labour: "I need to win them back! I'll do anything."

And repeat.

m-rd.bsky.social•13 days ago

Don't disagree with second part of thread but I'm a 30s middle class professional in a Teesside marginal w/ less than 3k majority for Lab & they're also telling me to go fuck myself at every opportunity so think it's broader than metro libs tbh

cmrlj.bsky.social•12 days ago

It sounds like you are a metro lib, tbh. Be proud! ☺️

danlargebutklein.bsky.social•13 days ago

Its not just metro libs with consultancy jobs in London. The "working class" in this country works at McDonalds not in factories. They live in northern cities and they're under 35 and they are much more put off by Labour's reform chasing rhetoric than won over by it.

huwtd.bsky.social•13 days ago

Fits with their general dislike/contempt for the economy, culture, population and geographical position of the country they're in, too.

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•13 days ago

just quite funny that if you're a broadly liberal metropolitan middle-class voter, both main parties are now taking turns going "urgh no not you though, we don't want *your* vote, ew"

da.videvans.uk•13 days ago

Broadly liberal metropolitan middle-class voters oscillate between knowing in the core of their being that they are right (if-only-I-was-in-charge-everything-would-be-fine) and self-loathing, so it seems on point.

iguandonjim.bsky.social•13 days ago

Also, "we don't want *your* vote, despite being quite likely to actually vote regularly"

fullydecaffeinated.bsky.social•13 days ago

I remember arguing with Corbyn people about the centre. They insisted 'centrists' just triangulate from wherever the extremes are, and have no values. Basically they are spineless, you can drag them about. Everyone has forgotten that they/we have real values and principles! (And the Lib Dems exist.)

paulchandler.bsky.social•13 days ago

I suppose the grain of truth is that you can move the overton window. The Republicans have been spectacularly successful in the US doing that.

jodami.bsky.social•13 days ago

Or the metropolitan working class vote, for that matter.

They tend to take us for granted though.

harry-is-human.bsky.social•13 days ago

There also seems to be a failure to see a 22 year old retail worker living in a HMO in Manchester or London as 'real working class'.

exogenesis2.bsky.social•13 days ago

There's something subtly gendered about it all too - old working class jobs in industry and mining framed as masculine. Meanwhile more working class people today are in sectors like hospitality, retail and care work that get framed as more feminine.

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•13 days ago

100%

ralucahippie.bsky.social•13 days ago

They also don't realise how immigrant the working class is.

Like - who exactly do they think is staffing our care homes and warehouses?

outeast.bsky.social•13 days ago

Excellent point. (And of course plenty of today's middle-aged lefty liberal metros are literally the children of those old-school 1970s working-class voters. I mean, that's rather how come we ended up lefty liberals and not staunch Tories.)

thomascheney.bsky.social•13 days ago

a lot of our problems do stem from the fact that weve not caught up to the societal changes that now mean a working class person can be a university graduate, living in a flatshare and making 25k and a middle class person can be a 60 year old non graduate plumber with a property portfolio

thomascheney.bsky.social•13 days ago

because they had sizeable equity when their ex council house skyrocketed in value

twlldun.bsky.social•13 days ago

“Swipe Left” should figure somehow in this coinage, surely.

twlldun.bsky.social•13 days ago

It’s very app behaviour. Half heartedly going through all the coalitions possible in the hope that hottie in a miner’s outfit you saw when you logged on way back before your marriage and divorce is somehow still out there.

joxley.jmoxley.co.uk•13 days ago

"Hot miner off the internet" one of those sentences you can only write, not say out loud.

disappoptimism.bsky.social•13 days ago

“And that, your honour, was what I REALLY meant”

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•13 days ago

oh ffs beat me by 30 seconds

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•13 days ago

"your honour,"

pibasedlifeform.bsky.social•13 days ago

"Hot centre left voters being political near you now"

pibasedlifeform.bsky.social•13 days ago

I have to admit to looking at the country and seeing division everywhere (which is a bit depressing)

But there is still certainly a far greater majority who would be able to cope (and possibly vote) for what you suggest

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•13 days ago

may launch some sort of woo woo life coaching consultancy but for political parties, ask them to take a deep breath, then make peace with the voters they're attracting, and stop chasing the ones they won't get anyway, be content with what you have not what you want, now exhale again

radiobeartime.com•13 days ago

This has a strong Fantômas vibe! It must be done!

ava.foxfort.net•13 days ago

Considering it's what Reform are actually doing, maybe it's a lesson they'd want to learn.

carolinepennock.bsky.social•13 days ago

Jesus Christ, yes, this. Why the hell are Labour chasing Reform voters they won’t get and reinforcing their talking points in the process?!

jonathancresswell.co.uk•13 days ago

For some reason I've imagined this happening as a sort of Mrs Doubtfire scenario where you're in theatrical prosthetics as a 50-year-old-northern-man, as that's how they'll listen to you, but it's absolutely secretly just mindfulness 101 sort of things

ava.foxfort.net•13 days ago

Mrs Workingtonman

pibasedlifeform.bsky.social•13 days ago

*52 year old northern man here*

Oi!

twistedbyknaves.bsky.social•13 days ago

Great point, well made!

But I'm afraid while politics remains a spectator sport for teams who have no real connection with their communities, you'll have your work cut out.

timkimber.bsky.social•13 days ago

But also, try advocating your principles, not capitulating to opinion polls. Try winning an argument for a change!

gillies.bsky.social•13 days ago

the idea that voters should be chased and not persuaded is, I think, feeding so much of the apathy around politics.

markwestdav.bsky.social•13 days ago

It all seems to be coming up Lib Dem…..Greens maybe but the leadership election there could shape how that goes. Not sure that same group of voters is in a ‘let’s leave NATO’ place as Zack P appears to be.

freedomforall.net•13 days ago

And getting that response from those same voters ..

oneoneoneone.bsky.social•13 days ago

to some extent I think this ties into the issue this FT piece highlights - email jobs are getting closer to being minimum wage and yet politically a working class person is a toolmaker not a 28yo with buckets of student debt and a £900pcm room in a houseshare

https://www.ft.com/content/5f6972fb-0a71-4a63-b1fd-030ceafd0112

oldhobbit.bsky.social•13 days ago

If they are chasing the votes of places like Lincolnshire, it has a grand total of some 700,000 or so voters. I quite like Lincolnshire but there is fuck-all there. Meanwhile, in metropolitan areas....

paulchandler.bsky.social•13 days ago

You're not wrong, I suppose the flip side is that's what won them such a big, shallow majority.

Rather than piling up votes in save seats Corbyn style.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•13 days ago

They would be better off trying to sort out the shit lives endured in rural and former industrial towns, rather than cosplaying as fascists, then they might keep some of the votes in a few years. Countess Marie mentioned a positive NHS experience yesterday, sort of thing that makes a difference.

paulchandler.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yes, I was thinking only yesterday that there's just a lot of boring hard work to be done and the desire is to be announcing sexy new stuff all the time. Drones to catch fly-tippers or whatever. Absolutely focus on what you say.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•12 days ago

There is some stuff being done by Labour, summarised recently by Bylines. They should talk about that and do more of it, rather than this migrant nonsense.

jonnyexists.bsky.social•13 days ago

The media reclassifying the "working class" as being comfortably retired people with a string of BTL properties and a Northern accent vs the "liberal elites" of young people working minimum wage service jobs and renting rooms in city houseshares is a big part of this.

jackcarterbenjamin.bsky.social•13 days ago

Part of the issue is the working class has abandoned left-wing parties around the world despite it being against their economic interest to do so. They are largely prioritizing cultural/social interests instead.

Trying to realign both interests again will be messy, if it’s even possible.

paullomax.co.uk•13 days ago

I wonder if something similar happened around the time before the Democrats and Republicans switched ideologies?

https://www.studentsofhistory.com/ideologies-flip-Democratic-Republican-parties

aidan.skinner.me.uk•13 days ago

Don't forget the loathing that Labour members have for other Labour members and themselves.

chrisbham.bsky.social•13 days ago

This really is a classic of our time. Despite not being "in" politics I know a few fairly inactive labour members and at least one guy who quit when Corbyn was replaced.

None of them ever like anything the labour party does

paulchandler.bsky.social•13 days ago

alherix.bsky.social•12 days ago

Seems a clear cut for joining and supporting Liberal Democrats. Their leader @eddavey.libdems.org.uk is both serious and fun, empathetic and strong. Same goes for party members.
Perhaps that is why media does not pay much attention to Liberal Democrat’s even when they come second in local elections

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