Voters suffering most severely from forms of economic oppression, and who share fundamental left-wing values, are not voting for Labour and are definitely not voting for one of the parties to the left of Labour.
Voters suffering most severely from forms of economic oppression, and who share fundamental left-wing values, are not voting for Labour and are definitely not voting for one of the parties to the left of Labour
I am going to indulge in a little navel-gazing to argue that we – if anyone even wants to be part of the ‘we’ of the left anymore – need to take a break from blabbering at each other, and ask why our attempts to communicate are such a dismal failure.
The bedroom tax is bad. Raar! Angry! Me! Furious! Today’s left produces an endless stream of tweets, updates, comments and blogposts opining perspectives that, give or take the odd sub-clause, most of its audience already agrees with. Pat on the back! Yeah! It’s outrageous! Morons!
Meanwhile, many of the voters bearing the full weight of economic inequality blame Romanian immigrants and amble off to vote UKIP.
That this marks a catastrophic failure on the part of the left was demonstrated by research quoted in the Guardian a few months ago. It found that 71 per cent of UKIP voters agree with left-wing statements such as ‘the government should redistribute income’ and ‘ordinary people do not get their fair share of the national wealth’.
This was a significantly higher proportion than Conservative (43 per cent) or Lib Dem (65 per cent) voters, and not far behind Labour (81 per cent). Further research found that of the 10 most UKIP-friendly seats in the country, eight are Labour.
So what’s happened? Why are we finding it so hard to reach an audience beyond our own social and digital circles?
Could it be a consequence of what the film-maker Adam Curtis and novelist Michel Houllebecq identified about the movements of the sixties: that they were never really about social justice, they were about individual self-expression, and so not only did they feed quite naturally into the rise of marketing and Thatcherism, but they also created a culture whereby one’s politics are primarily an aspect of the identity you don each day and swish around on the stage of the world?
In a cultural context such as this, it is entirely logical that collective engagement should be relegated to second-place behind simply airing one’s views and splashing around in the warm pool of your own impassioned outrage.
Or, linked but a little different, is it that the left’s struggles have shifted from the grounds of class to focus on sexuality and gender – understandably tempting territory for the middle-class radical, allowing them to feel personally involved and oppressed and so to indulge their own narcissism?
These are of course vital struggles for many. But their inherent appeal has an unfortunate consequence. Those experiencing greater economic than gender-based oppression end up being left behind, forgotten about, and most of all alienated from a left of bloggers, artists, cartoonists and tattooists who spend half the time banging on about their own sex lives, shaving habits, and taste in arthouse cinema.
Or is the old left right after all, and it’s all the fault of New Labour?
To a large extent we’re still reliant on Labour to, bee-like, convey our arguments across the whole of the country. But Miliband’s party of career politicians has no convincing narrative to explain why people find themselves in dead-ends of economic deprivation, let alone any substantive policies that might get them moving again.
Whatever balance of these and other factors is the cause, it has happened, and we should acknowledge it. The left is losing the argument. Voters suffering most severely from forms of economic oppression, and who share fundamental left-wing values, are not voting for Labour and are definitely not voting for one of the parties to the left of Labour.
Most are not blaming flows of international capital for the housing crisis. They’re not blaming inadequate worker compensation for their long hours, poor quality of life and reliance on in-work benefits. They’re not blaming the slashing of subsidised legal aid for their precarious employment situation.
No, as UKIP’s continuing journey up the polls demonstrates, they’re blaming Romanian immigrants and benefit cheats. And the left is failing to counter these arguments.
Perhaps instead of churning out more contempt-laden copy on the latest UKIP blunder or eccentric policy proposal, we should turn our touchscreens to discussing how we can communicate more effectively with those suffering most acutely from the inequities of our economic system.
Toby Hill is a London-based journalist and writer
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176 Responses to “The rise of UKIP marks a failure of the left”
Guest
Oh right, “few”. Never mind business, never mind plenty of people do.
Keep saying that you’re prepated to lay waste to the economy to get the Other out, to smash the border shut, as you are the ones directly causing the vast, vast majority of troubles ans tensions.
You have, indeed, forced people to group up to defend themselves from people with your views. Then you condemn and attack them here for not being wide open to thugs.
As you blame the left for everything. Again.
robertcp
We should remember that there has never been a golden era when a united left was advancing towards socialism. It is possible that Labour will sneak in next year like it did in 1974 when Labour and the Conservatives were both unpopular. However, a Labour government would be unlikely to last more than one term if it does not build a broader left of centre coalition.
jack
The Left is finished. It died about thirty years ago. In some ways I feel sorry for Left wingers -it must be feel completely pointless calling for policies that no major party endorses. And to spend your life in an angry, self righteous froth, calling for a way of life that is never going to happen. Meanwhile, your life ticks past.
Leon Wolfeson
Polling *tabs*. The breakdown of who will in future vote for who.
Which shows that there is *not* a major and significant shift from Labour to UKIP.
I can’t find any evidence whatsoever for a leftward shift in what you’ve said. You’ve clarified, actually, for no solid movement from the current moderate right position of Labour, and simply launching “education”.
“Education” aimed at the UKIP base will do nothing – you’re preaching at right-wing people who won’t even listen when the word “Labour” is included, in general. The left, on the other hand, already hold left wing views, and you’ve moved right and away from, them – they might see and read your efforts, but without actual changes in policy, they are no more likely to vote for you.
(And of course Labour supporters will also nod, but they’re already with you!)
I’m sure we agree on some things, but this one is really quite clear from polling tabs, and it’s policy which matters. Labour is not left wing, it does not appeal to the left and it keeps even moving right and bleeding votes. Worrying about UKIP when you’re steadily bleeding even centralist support to “not voting”….sigh.
I don’t waste time watching videos, as a *blanket policy.* Text is a far higher density medium. If I wasted my time with every video I was linked…
Guest
Right, we all died 30 years ago. And of course it’s great for you that there’s mass disenfranchisement, and they must all be like you. The usual.