A changing British electorate is propelling Labour towards victory (www.economist.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Patch@feddit.uk to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Beyond the paywall: https://archive.is/Yf8bx#selection-2039.35-2047.566

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Patch@feddit.uk 10 points 8 months ago

Really interesting arcticle breaking down which groups have moved and where, and providing a bit of depth to the discussion around changing demographics.

An interesting take-away is the fact that the electorate is much "swingier" than it ever has been in the past, with a far greater number of people willing to consider switching their vote compared to historic elections. That makes things a lot more volatile than previously, and explains some of the break-neck changes we've seen in recent years (Labour gains in 2017, Tory majority in 2019, potential Labour landslide in 2024).

[-] NotACube@feddit.uk 3 points 8 months ago

The numbers quoted indicate much more of a sea change has occurred than I would have expected.

in the 1960s around an eighth of British voters switched their choice between elections. By the 1980s it was a fifth. At the last election Professor Edward Fieldhouse, a political scientist at the University of Manchester, and his colleagues concluded that most of the electorate were swing voters. Politicians see it on the doorstep. “In 1997 around 40% of voters were up for grabs but today it is probably around 70%,” says Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s shadow business secretary and an MP in the north-west.

Maybe there's hope for PR within the next 20 years.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah this is a very promising trend. It's the opposite of what seems to be happening in the US, which I was afraid we would be condemned to as well.

load more comments (1 replies)

this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024

24 points (92.9% liked)

UK Politics

3090 readers

57 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

flamingos@feddit.uk