The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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11:51am on Wednesday, 6th November, 2024:
Anecdote
My home town of Hornsea was mentioned in the news this morning because of an outbreak of bird flu. Sadly, the main headline was grabbed by events in the USA.
When the UK voted for Brexit, most of the political classes completely misunderstood why. They still misunderstand why. They think it was to do with the EU, or misinformation, or racism. Doubtless some of it was, but the main reason was that the poor and neglected wanted to stuff it to the ruling classes who were ignoring them.
It's a similar thing with the Reform party. Millions of people didn't vote Reform because they supported its policies: they voted Reform because they knew they were getting nothing but indifference from the Conservatives and patronisation from Labour. The Conservatives have failed to understand this and have now lurched to the right to try to recapture the votes they lost to Reform. They won't get them. They need to have policies that will positively change the lives of the disenfranchised, not ones that affront decency. Labour needs to have policies that match what their own lost voters want, not what middle-class ex-barristers think they must want.
This is also what's happened in the US. The people who voted for Trump aren't all the rabid nutters that the vocal few give the impression they are. They voted for him because he's a roll of the dice that might make a difference. OK, so there's maybe a greater chance that the difference will be negative rather than positive, but at least this way they can stuff it to the career politicians who argue that the poor are nevertheless privileged because they don't check all the preferred boxes used to determine disadvantage. To be fair, the Republicans do seem to understand this, but the Democrats certainly don't.
The world looks a less safe place now. This is what happens when you don't listen — or you listen, but don't hear.
I have to say, though, I'm not entirely sure why a republican party would vote to establish a monarchy. Oh well, that's US politics for you.
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Copyright © 2024 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).