Old Parties, Old Narratives, Old Certainties: All Gone

For decades, Britain's political tribes were stable. You voted Labour because of class and unions, or Conservative because of property and tradition. Now? Every assumption is up for renegotiation.

I think everyone in Britain can feel this in their bones - 'class dealignment' has been going for decades, at least since Thatcher, so half a century even, but this collapse of the old political order is now total.

Brexit blew away any sense that there was anything of signficance remaining of old left–right alignment; Johnson-era politics replaced ideology with vibes and improvisation. Sunakism never became a thing at all. Labour under Starmer is winning, not because people are enthused, but because the alternative has simply stopped functioning.

And what's happening with British politics of late is unsettling, so say the least... the the predictability, the institutions, the sense of continuity that we had with the old system have all disintegrated.

And in the gap to fill those old certaintees, we're currently stuck with Reform UK.

A Politics of Exhaustion

One noteable feature about modern politics is that it's become much more emotional and much less rational - or at least any party trying to be simply rational is punished, I mean look at Reeve's budget, that was rational, cautious, and people (including me) think very little of it.

But chase those emotions - small boats - and you're Mr popular/ ist.

An uncertain and emotional future....

That's all I can see for politics - I imagine Reform will do pretty well in the next elections and IF they do get into power their policies won't improve things, and then this whole emotional politics thing could get a lot worse!