What Voters Want to Hear

After nearly a decade when it’s been hard to find anyone in politics or the media who articulates what I believe (!), there are now some examples coming to the fore.

One such, is a piece by Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times in May this year.

He wrote:

The British People ‘distrust those who tarnish British history and spend their time engaging in public self-flagellation, for they know that in the broad sweep of things this nation has been a force for good in the world. They are also right to distrust the “ my truth versus your truth” vapidity that has become endemic in the Labour Party’s youth wing – the idea that “lived experience” counts for more than objective reality.

They are right to distrust cancel culture. The social-media-obsessed left believes that the culture wars are an all-or-nothing fight to the death and that it is therefore obligatory to eviscerate opponents for minor heresies. Most right-minded people, on the other hand, wish to eradicate racism and other forms of discrimination, but in a way that leads to reconciliation, not hatred. The concept of forgiveness is central to western tradition and by implication the British psyche.

They are also right to have fears about globalisation. Economists like to say that free exchange increases the welfare of those who partake in it. And there is no doubt that the era of globalisation has increased prosperity, not least in China, where hundreds of millions have been taken out of poverty. What the advocates of trade theory somewhat overlooked is that globalisation also creates losers in rich nations, whose jobs are offshored, something that happened in the American rust belt and the British industrial north. These people were ignored and in many cases, derided.

In particular they are right about the importance of the nation state. History shows that the redistribution of wealth – upon which working class communities depend – is not easy without violence or revolution. This is why the creation of the British welfare state was a seminal event, a vast transfer of power and income achieved through the ballot box.

Yet this could never have happened without a massive sense of national solidarity – for why else would people consent to share what they have earned? This is something the internationalist left have never grasped: social bonds and social justice are two sides of the same coin’

The puzzle is why such views get so little prominence, given my strong belief that a significant majority of our electorate agree with them!

After Covid we have an opportunity as a society to discuss and debate what we collectively believe should be the values that underpin a Britain in the 21^st century.

• Do we want those who care for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society to be paid and remunerated properly?
• Do we want to build houses in large numbers to enable young people to have a realistic expectation of owning their own home?
• Do want the put in place a social care system that looks after old people nearing the end of their lives?
• Do we want to create a society that enables young people to become more prosperous than their parents, rather than be poorer?
• Do we a want to build strong alliances with other democracies in order to encourage liberty, freedom and prosperity for those who do not have it?
• Do we want to encourage in public life a spirit of optimism, inclusiveness and compassion – with the better off wanting to help those not so fortunate?