Dickens
Casdon
Here we go again. Labour won 412 seats. That means that in 412 constituencies they were the most popular party. Very nearly two thirds of the UK constituencies preferred Labour to any other party.
I don’t think that we are a divided nation. I think there is a hardcore right and a hardcore left, which together make up less than 25% of the electorate. The vast majority of people are in the middle three quarters, and don’t support extremist or hardcore views of any kind. The ones on the periphery shout the loudest, and the rest of us listen too often.
Casdon I'm not talking about strictly hardcore Left or Right -as you say, they are a minority ( a vocal one albeit).
I mean that the electorate swings - broadly if you like - from one side to the other.
With respect, I beg to differ about us not being a divided nation. You only have to read GN N&P threads to discover that. We are not at war with each other, but there is a very definite divide. There was a thread quite recently which was, basically, a 'warning' about Labour coming for your money - the views expressed were quite polarised.
I believe there is a section of society, popularly called the Red Wall, who feel disenfranchised, and very alienated from those they think of as the 'elite' - the elite in this case being the supposedly educated middle-class, usually 'down South', and not infrequently Labour voters, who they believe don't live "in the real world", are too woke, and not particularly patriotic because of their stance on immigration and the EU.
They gave Boris Johnson his whacking majority and they are waiting to see how things pan out under Labour. Inevitably it will be some time before anyone sees much in the way of change, and how much of that change will improve their lives remains to be seen.
So yes, I do think we are a divided nation - just not in the same way as the USA where the divisions are stark, and dangerous.
I understand what you’re saying Dickens, and I mostly agree. I’m not convinced that the divide is that great in the middle ground though, I’d see the electorate as more fluctuating than divided.
I think part of the reason the differences seem so great on Gransnet is that people are more likely to routinely vote Conservative after the age of 65, so there is a high proportion of Gransnet members on the right. Those on the left are less in numbers but vocal, and each side accuses the other of being much more right/left than they actually are because the relatively small number of regular posters know each other well and know what buttons to press - my experience in real life doesn’t bear out that as the norm, people are generally quite pragmatic and will vote for whoever they think will serve their needs best for now- younger people much more so than older ones.
