Thank you for this. A thought on the right wing media political ecosystem: while I think that those voices have their place in a democratic society, the fact that political journalists in this country are terminally online on X in particular, which is skews heavily rightwing and whose owner has an explicit agenda to undermine UK democracy, shapes a lot of the coverage and framing of the issues. I'm not saying that the views on there are not real, but they are given a prominence that is unwarranted given the majority of the population is not on the platform. Instead of going out into communities, like John Harris at the Guardian or Stephen Bush at the FT do, the majority of journalists, esp at the BBC, which is meant to be impartial, just sit on X and take their talking points from there. We are in a doom loop. One big corrective (not a silver bullet, but one big step) would be for our government and journalists to just log off and join us in the real world.
I think people like you still don’t get why many ordinary voters have drifted away from establishment politics.
Not everyone who disagrees with progressive politics is some manipulated extremist from X. Some of us simply believe in strong borders, controlled immigration, a smaller state, personal responsibility and egalitarianism — treating people equally regardless of background.
You may disagree with those views, but millions of people genuinely hold them. Dismissing them as “too online” or blaming Elon Musk avoids the real conversation entirely.
I don't think ppl with right wing views are being manipulated, I think journalists have tunnel vision. Polling by organisations such as British Future show that a majority of ppl have nuanced views that aren't easily divided up as simply left/right. That doesn't come across in the reporting. When X was Twitter and skewed more left, it was the same problem just in the other direction.
I think that’s a fairer take than simply blaming “manipulation” or Elon Musk.
A lot of people hold fairly mainstream views on borders, immigration and national identity, yet parts of the media still react as though those concerns are inherently suspect.
That disconnect is one reason establishment politics has lost trust with many voters.
While agreeing with most of what you say here I think that the statement "Quantitative easing inflated housing and financial markets" is missing the point. Money Creation could be used, judiciously, to invest in the supply side - in this case house building - and inflation is not necessarily the result. QE created £900B from 2008 and there was little RPI inflation until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brexit kicking-in and Covid bounceback.
Use money creation to invest in the supply side - particularly energy price reduction for homes and businesses (which will reduce other product costs) - as well as housing. Boost the economy and tax the people who benefit from that growth with higher tax bands. Introduce lower tax bands so that the introduction into paying NI/Income Tax is more gradual and remove the cap on NI. Tax all income in the same way so Capital Gains and taking pay as profits doesn't avoid NI.
Your point 6 recognises that Labour faces a struggle on two fronts, but then you revert to the line of your previous posts and largely ignore left populism, as represented chiefly by the Greens. I wouldn't agree that left populism is driven by hope - it's too often represented by a howling mob and manifested in acts of vandalism to property. It's as much the result of rage as the populist right. The remaining points 7 to 10 really could do with revisiting in the context of the left populist challenge - I don't think the prescriptions all apply.
This is an extremely useful summary of what were clearly great events. Thanks for distilling so much wisdom Liam. I think several of your concluding questions lead to a shared answer: we urgently need to regenerate local media ecosystems that can drive trust between neighbours and renew social capital in place. Local media can’t deliver the tangible benefits of public policy, but it can create the conditions in which policy is more legitimate and more attuned to the reality of people’s lives.
Lived experience is obviously useful in forming our views but it should be subject to challenge and critique. I, like most people, have seen examples of unfairness and feel, too, that we’ve done the right things and are comfortable enough but some of my children cannot get secure housing despite hard work. BUT ‘hard cases make bad law’ here too. We all have a duty to understand more, not make snap judgements and try to educate ourselves and get involved in community work to help even out the unfairness. And the media and extremists do their best to amplify and ramp up grievances not healing.
At some point ordinary people stop wanting endless lectures about “nuance” and simply want politicians to acknowledge what is visibly happening around them and respond to it honestly.
Thank you for this. A thought on the right wing media political ecosystem: while I think that those voices have their place in a democratic society, the fact that political journalists in this country are terminally online on X in particular, which is skews heavily rightwing and whose owner has an explicit agenda to undermine UK democracy, shapes a lot of the coverage and framing of the issues. I'm not saying that the views on there are not real, but they are given a prominence that is unwarranted given the majority of the population is not on the platform. Instead of going out into communities, like John Harris at the Guardian or Stephen Bush at the FT do, the majority of journalists, esp at the BBC, which is meant to be impartial, just sit on X and take their talking points from there. We are in a doom loop. One big corrective (not a silver bullet, but one big step) would be for our government and journalists to just log off and join us in the real world.
I think people like you still don’t get why many ordinary voters have drifted away from establishment politics.
Not everyone who disagrees with progressive politics is some manipulated extremist from X. Some of us simply believe in strong borders, controlled immigration, a smaller state, personal responsibility and egalitarianism — treating people equally regardless of background.
You may disagree with those views, but millions of people genuinely hold them. Dismissing them as “too online” or blaming Elon Musk avoids the real conversation entirely.
I don't think ppl with right wing views are being manipulated, I think journalists have tunnel vision. Polling by organisations such as British Future show that a majority of ppl have nuanced views that aren't easily divided up as simply left/right. That doesn't come across in the reporting. When X was Twitter and skewed more left, it was the same problem just in the other direction.
I think that’s a fairer take than simply blaming “manipulation” or Elon Musk.
A lot of people hold fairly mainstream views on borders, immigration and national identity, yet parts of the media still react as though those concerns are inherently suspect.
That disconnect is one reason establishment politics has lost trust with many voters.
"unless democratic politics builds it's own civic and media infrastructure"
And stops cosying up with the tech bros...
Thank you.
While agreeing with most of what you say here I think that the statement "Quantitative easing inflated housing and financial markets" is missing the point. Money Creation could be used, judiciously, to invest in the supply side - in this case house building - and inflation is not necessarily the result. QE created £900B from 2008 and there was little RPI inflation until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brexit kicking-in and Covid bounceback.
Use money creation to invest in the supply side - particularly energy price reduction for homes and businesses (which will reduce other product costs) - as well as housing. Boost the economy and tax the people who benefit from that growth with higher tax bands. Introduce lower tax bands so that the introduction into paying NI/Income Tax is more gradual and remove the cap on NI. Tax all income in the same way so Capital Gains and taking pay as profits doesn't avoid NI.
Your point 6 recognises that Labour faces a struggle on two fronts, but then you revert to the line of your previous posts and largely ignore left populism, as represented chiefly by the Greens. I wouldn't agree that left populism is driven by hope - it's too often represented by a howling mob and manifested in acts of vandalism to property. It's as much the result of rage as the populist right. The remaining points 7 to 10 really could do with revisiting in the context of the left populist challenge - I don't think the prescriptions all apply.
Great framing 🙏
This is an extremely useful summary of what were clearly great events. Thanks for distilling so much wisdom Liam. I think several of your concluding questions lead to a shared answer: we urgently need to regenerate local media ecosystems that can drive trust between neighbours and renew social capital in place. Local media can’t deliver the tangible benefits of public policy, but it can create the conditions in which policy is more legitimate and more attuned to the reality of people’s lives.
The assumption that voters simply need better “media ecosystems” still misses the point.
Many people have already reached their conclusions through lived experience, not because they spend too much time online.
I completely agree with your points; not sure why you think I wouldn’t.
Lived experience is obviously useful in forming our views but it should be subject to challenge and critique. I, like most people, have seen examples of unfairness and feel, too, that we’ve done the right things and are comfortable enough but some of my children cannot get secure housing despite hard work. BUT ‘hard cases make bad law’ here too. We all have a duty to understand more, not make snap judgements and try to educate ourselves and get involved in community work to help even out the unfairness. And the media and extremists do their best to amplify and ramp up grievances not healing.
At some point ordinary people stop wanting endless lectures about “nuance” and simply want politicians to acknowledge what is visibly happening around them and respond to it honestly.