Exit Music
This episode’s outro is brought to you by MIA. The reasons may become clear.
Broke-Arse Island
Is Britain broken? Yes, say apocalyptic NatCon-adjacent once and future Conservative stars like Neil O’Brien MP. Poppycock, retorts FT columnist Janan Ganesh. 1
Whether it is or it isn’t as an ontological matter is probably less useful to know than whether and why so many people in Britain think and feel that it’s “broken”, “rubbish” or “shattered” - as a new report from nonprofit think tank More in Common segmenting the British public into not political party ID groups but more psychographic segments shows.
Behold, the “British Seven” as detailed in their must-read report Shattered Britain, released a couple of weeks ago:
Progressive Activists – Left-leaning, activist-minded, pro-diversity and globalism; strong climate advocates who see net zero as urgent and non-negotiable.
Incrementalist Left – Labour-loyal pragmatists focused on fairness and public services; support climate action but prioritise cost-of-living relief and gradual transition.
Established Liberals – Urban, university-educated, globally oriented; deeply pro-science and pro-climate, trust institutions and favour ambitious green investment.
Sceptical Scrollers – Young, politically detached, distrustful of institutions; accept climate change but are disengaged and cynical about policy impact, elite motives, or the prospect of positive change. And love a good conspiracy theory.
Rooted Patriots – Older, economically insecure, socially conservative, economically left-of-centre, prototypical Red Wall types; may back climate action framed as fairness, security, and protecting "our countryside."
Traditional Conservatives – Risk-averse, nostalgic, pro-institutions; climate sceptical about net zero costs but open to energy security and "sensible" low-carbon moves.
Dissenting Disruptors – Anti-establishment, chaos-driven, low-trust voters; worry about climate impacts but reject net zero as elitist, potentially more open to talk about adaptation over ‘windmills’.
As Ed Hodgson, their deputy director for research, tells me in this chat about the report, this kind of segmentation is “upstream” and more useful when examining attitudes and values about things like climate, energy, cost of living, elites, and to get some insight about what might move someone from Tories to Labour to Reform and back again in their voting intentions?
And what sort of approach to comms might be motivating - Reform-lite immigration rhetoric backed with a now-discredited “deliverism”? 2
While the FT’s Ganesh doesn’t directly cite the report, he does echo in his column the definitive quality of that Dissenting Disruptors group, who according to Hodgson make up 20% of the public (but with low propensity to turnout and vote) - they are willing to “roll-the-dice” and/or “burn it all down”.
It’s fair to say that Ed and co have tapped into something very much in the Zeitgeist. We hope he’ll come back on the regular - let us know what you think.
In this Conversation
00:55 Britain's Political Landscape
01:37 Understanding the British Public
02:26 The Rise of Reform UK
04:05 Challenges for the Labour Party
05:57 Drivers of Political Fragmentation
13:08 Impact of International Politics
25:14 The Challenge of Visibility for Kemi Badnock
25:41 The Importance of Rooted Patriots
27:36 Climate and Energy: Reform's Stance
28:18 Polarization of Net Zero
30:31 Public Perception of Climate Adaptation
37:09 Electric Vehicles and Public Sentiment
40:47 Making Climate Change Tangible
43:53 Final Thoughts and Policy Implications
All the Outros
Stipulated: all platforms are bad. That said, we will continue to add to this Spotify playlist where we keep track of our outros, which somehow are piling up even faster than our episodes - now at 158 including this one.
Have a great weekend.
And sign up for the More In Common newsletter. It’s brilliant.
Ganesh slates O’Brien for managing to catalogue Britain’s “confluence” of woes without ever mentioning Brexit in 4000 words. Also notably absent: “Reform” and “Farage”.
Deliverism, much in vogue amongst many Labour thinkers last summer despite already on the way out in the US before Trump 2.0, was the theory that climate-action supporting Democrats would be buoyed by the economic benefits of Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, designed to be impossible for downscale district Red State Republicans to vote to repeal? HOW’D THAT WORK OUT?
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