Seanm
pfm Member
Left and right have different conceptions of what mass involvement in politics means. For the left it means popular participation in power, for the right, popular identification with power. The right’s conception has almost completely won out in the U.K.: most people are either completely disengaged from politics or treat it like a reality TV show because those are the options available. It’s not really a question of the Tories understanding the electorate better, more that they’re better placed to reap the rewards of a system largely constructed for their benefit.I think that just reflects the difference between politics and policy. I am much more interested in the policy because I have always been basically a geek and politics is full of annoying human, institutional and societal factors that make for a mostly tiresome and frustrating experience.
It's also a big difference and weakness of the centre and left of UK politics in that they are far too reliant on the idea that if only everyone was better in formed then we wouldn't keep electing such damaging governments, whereas the Tories have always known that none of that really matters as long as you can make a compelling and easily understood offering to the electorate they will happily memory hole all the terrible things your terrible people did just last month.
BTW I am always slightly amused by the way people talk about PFM here like it's the Bilderberg meeting rather than a small part of a small forum mostly populated by a very narrow demographic (middle aged white men who like nothing better than spending the day in the shed ).
At least half the Labour Party feel the same way about the public as the Conservatives, which is why they’ve worked so hard to hollow the party out, as a democratic institution. The findings of the Forde Report and the response to it have to be seen in this light: if it discourages participation that’s all good, really. What they don’t understand is this doesn’t work for them the same way it does for the Conservatives.