At each election the turnout seems to get lower and lower as people loose faith in the ability or, in some cases, desire of politicians to actually materially improve their lives. In 2024, turnout was 59.7%. Labour won their landslide working majority of 167 with just 33.7% of the votes cast.
This majority was won by lots of tactical voting and a general desire to see the back of the Tories. This also means that there is probably no way to keep this very loose coalition together. There are just too many conflicting views within it. Unfortunately, the Labour party seem to have chosen to attempt to keep this coalition together by lurching to the right and following the Tories. I think this is impossible.
If you start from the view that our system of government is, if not broken, then severley bent, then a majority of 160+ is a God given opportunity to fix it. Just think what could be done, if the will was there to sacrifice a small part of that huge majority.
- Reform the House of Lords and get an elected second chamber
- Reform the tax and benefit systems which are clunky, complicated and seem to penalise all the wrong people.
- Tackle the banks. We bailed them out in 2008/9 but getting them to behave in a responsible manner seems impossible
- Re-nationalise water (and railways?)
- And, given the times we live in, sort out the defense budget so we can protect ourselves and our allies but still have public services.
- And then, the NHS, public transport
I’m not suggesting this as an order of priority and I’m also not suggesting that this list is exhaustive.
There is no way all this could be done in a single parliament and probably the parliamentary majority would be cut at each election, but, if by attempting to be a radical Labour government, people began to feel better off and better cared for could this be a look to the future?
And, if people start to feel better off and better cared for, perhaps they might feel that politicians aren’t “all the same” and “just in it for themselves and their mates”. And, who knows, perhaps turnout at elections might start to increase.