I don’t vote Tory, and as I didn’t vote at all at the last election I don’t claim to have a dog in this fight, but I was surprised to hear that Tory MPs are in tune with their voter base on cultural issues.
Andrew Sainsbury
2 years ago
As my first unherd contribution I would like to point out the obvious interpretation of this data; that political parties represent nobody but themselves.
Keith Jefferson
2 years ago
To understand the chart, I think there needs to be a clear definition of Lab Voters, Con Voters and All Voters. Does a Con Voter mean a “Con Supporter” who has always instinctively voted that way? Or does it mean “voted Con in the last election”, which was an unusual one influenced by Brexit and Con gains in traditional Lab seats? Does All Voters mean the electorate in general, or people who cast a vote? There are a lot of people who feel politically homeless and just didn’t vote at all. Interpreting polling surveys is always going to be fraught with difficulty.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, one of the more interesting things from the chart is that in 4 of the 5 results, ‘All Voters’ was more or less mid-way between Lab Voters and Con Voters. But for the statement “ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth”, Con Voters were right alongside All Voters and far to the left of Con Members. Maybe this confirms that there are a lot of disaffected people who might be described as blue Labour who lent their vote to the Cons in the last election.
I don’t vote Tory, and as I didn’t vote at all at the last election I don’t claim to have a dog in this fight, but I was surprised to hear that Tory MPs are in tune with their voter base on cultural issues.
As my first unherd contribution I would like to point out the obvious interpretation of this data; that political parties represent nobody but themselves.
To understand the chart, I think there needs to be a clear definition of Lab Voters, Con Voters and All Voters. Does a Con Voter mean a “Con Supporter” who has always instinctively voted that way? Or does it mean “voted Con in the last election”, which was an unusual one influenced by Brexit and Con gains in traditional Lab seats? Does All Voters mean the electorate in general, or people who cast a vote? There are a lot of people who feel politically homeless and just didn’t vote at all. Interpreting polling surveys is always going to be fraught with difficulty.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, one of the more interesting things from the chart is that in 4 of the 5 results, ‘All Voters’ was more or less mid-way between Lab Voters and Con Voters. But for the statement “ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth”, Con Voters were right alongside All Voters and far to the left of Con Members. Maybe this confirms that there are a lot of disaffected people who might be described as blue Labour who lent their vote to the Cons in the last election.