June 10, 2024 - 5:30pm

→ Poll: Democrats are turning more liberal

Democrats are on a journey — but not one the Republicans might appreciate. According to new figures from Gallup, Democrats have become significantly more liberal over the last quarter-century, with the share of voters who say they are socially liberal increasing substantially since 1999. This is a trend driven exclusively by the rise in Democrats describing themselves as such: back in 1999, just 21% of respondents said they were liberal, compared to 33% this year.

Conservatives, by contrast, have experienced a slight downtick, falling from 39% in 1999 to 32% in 2024. Maybe owning the libs isn’t working out so well…

→ Dawn Butler blames incels for Europe’s Right-wing surge

For any pundits scratching their heads as to how Europe’s Right-wing achieved so much success in the weekend’s elections, just ask Labour MP Dawn Butler. Are voters motivated by concerns over immigration? Do they just want to send a message to the establishment? No, Butler says: they’re just not getting laid. The politician tweeted today, in response to yesterday evening’s results, that “we were all warned about the rise of the far right and INCELS [her caps]. The attack on Woke feeds into this dangerous rhetoric.” She added: “Farage & Reform some Tories should be nowhere near power [sic]”.

There has been research into the political positions of incels — that is, people, most predominantly men, who are involuntarily celibate — and the EU has even published a solemn guide to the phenomenon. Newspapers have even published articles drawing links between membership of incel subcultures and terrorist attacks. So maybe incels are to blame — or more probably, it’s continent-wide deindustrialisation, declining living standards and out-of-control immigration. Take your pick.

→ Only the cities can save Macron

Incels or otherwise, another motivating factor for voting Right seems to be whether one lives in a city or in the countryside. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally swept every departement in the country— only excluding Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Hauts-de-Seine.

President Emmanuel Macron has now called an election for next month, testing whether Le Pen’s support base is there to stay, or if this is little more than a protest vote. While France’s cities are more densely populated, tempering the wipeout suggested by the above map, the establishment parties are evidently in trouble. If protests in the capital in recent years are anything to go by, Macron’s urban popularity is hardly secure either…