Latest news with #ShatteredBritain
Metro
2 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
How to save 'broken' Britain? Readers discuss patriotic millionaires and propose
Further to the divided nation described in the Shattered Britain survey by More In Common (Metro, Mon). It is ironic that so many people in this country use words such as 'broken' and 'shattered' about Britain when thousands of migrants risk life and limb to get here. Maybe some of them will see this report – in which the most common words used to describe the country were 'broken', 'mess', 'struggling', 'divided' and 'expensive' – and decide not to come! And yet, I do not think the country is as bad as they say it is. All the people I see are quite friendly. When I go shopping, I can always find the things I want. In the odd case of not finding something, there is always another store to find it in. I am sure there are many people in many lands that would like that. But there is a problem with politicians. Labour is not the party it used to be. Instead of helping the underprivileged, it seems to be attacking them. The really galling thing is there seems to be no idea about trying to get any money from the very rich. There was an article in Metro about a group of wealthy individuals who call themselves Patriotic Millionaires who are willing to be taxed more. Has Labour even considered this? Larry, Salford
New Statesman
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Britain's shattered trust
Photo byWestminster loves a good piece of polling research, and the latest offering from More In Common – dramatically entitled Shattered Britain – has captured imaginations as Parliament limps towards the summer recess. There is loads in the report to pore over and squabble about – not least the quiz segmenting the British public into seven strata of voter, from Progressive Activists and Rooted Patriots to Dissenting Disruptors and Sceptical Scrollers (which is, incidentally, a great name for a Nineties indie band). The arguments about how these fit into traditional notions of both class and party politics will go on for days. Key to the analysis is not what separates Brits, but what unites us. And somewhat terrifyingly, that unifying theme seems to be a sense of mistrust. A staggering 87 per cent of people trust politicians not very much or not at all, with net negative trust among all seven groups. This tallies with the latest annual British Social Attitudes survey, published last month, which found that 'Just 12 per cent trust governments to put the interests of the nation above those of their own party just about always or most of the time, a record low'. This lack of trust cuts across a range of different policy areas. On the economy, for example, the cost of living crisis is a key voter concern, with half the public believing it will never get better. This pessimism is understandable, given we have now had 17 years of post-crash politicians telling us that better times (or, if you prefer, sunlit uplands) are just around the corner, if we can only batten down the hatches and make 'tough choices' now. On immigration, a decade and a half of governments promising to bring numbers down while doing the opposite has had a corrosive effect. More In Common's director Luke Tryl has some thoughts on why the issue of small boats crossing the Channel is so potent: it symbolises governments that have lost control. The inability of a country to enforce its own borders will be disturbing in and of itself to many voters – but even to people who are less concerned about the issue itself, it is symptomatic of a state that is struggling to function. MPs, by the way, are not blind to this accusation. Conservatives used to lament that ministers would pull a lever to enact change only to find that nothing happened. Labour MPs had little sympathy – but now they've been in power for a year, you'll increasingly hear them say exactly the same. Twice now, from MPs of different parties, I've been told that if you pull a lever it could well come off in your hand. On everything from reforming welfare to resolving public sector pay disputes, cutting NHS waiting lists to building new homes, investing in infrastructure to stopping the boats, a sense of stasis pervades. Try to kick the Whitehall machine into gear, I was told, and the machine has a tendency to kick back. The public, quite reasonably, is not in the mood for excuses. Back in October, barely 100 days since Labour got into power, I sat in on a focus group of people in Sittingbourne, Essex, who had voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 and Keir Starmer in 2024. I was taken aback (as were the organisers) by just how quickly patience with the new government had evaporated – but in a way it made sense. These people had been promised that their lives would get better while things instead got markedly worse for over a decade. They were tired of giving the politicians who had disappointed them the benefit of the doubt. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe This exhaustion helps explain why Labour has been so unsuccessful in blaming their present challenges on the last government, as David Cameron and George Osborne managed to do effectively for years with their line that 'Labour crashed the economy.' It also goes some way to explaining the rise of Reform – or rather why the criticism that Reform is not a serious party with serious policies is failing to land. (If you're curious about what attack lines Labour could use against Nigel Farage that might actually work, check out the latest NS podcast where polling analyst Steve Akehurst shares his latest research on exactly this topic.) 'The sense that Britain is broken, and that none of the traditional parties or institutions can fix it, is leading more people to think that we need to roll the dice on something new,' reads the Shattered Britain report. Polling from last month ahead of the Spending Review, also by More In Common, found a similar sentiment in the increasing willingness to gamble – to hell with the consequences. As I wrote at the time: 'While 46 per cent of people believe Reform would indeed be a risk to the economy (compared to 29 per cent who don't), almost as many (40 per cent) believe the risk is worth it as 'Reform can't be worse than the other parties when it comes to managing the economy'.' It's unclear how politicians from mainstream parties can possibly respond to all this, given the scale of the challenge and how rapidly the public expects solutions. But tucked away at the very end of the report is the line that 'Britain's political map is fundamentally changing as frustration with the status quo is leading to traditional two-party loyalties collapsing into a volatile multi-party system'. We can debate whether the fact that the last election was the most disproportional ever in terms of how the number of votes related to the number the seats, and whether this is a driver or a symptom of the decline in trust in politics (are voters abandoning traditional parties because they feel let down, or do they feel let down because their votes for non-traditional parties aren't properly counted?). But it's hardly a sign of a democracy in good health. The pithily named voter segments don't just suggest a realignment in politics, but a degree of fragmentation that is difficult to map onto a two-party system. Does 'difficult' in fact mean 'impossible'? Something for MPs to chew over as they prepare for their summer holidays. This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here [See also: The OBR is always wrong] Related
Metro
4 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
Three in five Brits 'wouldn't even trust Starmer or Farage to watch their bag'
The UK is 'shattered' into different ideological factions, a report has found, with each holding distinct ideas about what's wrong with the country and how to fix it. Politicians face a serious challenge winning back the trust of Brits too, with almost nine in ten having little or no faith in them, according to the findings. A major new poll at the centre of the report lays bare just how disillusioned we are with the current system, and the depth of pessimism over whether things will get better. Three in five Brits say they wouldn't trust Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch or Reform leader Nigel Farage to even watch their bags – with similar levels of distrust for all three. And the one word used most to describe the state of the country is 'broken', followed by 'mess', 'struggling', 'divided' and 'expensive'. According to More in Common, the pollsters behind the 'Shattered Britain' report, most people in the UK can fit into one of seven segments that show their attitude to the nation's issues. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here. They are: Progressive Activists : Highly engaged in politics but feeling alienated, they are concerned with social justice and issues like climate change. Make up 12% of the population. : Highly engaged in politics but feeling alienated, they are concerned with social justice and issues like climate change. Make up of the population. Incrementalist Left : Generally left-of-centre but preferring gradual change over revolutionary reform, with high levels of trust in experts. Make up 21% of the population. : Generally left-of-centre but preferring gradual change over revolutionary reform, with high levels of trust in experts. Make up of the population. Established Liberals : Believe the system broadly works as it currently is and have faith in the UK's institutions to deliver continued progress. Make up 9% of the population. : Believe the system broadly works as it currently is and have faith in the UK's institutions to deliver continued progress. Make up of the population. Sceptical Scrollers : Seek alternative sources of truth online due to loss of faith in traditional institutions, and are drawn to conspiracies. Make up 10% of the population. : Seek alternative sources of truth online due to loss of faith in traditional institutions, and are drawn to conspiracies. Make up of the population. Rooted Patriots : Feel abandoned and overlooked by political elites, but not keen to overthrow the system as a whole. Concerned about community decline and migration. Make up 20% of the population. : Feel abandoned and overlooked by political elites, but not keen to overthrow the system as a whole. Concerned about community decline and migration. Make up of the population. Traditional Conservatives : Respectful of authority and nostalgic for the past, believe in established norms. Make up 8% of the population. : Respectful of authority and nostalgic for the past, believe in established norms. Make up of the population. Dissenting Disruptors: Drawn to dramatic change and strong leadership that will overthrow the status quo, feel disconnected from society and opposed to multiculturalism. Make up 20% of the population. The report was based on a survey of 20,000 and dozens of focus groups which took place across the UK. It found a lot of concern about money among the British public, too, with more than half saying they don't think the cost of living crisis will ever end and 43% citing money as their biggest source of stress. Meanwhile, a majority of Brits – 53% – said they thought those in their children's generation would have a worse life than those in their parents' generation. Two-thirds of people also said they're not sure politics will ever return to normal after saying it had become more chaotic over the past ten years. Dianne from Bridgwater, described as a 'Rooted Patriot' in the report, told the pollsters: 'I think our government's the worst ones actually. 'They don't respect the people that vote for them, and if they were to do that then it would be a lot better, but they don't. You try to get the best for everybody and the government just laugh at you.' Maddie, a 'Progressive Activist' from East Dulwich in London, said: 'You notice a difference, you notice everything going up, that transport and we're all sort of living on top of each other as well. 'And the rich are richer and the poor are poorer.' It's not all bad news, though – the survey found people are largely very positive about the area in which they live. While 'broken' was the most common word to describe the UK as a whole, people mostly said the place where they live is 'quiet', followed by 'nice', 'rural', 'safe' and 'peaceful'. And in stark contrast to their attitude towards politicians, a majority Brits from all seven of the 'segments' included in the report said they trusted their neighbours. Luke Tryl, Director of More in Common, said the research shows the country is 'exhausted, increasingly fragmented, and yearning for change – but deeply divided on what that change should look like'. He added: 'Britain has seen difficult times before, and the purpose of this research is to help leaders navigate these new fault lines to find a way out of the current era of malaise. 'If political leaders want to rebuild trust and build a broad coalition to fix a Britain that increasingly feels broken, they will have to navigate the new political map of Britain.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Until I had one, I was ignorant about the reality of miscarriages MORE: Map reveals Nato's maritime security challenges – from Russia to terrorism MORE: Delays and diplomacy: Inside Starmer's migrant deal announcement with Macron
