Voters are newly serious, with tactical voting now habitual. Amid all the extrapolations of what the vote meant for a general election, what went too little remarked was how the progressive opposition parties collected 60% of the vote, compared with the Tories’ 29%. The populist right was eviscerated: Ukip was eliminated and the Reform party picked up just two seats. The results from the local elections in England speak to this new mood. Defending civil liberty is becoming a popular cause. Suddenly, there is concern that a traditional right to protest is being menaced. Even the clumsy efforts by the police to maintain law and order at the coronation, summarily arresting not only peaceful republican protesters but unconnected bystanders, brought a surprising degree of condemnation: the embarrassed police were forced into an apology.
Unease about trends in our society are widely manifested. On Thursday, the Fairness Foundation, whose editorial advisory committee I chair, releases polling suggesting that Tory voters are as enthusiastic as Labour voters about an imagined society in which most wealth is held in the middle rather than by an elite, as now.
The new “ multibanks”, providing not just food but clothes and furniture to the very needy, are testimony to the extent that hardship is penetrating far up the income scale. The baleful impact of the cost of living crisis spreads.
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