Rural Radical
Labour
Now living in a Labour held ward at Borough level for the first time in many years
Posts: 1,627 
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Post by Rural Radical on Jul 28, 2023 17:58:24 GMT
Why is there a rural backlash? What specifically are they lashing back against ? Genuine question as I have no real connection to rural England There's a mixture of factors that have been bubbling up for a while, but it's only now that it's hit boiling point. A lot of the problems with public services are especially severe in the countryside, especially the health service: most county hospitals are in a bad way, the shortages in the ambulance services are a bigger problem than elsewhere for obvious reasons and so on. Then there are the problems caused by the mishandling of Brexit (from a rural perspective). Then there's the almost complete disappearance of the police in the countryside: a lot of farmers aren't even bothering to report thefts now and this is quite a culture shock. Then there's the decimation of rural bus services. The new agricultural subsidies regime is unpopular (and quite badly thought through in places) and the process by which it was drawn up has been very high handed and this has upset people. The concerns of the farming community have been ignored over the various post-Brexit trade deals and there's a definite feeling of betrayal over that. It's easy to forget that while intense mechanization means that not that many people are employed directly in agriculture now, a lot of people have connections to it: my father (who is not a Conservative, but my point here is sociological), for instance, was raised on a smallholding and a lot of his customers are farmers, and this is true of a lot of the other tradesmen he knows and sometimes works with. There are some other issues as well, but they all come back to the same general theme of feeling ignored and taken for granted even as problems multiply, and a real sense from some that 'their' party has turned its back on them. It is all quite toxic and is growing more so all the time. That’s right |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2023 18:33:16 GMT
Why is there a rural backlash? What specifically are they lashing back against ? Genuine question as I have no real connection to rural England There's a mixture of factors that have been bubbling up for a while, but it's only now that it's hit boiling point. A lot of the problems with public services are especially severe in the countryside, especially the health service: most county hospitals are in a bad way, the shortages in the ambulance services are a bigger problem than elsewhere for obvious reasons and so on. Then there are the problems caused by the mishandling of Brexit (from a rural perspective). Then there's the almost complete disappearance of the police in the countryside: a lot of farmers aren't even bothering to report thefts now and this is quite a culture shock. Then there's the decimation of rural bus services. The new agricultural subsidies regime is unpopular (and quite badly thought through in places) and the process by which it was drawn up has been very high handed and this has upset people. The concerns of the farming community have been ignored over the various post-Brexit trade deals and there's a definite feeling of betrayal over that. It's easy to forget that while intense mechanization means that not that many people are employed directly in agriculture now, a lot of people have connections to it: my father (who is not a Conservative, but my point here is sociological), for instance, was raised on a smallholding and a lot of his customers are farmers, and this is true of a lot of the other tradesmen he knows and sometimes works with. There are some other issues as well, but they all come back to the same general theme of feeling ignored and taken for granted even as problems multiply, and a real sense from some that 'their' party has turned its back on them. It is all quite toxic and is growing more so all the time. In addition to which, there has always been a sense that the Labour Party doesn't care about rural areas (I think "doesn't know what to do about" is more accurate but that isn't the phrasing most people would use) which has always driven a rural bias towards the right. However, the feeling now is that the Tories have actively and occasionally deliberately made things worse for rural areas which is driving a similar abandonment. Plus as rural poverty increases it becomes more of an issue and poverty/equality issues are something of a "home ground" for the Labour Party |
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Post by uthacalthing on Jul 31, 2023 18:56:52 GMT
the feeling now is that the Tories have actively and occasionally deliberately made things worse for rural areas Largely a housing issue. The Tories and Lib Dems squabble as to who is most NIMBY in their efforts to get the largest share of the highly activist elderly outright Homeowner vote. The highly inactivist Not-sure-why-they-are-always-poor-but-despite-having-decent-jobs-they-are-always-broke-once-the-rent-is-paid have no party to vote for, which does not usually trouble them as they usually don't vote. Even in places like Selby, a surprising % of the electorate would be quite happy to see the green belt lock blocked by a Labour government if the new homes went to local people. But they wouldn't. They would go "people most in need" and then Labour would denounce the Far Right objectors |
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Post by johnloony on Nov 17, 2024 20:20:53 GMT
The rural backlash is real. How much of a dent in Sunak's majority could we see in Richmond and Northallerton next time? Hague did rather well in 2001 there as Leader despite the national circumstances but he was of course opposition leader so probably they liked his increased profile. Plus there was already a sizeable swing there in '97 (but Labour still couldn't get closer than 10,000 votes behind). Major did see his majority reduced considerably in '97 but I think there were boundary changes and Huntingdon still remained one of the, if not the, safest seat nationally. I don't think Blair saw any major swing (majority-wise) against him despite the Iraq backlash in 2005. Down to just over 12,000 I reckon |
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