"Bring out your dead": how the average British voter feels
It may have escaped your notice (or not), but there is a general election underway in the UK. Apparently, the Tories have "been in power too long" and it's now "time for change," but a change that will ensure "stability," whatever that means.
Britain, we are told, is also a country in "terminal decline." Whether it is or isn't, is not really clear, but most voters seem to think so, and they don't necessarily think that a Labour government, leading by 20 points in the polls, will make any difference to that. There is a general sense of malaise and pessimism, and the vibe in general is kind of low energy and borderline psychotic.
This mood has also been apparent in attitude surveys for some time, with concerns that it could provide a fertile "breeding ground" for anti-establishment populism.
An
Ipsos poll published back in February made these points:
"Over two thirds in Britain (68%) say the country is in decline, above the 28-country average of 58% in our latest survey. It also marks a sharp increase since 2021 when only 48%, but still a plurality, agreed that the country was in decline.
This pessimism comes against a backdrop of widespread anti-system sentiment. Seven in 10 (70%) of Britons agree the economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful, and 66% say traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like them, while 71% say the political and economic elite don't care about hard-working people, same as in 2022, but up from 63% in 2021."
Pretty scary, huh?
So, is Britain really a semi-feudal, fat-cat oligarchy, where the poor, oppressed "average Joe" routinely gets fucked with a large shitty stick against a Hieronymus-Bosch-like backdrop of social disintegration and chaos?
It's not difficult to find evidence for "decline," but, then, it's never difficult to find evidence for anything nowadays. Focus on a rundown, derelict area, and you can say the country is being crushed by poverty and the imminent advent of the Goths. Alternatively, look at a well run affluent neighbourhood and you can say things have never been better.
A common indicator of decline that is often cited by the doomsters is the s0-called "Death of the High Street." This is not some bubonic-plague-like infestation that is blighting once cheery communities. It is simply once cheery communities deciding to do their shopping in American-style drive-in retail parks or online. My guess is that, due to this increased retail efficiency, people are probably buying even more junk/cool stuff than they were before!
Small, shit shops being forced out of business by better retail
options (this is probably how the Roman Empire fell)
The objective data on the economy overall, generally suggests that things are gradually ticking upwards, or, at worst, have been a bit stagnant of late. But there is also a massive problem with the way that data is collected. The baselines are never the same. For example, one major trend, partly exacerbated by Covid, is that a lot fewer Brits are active in the workforce than before. They are living off savings/ investments, on welfare, or are only partially employed. All these options enable people to live relatively decent lives in the UK. Also, there are simply a lot more old and retired people than ever before.
When we're talking about stagnant or falling living standards, we may well be talking about somebody who is now getting almost as much as they were before, but is choosing to sit on their arse all day and do whatever they want, compared to somebody who was getting a slightly plumper pay packet, but was working themselves into an early grave.
How can they survive?
Also, because Brits are taking life a lot easier than ever before due to laziness or old age, the country has brought in an increasingly large -- and, since Brexit, hard to disguise -- migrant workforce. Most of this has been done dishonestly, with hundreds of thousands of so-called "student" or "health worker" visas, who then end up working as Deliveroo drivers etc. These people, who provide business with cheap labour, also end up in the statistics of so-called "stagnant living standards," pushing down the average. Although the truth is that they are essentially external to the thing being measured.
My estimate is that the standard of living of the actual British population, isolated from statistical interference from recent migrants, has never been better or easier. It has never been easier to be a rich person, a middle class person, or a poor person in Britain than it is today. But, despite this, British people are much more "doomer" than ever before. How do we explain this conundrum?
My guess is that this doomerism is mainly due to three factors:
(1) There are a lot more old people around than ever before.
It may have escaped the attention of some, but old people are cantankerous, old bores, who like to moan about everything, and have a predilection to always think the world's going to shit, whether it is or isn't. From the viewpoint of the actual things that old British people care about -- free healthcare, holidays in the sun, well-stocked supermarket shelves, cheap consumer goods from China, and a wonderful variety of ethnic cuisine -- things are pretty damned good.
Sure, there was a recent "blip" in inflation, which most oldies were super-insulated from by the Triple Lock, and there are still longish, post-Covid waiting lists for the NHS to deal with their various, often self-imposed ailments. But on the plus side, objectively more money than ever before is being pumped into -- or "invested" in -- socialised health care. (BTW when will ever we see a pay out on that so-called "investment"?).
So, yeah, old societies are less happy societies, and that grumpiness spills over into how they view their politics.
(2) Young people are a lot more negative than ever before.
This is partly due to there being too many old people around, but also, I think, because of changes in what it means to be a young person. Nowadays being a young person means gender confusion, incellism, unlimited access to porn, and various forms of toxic social media and parasocial perversions. This creates a shitstorm of misplaced desire and virtual connection, combined with actual isolation, feelings of inadequacy, and loneliness that must be difficult to navigate.
Due to the collective personal choices of the British people to prioritise personal freedom and GDP over a prolonged period, Britain has created a racially and ethnically diverse society. Also, it's not exactly the best kind of diversity as it reflects the British Empire, which was based on colonising the most low-cost and easy to colonise areas of the globe. This usually meant the least culturally and socially developed.
Nobody really knows how to address the diversity question properly.
The mainstream politicians and media pretend that everything's hunky dory, while bursting into Orwellian "two minutes of hate" denunciations at anyone who falls fouls of the dreaded R-word. Meanwhile the sub-media of the dissident and populist Right, and it's Russian co-opters, decontextualise and play up the worst aspects of the diversity through the leaking sewer of the internet.
All this creates an atmosphere of walking on eggshells laced with the poison of suppressed rage, fear, and creeping victimization.
Starving Brits heading to the polls
"NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD"
To repeat and emphasise: by the standards that British voters claim to judge politicians by, things have never been better. But the real factors driving Britain's social mood are the three outlined above.
Instead of talking about these factors, however, all you hear from the politicians and pundits is that "living standards have fallen," public services need "more investment," there is "too much waste," the country is "mismanaged" and "corrupt."
These phrases are all used as if none of these things had ever existed before at any time in British history, whereas a more accurate view would reveal that Britain, like most countries, even very successful countries, has always been a bit of an omnishambles.
The reality of the gloomy mood is there are just more grumpy old people out there, along with sexually demoralised young people, and a lot of self-imposed diversity that everybody has to pretend isn't there.
Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying it here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia).
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