Why People Should Be Excited About December 12th
December 12th is judgement day for many. However, for various others, it simply brings sighs and grunts of dissatisfaction, boredom and weariness. Many may not even realise that a nationwide vote will be happening in less than a month’s time. What politicians would call a very ‘exciting’ or ‘crucial’ moment in the UK’s political scene is being vastly overlooked by the population.
As we continue to be stuck in this limbo period of Brexit, the same sorts of words and phrases are being swung back and forth across the House of Commons and being spread across every page of every tabloid and everything just seems to be going round in one complicated circle. Trying to keep people invested in an issue they voted about almost 4 years ago is an incredibly difficult task to achieve. It seems that this upcoming December 12th election is being given the nickname ‘The Brexit Election’. The vote will decide how and when our complicated process of leaving the EU is continued. An Ipsos Mori Issues index survey discovered, by surveying people from various constituencies in the UK, that 75% of people believed Brexit was the dominant issue facing Britain in the run up to the election. It seems that everyone is sick and tired of hearing that buzzword being thrown about in the news day in and day out but it’s been proven that it is the dominant issue on people’s minds. So, what’s happening?
Firstly, the current state of the British Parliament is akin to disarray. Boris doesn’t have enough MPs to pass laws (a lack of a majority meant his Brexit deal was rejected last month). There are alliances being made between parties and secret deals being struck, but perhaps most concerning of all… John Bercow has resigned. The only real semblance of natural order in the House has packed his bags. So now that the scene is set, the burning question on everyone’s minds is – How do we fix this? Many are running through loops attempting to find the answer in such a short space of time considering this election has seemingly cropped up out of thin air. Do we vote for the ones no-one wants to be associated with? The ones who have been accused of antisemitism? The ones who don’t even know what they believe in? The ones who want nothing but independence? The ones who want to protect the trees? Or the other ones? All of them have different views on the Brexit issue, naturally. Some want to deliver a successful deal and leave with confidence whereas some want to stop the process altogether. Whilst people claim they are sick of “all this Brexit nonsense”, it is the issue that dominates our politics today and also the one that dominates this election. With so many different viewpoints coming from a thousand different places, the entire political scene in the UK has moulded into a huge melting pot of ideologies and now, they’re beginning to all blend together into one horrific mess. This all relates to the thesis at hand – this upcoming general election will be the most unpredictable for a number of years.
Opinion polling usually gives a good insight into what the result will be but this year, when everyone is unsure about who to vote for, opinion polling will prove absolutely nothing. YouGov’s latest voting intention figures from 21 October showed the Conservative polling was at 37%, Labour at 22%, and the Liberal Democrats at 19%. However, take these figures with the tiniest grain of salt possible. The question posed by YouGov to which these results were accumulated was – “Which party would you vote for if there was a general election tomorrow?” A large amount (43%) of people surveyed claimed that they were either undecided or willing to change their mind come election day. This means that come December 12th, opinion polling could remain roughly around these figures or they could waver quite significantly.
It is predicted by ITV that this election may see one of the biggest spikes in the numbers of spoiled ballot papers for a long time. Many voters seem disillusioned with parties who don’t seem to have a clear idea about where they stand, not only with Brexit but with general issues in our country today. John Harris of the Guardian made an interesting point with regards to what exactly people want out of this election and it goes like this – “All that is certain is that those staunchly partisan voices that echo around social media are in a small, somewhat freakish minority: far more people are politically on the move, almost constantly.” This puts a good point to the forefront. Gone are the days of ‘black-and-white voting’. The days in which your social class, age, and family background determined whether you voted Tory or Labour. This system had been in place since the early 20s and remained the dominant factor that affected the way in which people vote. However, nowadays, the political ideology scale of right to left has become completely muddled. The new behaviour of voting can be likened to people ‘shopping’ around for parties and policies they find particularly appealing in the moment (and with the advent of Brexit negotiations, what is appealing is hard to come by). This has made elections and the campaigning process much more interesting. The so-called ‘safe seats’ for each party are no longer the sanctuaries they were originally viewed as. Typically, the north of England was predominantly Labour’s stomping ground and the south was where the traditionalist and orthodox views of the Conservatives thrive. Now, as class dealignment becomes more and more frequent, the lines are becoming very blurred. Constituencies such as Dudley North that were once very securely in the hands of the hard left Labour supporters are now being attacked by Conservative campaigning in the hopes of swinging their political pendulum to the opposite end of the spectrum.
All these factors ultimately mean that between Johnson, Corbyn, Swinson and Sturgeon – it’s any man or woman’s game. Safe seats are no longer safe. Floating voters are now more prominent than ever before, and in amongst the turmoil that is Brexit, any party could win those seats in Parliament on December 12th to push their agenda even further. Arguably the most exciting election in recent years is being overlooked by the British public due to our obsession with dismissal and our reputation for becoming quickly bored with one idea and moving swiftly onto the next. The whole thing appears to be playing out like an intricate game of chess. What will each leader’s next move be? Is Boris bluffing when he talks about cutting taxes? Will Corbyn be able to muster up enough money to actually bring about his revolutionary policies such as the four day working week? Will the SNP remain as dominant in Scotland considering their controversial decisions made in the education sector? What will this election mean for the next few years in our political scene? If the campaign has proved anything, none of us have any idea at all.
That’s the reason why everyone should be sitting up eagerly during the early hours of December 13th. It's our future that hangs in the balance and we have know idea what's going to happen.