Letter: Behind the polls

Submitted by AWL on 16 March, 2021 - 5:01
Opinion polling

The polls are dire, but in a way Labour’s vote worries me less than the ever-growing Tory vote: 2010, 10.7 million, 36.1%; 2015, 11.3 million, 36.9%; 2017, 13.6 million, 42.4%; 2019, 13.9 million, 43.6 %; 2021, roughly, 14.2 to 14.4 million, 44-45%.

The 3.9 million who voted Ukip in 2015, and the 6.8 million who voted Lib-Dem in 2010, complicate the picture, but we see rising right-wing votes elsewhere too.

Trump lost the election, but the Republican vote went up to 74 million. In France, Marine Le Pen has gone up at the last two elections and in the polls.

Biden, and Labour in 2017, managed by corraling and energising all non-right wing voters, including usual non-voters; but, if we look beyond electoralism, breaking a large chunk of the working class from nationalist authoritarianism is a top task for emancipatory politics.

Luke Hardy, Leeds

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