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No, not the government employees, whose ritual it is to catch the 8am train from Johnsonville each morning (line currently non-functional, as they should be), and sit in the same seat clutching their prized possession – the morning edition of the Post.
I’m talking about the real workers: the tradespeople who do hard graft to put food on the table. These are the forgotten people of the political left. They have watched, for some years now as the left have turned their backs on them, preferring those who sit in academia’s ivory towers – the people with inflated egos on inflated salaries who spout inflated rhetoric.
The polls show the parties aligned to this movement are the ‘nationalist’ type parties like One Nation in Australia and Reform in the United Kingdom. This follows on from the presidential election in America, where Trump scored highly with workers of the industrial sector. Trump is promoting ‘American-made’ and bringing back manufacturing to America through incentives thereby creating jobs for workers. The success or otherwise of this policy will depend on price competitiveness in the domestic market. For now, the states that make up the industrial heartland of America are set to benefit, as some major industries have already located back home.
It is interesting that a lot of the working areas in the United Kingdom, especially those in the north (commonly known as the red wall), keenly supported leaving the European Union in the Brexit referendum and no doubt got it over the line. Subsequently they gave Boris Johnson his landslide win. The Conservatives failed to properly implement the Brexit process and are still paying the price for that. Having given up on the Conservatives, the red wall electorates have not returned to Labour (it’s not hard to work out why) but have chosen to support Reform. This shows that their support for Brexit still stands.
Makerfield, where Labour have triggered a by-election to get Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham elected to parliament so he can eventually replace Starmer, voted strongly for Brexit. The only poll released so far has Labour on 43 per cent and Reform on four per cent. Starmer is doing his best, through back door methods, to drag Britain back into the EU. Other contenders for the leadership would no doubt continue down the same path. Many of the hard-left back bench MPs support this move, seemingly blind to the fact that this will not bring back the workers, the ones they say they represent or want to represent. Once again their hypocrisy is showing.
In Australia, the rise of One Nation was due initially to the collapse of support for the Liberal/National coalition. Recent polls are showing that Labor voters are now moving in the same direction. The latest poll on the primary vote has One Nation on 31 per cent, Labor on 28 per cent and the coalition on 20 per cent. NZ First are in line to similarly benefit from the approach Shane Jones is taking, which largely revolves around job creation, particularly in the regions. Again this is where the left have become disconnected from the workers who don’t identify with most of the green policies, particularly ones regarding climate change as they destroy jobs.
The left, in discarding its traditional voter base, is its own worst enemy. They have stuffed their parties full of highly educated urban professionals – the very types workers don’t identify with. From the workers’ perspective they feel looked down upon by these elites. They have nothing in common from a social or cultural standpoint. On economics, they do not support globalism as it destroys their manufacturing industries and jobs. They support border controls and oppose mass migration. Identity politics, in which the left are increasingly immersing themselves, is an anathema to the average worker.
The gap between the two groups continues to grow. The left can’t expect to entertain academia on the one hand and retain support from the workers on the other. Many of the workers belong to unions and the unions are becoming increasingly frustrated with how their members are being treated. They, of course, are large contributors to party coffers. The business of identity politics is taking the place of making good policy that workers can identify with. As long as this remains the case, the left’s chances of retaining or winning power is bleak indeed.
I don’t think this level of discontent is apparent here at this point. Should it take place you might expect New Zealand First to be the prime beneficiary. Winston might be licking his chops at the thought but his idea of buying back a bank is akin to treating the country like a lamb to the slaughter. Forget it.
