It's not a just a right wing initiated thing. My area was staunch Labour for decades and has only rebelled for specific reasons, namely unhappiness with the local Labour machine and its seeming indifference to the steel works woes, the imposition of an unpopular candidate from London and of course the whole Jeremy Corbyn debacle and the wider feeling that Labour has abandoned them. Immigration is in there somewhere but it isn't the number one right wing racist driving force some would have you believe. The area has been Labour for years. There's been no one knocking on doors pushing racist views. The left needs a new message and it needs to do better when in office.
It is EXACTLY a right wing initiated thing. The reality is that the UK economy is sliding ever downwards, as the benefits of Empire all but disappear, and the steady supply of cheap exploited labour and resources has dried up, leaving the UK with no manufacturing base, and a 'service' industry economy which is going to lose out to cheaper markets such as India and south America etc. The elites have seen this coming, and have quietly been selling off the family silver (Gas, Oil, Telecoms, Transport, Water, Electricity, and now Education and the NHS) in order to line their own pockets. There is now very little left to sell off, and this has impacted on communities all across the UK, not just certain northern areas, and has had a particularly vicious effect on many people in London. Obviously, something needed to change. Whatever you think about Corbyn, the policies instigated under his leadership (renationalisation, the prevention of selling off the NHS etc, better levels of welfare, education and healthcare, proper effective taxation of the wealthy and big corporations, better regulation of the financial sector, and generally policies which many economists state are the only things that will reverse or at least slow down the economic decline. This would of course have an impact on the power and wealth of the elites, who could not afford to let someone like Corbyn take control. So, they destroyed him. By using the (mainly) right wing controlled mainstream media, by funding and promoting right wing populism, and by generally instilling in people a feeling that change is something to fear. The British people have developed a sort of
Stockholm Syndrome, and were too frightened of anything different. Hence many traditional Labour voters voting Tory; Boris represented the same thing, Corbyn represented the unknown. All the smearing of Anti-Semitism etc was only ever a smokescreen; the same people screaming the loudest have stopped bothering now Corbyn has gone. Surprise surprise. And the reality is that the Labour party has become infested with centre right neo-liberals who don't really give a s*** about working class people in Stockton on Tees, and more than the Tories do. So they didn't bother getting behind their (democratically elected) party leader. Because truth be told, a tory government suits their best interests too. They'll continue to be rich and comfortable. So why bite the hand that feeds you? Corbyn was a significant threat to the status quo, and he had to go.
The UK needs some proper grass roots political movements, if it is to recover. It needs to recognise and value the political power of unions (those organisations that gave us many of our employment rights, that the tories want to now take away again). But above all; it needs ordinary working class people to get up off their arses and actually get involved, instead of letting sme rich men in suits dictate their lives. But they're too busy screaming abuse at asylum seekers to notice that the rich men in suits are screwing them over.
Many people in those traditional Labour heartlands will soon realise the error of their ways. I wonder who they'll blame next? Anyone but themselves...
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