UK election 2019: Labour now means inner-city lefties

Voters queue at the entrance of a portacabin set up as a polling station in Brighton and Hove. Picture: Glyn Kirk/AFP

Labour no longer means working class. Labour now means the inner-city lefties, with a tinge of trendy, and a touch of green.

There’s really no other way to read the results coming out of Britain.

The working class has deserted Labour. People who have never in their lives voted anything other than Labour – whose parents, and grandparents only ever voted Labour – have swung conservative.

Nobody can quite believe this, but Boris Johnson’s team has scooped up Blyth Valley. The Conservatives have also taken the west Cumbrian seat of Workington.

These are seats that Labour has held since … well, since before the Beatles were a thing.

And why?

Because Labour used to be for steelworkers, and coal miners, and train drivers, and shop assistants, and it’s now for issues that excite the inner-city bubble.

The result is also, very clearly, punishment for Labour’s arrogance on Brexit.

It was mainly the working class that voted for Brexit. They voted to leave. Their decision was met with disdain, by their own party.

You want to leave?

No, you must be stupid.

And so, we’re going to ignore you. Or else, we’re going to ask you to vote again, until you give us the result we want. The vote we think is best for you, actually.

It’s bloody rude, to ask the public what they want, and tell them they’re stupid for making their choice.

Boris Johnson poses after hammering a Get Brexit Done sign into the garden of a supporter on the final days of campaigning. Picture: Ben Stansall/Getty

Labour treated its own base like they were pig-ignorant. The base has now responded by kicking them to the kerb.

It’s not only Brexit, of course.

Israel was once a Labour cause (and a Labor cause, in Australia.) anti-Semitism is now rife on the far-Left in the UK.

There’s also this: the only issues that truly seem to excite the Left these days are fringe issues.

They used to be for jobs, with good conditions, like reasonable hours, and holiday pay.

They are now for trivial, divisive things.

It was the same in Australia, earlier this year.

Scott Morrison and his team scooped up pretty much every working class seat in Queensland at the 2019 election.

Herbert and Longman deserted Labor, for the Coalition.

That result can be explained by one word: Adani.

People wanted jobs. They wanted the mine. They rebelled hard against the rainbow convoy that came to town, singing and dancing in protest against Adani.

It was the same in the US, when Trump got elected.

Voters didn’t like being told they were “deplorable.” Trump promised to create jobs in traditional industries.

Morrison is a baby Trump. So is Boris. There are in fact baby Trumps popping up everywhere, and why?

Because people hate being ignored by their governments. And the best thing about democracy is that they can’t be ignored. Or no, they can. But it’s at your peril.