It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)

By Howard Porter

Political tribalism is deep seated as Peter Jones pointed out in his blog post last month but is it an anthropological inevitability or could we do politics differently?

It is undoubtedly the case that there will be allegiances that hold an emotional bond far greater than a rational analysis of a party's manifesto might justify and, of course, over time parties shift their positions but still manage to retain a core support.

But things have changed over recent years. The hold of the two tribes, Conservative and Labour, has weakened and people are now more likely to switch to other parties as the recent General Election has demonstrated. If anything, people are now less tribal than they used to be with support for third, fourth and fifth parties surging.

This broadening out of political support, I would argue, strengthens the argument for a new voting system, one based on proportionality as, clearly, a large number of voters are not adequately represented in parliament.

But large bloc politics has not gone away even if the traditional duopoly of Labour and Conservative isn't as compelling as it once was. All political parties are coalitions of ideas and, maybe, all these two political giants now have to hold them together is an abstract tribal gravity rather than a coherent ideology or political programme that all members and supporters sign up to.

Indeed, maybe one of the reasons why trust in politics (and politicians) has diminished over recent years is that Tory and Labour politicians are forced to uphold policy positions they don't really believe in but publicly espouse anyway because of the party whip, cabinet collective responsibility or, as Peter suggests, just sticking up for their tribe. What else explains Keir Starmer saying "Jeremy Corbyn would make a great prime minister" in 2019?

A political system that allows elected representatives to express their own views and make their own judgements would be closer to the ideals fundamental to liberal democracy expressed by Edmund Burke in his Speech to the Electors of Bristol made way back in 1774.

Although I think that a less tribal parliamentary system would be a healthy step towards restoring faith in politics, I don't, like some, advocate the abandonment of political parties. Yes, they need to change but they also have an important role to play in a healthy democracy.

They provide a forum for the development of a coherent range of policies to put to the electorate and can also provide a means to link ordinary people to the process of government by offering them the opportunity to join a party and help shape its direction. They also offer a shorthand, easily digested flavour of what politicians stand for, even of people don't read the manifesto (which most people don't).

It is noticeable that membership of political parties has decreased significantly since its height in the 1950s.

"Membership of political parties has been declining from its peak in the early 1950s. At that time, there were around 2.8m Conservative Party and 1m Labour Party members. Members of trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party and of the Socialist and Cooperative parties boosted the total Labour Party movement by 5m to 6m in the years after 1945 until the early 1990s, since when they started to decline to around 3.5m today." (1)

This indicates a worrying decline in political engagement and, in my view, is one reason why the population has become more detached from the processes that shape their lives. Not only have people not taken back control, they've lost what little they might of once have had through, for example, their trade union or local party membership. In the age of social media, the threats posed by malign "influencers", a lack of civic education in schools and sheer ignorance about how politics works should not be underestimated. In fact, it underlines the need to put forward practical alternatives.

Society is now far more diverse and fragmented. The old Left and right, capital versus labour paradigm that formed the rational for the two great parties no longer motivates support as it once did. There are also other dividing lines: Leaver vs Remainer is an obvious one but there are plenty of other sub-cultural divisions and interests that the two traditional parties struggle to relate to. It is significant that membership of the National Trust and the RSPB now outstrips that of political parties. In fact, it is likely that, in some areas, more people vote in the finals of Strictly Come Dancing than take part in their local elections*.

To represent this social diversity, parties need to change but our first past the post electoral system stands in the way of their evolution. There are no silver bullets but proportional representation could be a first step towards rebuilding our political culture and reconnecting people to government. It could encourage more parties to form and not rely on hidden coalitions but put everything out in the open. Being less tribal and more fluid, flexible and collegiate might also encourage more people to get involved in politics in order to pursue practical outcomes, not simply vote with the tribe.

There are many other reforms we need to introduce in order to build a revived political culture but that is for another blog. For now, I'll finish by saying that we need to make politics accessible and something we do, not something we have done to us. That won't be an easy task but it is a necessary one.

*The BBC doesn't disclose the numbers of people voting but the 2023 final had 8.8 million viewer