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T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
9. Demographics play a large part here
Fri Nov 1, 2019, 10:38 AM
Nov 2019

The UK has an aging population, with a large proportion of the population being over 60. The elderly are very susceptible to backward looking, reactionary and at times bigoted politics. And it's the elderly who are the most likely to vote in elections.

The OAP block vote is an enormous part of British politics at present, it's been a major factor in the rise of UKIP, the Tories ever rightward drift, the Tories moving away from being a party of trade and free enterprise, Labour's decline in old coal mining areas with an aging population and of course the 2016 referendum and subsequent disastrous project to leave the EU.

There are other factors that have exacerbated things such as the failure of political parties to attract and recruit the best and brightest people but the massive OAP block vote is a major factor, and how it splits between the Conservative party and the Brexit pity party will define the general election.

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