Today, Progress is hosting a special guest-edit with a series of articles concentrating on people who live in predominantly rural communities in the United Kingdom, the issues they face, and how the Labour party might work harder to build a meaningful conversation with them.
It is fair to say that the Labour party and the ‘countryside’ have not always seen eye-to-eye. The national debate over foxhunting saw this divergence grow wider, with the Labour party leading the urban majority in favour of a ban, which was driven through despite major rural protests – the people it most affected.
Here is not the place to re-run these debates, but suffice to say that many people in rural communities viewed this as the pinnacle of an assault on their distinctive way of life by a distant and uninterested urban elite. This view permeates not just those who were actively engaged in hunting, but far beyond, deep into rural communities.
However, with the more pessimistic views of pro-hunting groups being disproved with the growth of legal ‘hunting’ (drag hunts), perhaps an opportunity has opened that will enable the Labour party to re-engage with the concerns of rural voters on broader issues of interest and concern.
Over 11 million people live in totally rural areas in the UK, out of a total of 63 million. Many of these people face very specific issues, both social and economic. Although employment is generally higher, average earnings in rural areas are more than £4,000 lower. The gap between rural and urban earnings has increased since 2008, suggesting that the financial crisis and subsequent economic crash has affected rural workers even more adversely than the country at large.
Isolation is a key concern for many people in rural areas – from poor transport links, to the closure of post offices, rural libraries and pubs, rural communities face huge challenges. An elderly person who suffers with dementia in London or Glasgow can generally rely on an array of charitable or statutory services. If you live with dementia in a rural community, the challenge of living independently becomes greater.
Economic isolation holds rural areas back. While the roll-out of rural broadband is now finally underway, the two year delay caused by this government means rural communities still do not have access to the same economic opportunities as urban communities.
Housing is a huge issue for the country at large, but try growing up in Cornwall and wanting to own your first house. You will probably find that someone from London has already bought up half the village you live in and converted the properties into holiday homes; if you do find one for sale, you will find that Devon and Cornwall have the worst housing affordability in the countryside, outside of London and the south-east. In Cornwall, house prices are ten times average earnings, and as a result, over 25 per cent of parents in the county now have at least one adult child living at home.
These are just some of the issues that affect rural communities that the Labour party can use to start a conversation. There is some great work being done by members on the ground already, and by organisations such as Labour Coast and Country. But if Labour is to be the ‘one nation’ party we want to be, the senior leadership of our party must work hard to dispel any view that we stand only for a metropolitan elite, by visibly and vocally working to tackle these issues to appeal to rural voters.
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Steve Race is vice-chair of the Fabian Society
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The rural area is a space labour can and should move into for the very long-term . I from west sussex have for years with others sought labour as a party to really enter these areas as they are a wealth of possibilities. For example , just on the issue of poverty we organised in Lancing, Shoreham and Worthing local social hearings and many attended bringing hidden issues alive. But those that work hard as social activists do and would lean towards labour values. We proved it. Also, one must think, quite often it is the same minority voting all the time in rural areas and if others were to vote that do not vote, they could outnumber those that do vote. Look at the rural college’s, Universities, faith based and other community networks. Just imagine if you had a dedicated team that just went to all these with the older persons communities in just rural sussex it would take weeks to visit them all.let alone the wider rural communities of the UK . And it is the the entrenched powerbase that serves ad the waekenss of the the so called safe tories as they are so sued to doing things in the same wat they are easily outmaneuvered. it is their power that is this old power that is their weakness. Just ask Emily Benn, We touched upon a hidden subject such as the issue of young people and suicide and a bridge that was a trouble spot, Emily raised the issue and and we got full support of the community on a socal hidden issue. I found even the older wealthier persons with carers, felt they were living in a poverty of isolation. So yes; this is a key area for the big guns they a much to gain if they are willing to role up their sleeves and get a little muddy, it will be worth it.
The concept that the rural population defines itself due to mindless blood sport is utterly wrong. It is just simply not correct to imply rural people are not supportive of Labour due to the hunting ban. The same proportion of rural people as those in urban areas support the ban. That figure is 80%.
Rural people are not separate from the rest of society, they care about the same issues urban people do. Jobs, housing, schools, doctors surgeries, busses and local shops. Focusing on these issues would connect far more with rural voters then any pandering to blood sport.
Animal cruelty should never be accepted or allowed to mask the real issues rural people face. Nor can it ever be right for Labour to base rural policy on false assumptions the Countryside Alliance creates. Blood sport and those who seek it are unimportant and their view must not overshadow the true voice of rural people.
The above blog spells out quite literally and quite nicely [some] problems which [may] exist for LABOUR when it goes ‘a-huntin”’ for votes in the sticks.
Generation upon generation of farmers and rural dwellers have helped the UK Nation feed themselves – and this, after all is said and done, is a mighty big incentive for Labour-hq-organisers [and all the other 15-odd socialist societies within the LabourCamp] to get closer to and try to understand better the fears and aspirations of those 11 million country folk who currently vote for Nick and/orDave, as everyone has to eat and no-one [in their right minds] really prefers a Big Mac to a nice piece of fillet steak or a bowl of fresh brocolli soup.
Whilst pondering all the possibles and analyzing and debating all the ponderables, it might be borne in mind that a lot of the indigenous country-folk have a “Factor-X” in their DNA — which has nothing to do with the TV gameshow: the “Factor X” I refer to is “X”enophobia. In all its myriad forms and interpretations – xenophobia is a powerful, emotional factor which is a mindset in country voters’ thinking. No-one [or not many] would own up to feeling that the ‘Townies from upcountry London’ were a bunch of loonies – the royals excluded here as that is a horse of a different colour [!] – but scrape a bit of mud off the outer layer of their thinking, and you [may] find that this xenophobic hatred of all things urban is quite manifest, and has been hard-wired, down the generations, into a tangible force.
Last year someone up at Labourhq [up the road and over the hill in London] said something about: “No ‘NO-GO’ Areas” — what happened to that brilliant manifesto-piece? and its author?
On the no ‘No-Go’ areas subject referred to below:
1) Ed’ Miliband used the phrase at Peckham riots’ address (9 Aug 2011)
2) Ed’ used it again after Eastleigh bye-election (Mar 2013)
3)Harriet Harman’s reference phrase in her ‘Marginal Mindset for One Nation” (4 Oct 2012)
etc… but the best result of its usage came from [unfortunately] Nathan [who he?] Gill earlier this year when Ukip almost wiped out Labour in MEP elections in Cymru. Pattern emerging of Ukip [and others] nicking Labour’s best plans and ideas and acting on them? And Farage seems to have an unlimited fund for his advertising campaigns – Advertising pays – especially in the sticks.
“There are Votes in them thar Hills! in Englnd&Kernow&Cymru!” I didn’t pursue it but them who get paid to do the job should – or just sit around debating it till the Cows Go Home.
its a winning ‘ploy’ as 85% of rural folk are ideally suited to Labour membership – who will take on the Mad-Jack-Squires and puffed-up Barts ? [not Simpson] I ask? I would, but I am very expensive, my booze bill alone would make the Auditor-General wince.