RolloTreadway on Nostr: npub1cne6g…lmuve npub1hpcdf…ghjn3 I can certainly say that, in the UK, multiple ...
npub1cne6gvqcju47v4uw80ps2ksctxncrw8mq8t07ksmjf4pqmsh7uaqxlmuve (npub1cne…muve) npub1hpcdfjpxrawnmu6ryh36ce7xu4qd54pu6xca394yhvmyzlery0tqvghjn3 (npub1hpc…hjn3) I can certainly say that, in the UK, multiple polls over a number of years have shown that trust and faith in politicians has never been lower than it is now.
I think the financial crash did a lot of harm to the public impression of politics everywhere. Plus, in this country, we had the expenses scandal that followed immediately after the start of the crash, and also how the lead-up to invading Iraq twenty years ago was so full of lies and ignoring the public.
And of course, the Conservative Government we've had over the past 13 years has been exceptionally and visibly corrupt (and I think visibility is important; I don't know if it was easier to hide corruption in pre-mass-internet days, or if corrupt politicians just assume they can get away with it now, but everyone now is aware of the scale of corruption).
A large and vital part of the Brexit vote was a revolt against a failing and mistrusted establishment, an establishment that was (is) widely seen on both right and left to have outstayed its welcome. Of course, it ended up just strengthening the existing establishment - and why millions of people didn't see that coming is a significant debate all of its own - but that has only weakened faith in politicians even further, with the sense that anti-establishment leave voters are feeling betrayed.
What happens now, what comes from this, I don't know, because our political system is very much set up to keep the existing establishment in power. The only time that principle has been meaningfully shaken was with the extensions of the franchise to working class men and then all women, in the late 19th/early 20th century.
Given that such a change can only happen once, I've no idea how this current systemic collapse will play out. But I'm not at all optimistic of any kind of good, progressive outcome.
I think the financial crash did a lot of harm to the public impression of politics everywhere. Plus, in this country, we had the expenses scandal that followed immediately after the start of the crash, and also how the lead-up to invading Iraq twenty years ago was so full of lies and ignoring the public.
And of course, the Conservative Government we've had over the past 13 years has been exceptionally and visibly corrupt (and I think visibility is important; I don't know if it was easier to hide corruption in pre-mass-internet days, or if corrupt politicians just assume they can get away with it now, but everyone now is aware of the scale of corruption).
A large and vital part of the Brexit vote was a revolt against a failing and mistrusted establishment, an establishment that was (is) widely seen on both right and left to have outstayed its welcome. Of course, it ended up just strengthening the existing establishment - and why millions of people didn't see that coming is a significant debate all of its own - but that has only weakened faith in politicians even further, with the sense that anti-establishment leave voters are feeling betrayed.
What happens now, what comes from this, I don't know, because our political system is very much set up to keep the existing establishment in power. The only time that principle has been meaningfully shaken was with the extensions of the franchise to working class men and then all women, in the late 19th/early 20th century.
Given that such a change can only happen once, I've no idea how this current systemic collapse will play out. But I'm not at all optimistic of any kind of good, progressive outcome.