I referred to James Hawes's The Shortest History of Ireland the other day, and I've just sent Liberator a review of the book by fast orphan. Here Hawes raises wider issues about the future of the United Kingdom, and he's well worth a listen.,
Among his insights are that "England", to the Conservative Party, ultimately means the South East of England and the elite institutions to which it is home. And that the Reform vote is not working class, but a vote for a more hard-line Tory party. I suspect, though, that a good chunk of it is the sort of protest vote that we Liberals used to benefit from.
A word too for Adrian Goldberg, who was one of the most welcome voices in the early day of BBC Radio 5.
If by protest vote you mean the ANTI category that used to be 5% where I campaigned, then I would agree with you. It could be seen as a "sod you all" category before UKIP/Brexit/Reform, then it all switched to those. A base of 14% dropped to 9% (in that place) across multiple elections. It is not coming back.
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