There's a fifth political tribe in the UK. I would call them "Taylor Swift Social Democrats", after Richard Hanania's blog posts "Taylor Swift Democrats" and "Taylor Swift as the Median Voter". Probably there's already a name for them though.
This tribe is centre-left on economics and centre-left on social issues. They view themselves as left wing, and dislike Trump, Farage, Boris, Brexit and the Tories. But also, they're not passionate about politics or identity politics They are aware of what's going on in the world via the news bulletins on the local radio station, what they see on social media, and what the comedians they watch talk about. They probably don't buy newspapers, but if they do it might be the i, or the Times on a Saturday or Sunday. They consider it their civic duty to vote (for whoever stands the best chance of beating the Tories) but they would never join a political party or take part in a demonstration.
Taylor Swift Social Democrats are left of centre on social issues and they're younger, more metropolitan and more middle-class than the Old Left, but also, while they will happily pay lip service to things like pronouns or concerns about global warming, they mostly don't REALLY care, and they probably only have a vague awareness of many of the things the Radicals do care about.
I don't think there's an equivalent tribe on the right, because I think "social conservatives, but not passionate about politics" types like the typical Sun reader are aligned to the Traditionalist or Old Left tribes.
Good to see people are still reading the old posts!
And yes, this is a good point. I suspect that, 50 years ago, this tribe (or its equivalent) would have been paying lip-service to the Church of England, Christianity, and patriotism - as those were the things that 'good civic people did' - but similarly without REALLY caring about them.
There's a fifth political tribe in the UK. I would call them "Taylor Swift Social Democrats", after Richard Hanania's blog posts "Taylor Swift Democrats" and "Taylor Swift as the Median Voter". Probably there's already a name for them though.
This tribe is centre-left on economics and centre-left on social issues. They view themselves as left wing, and dislike Trump, Farage, Boris, Brexit and the Tories. But also, they're not passionate about politics or identity politics They are aware of what's going on in the world via the news bulletins on the local radio station, what they see on social media, and what the comedians they watch talk about. They probably don't buy newspapers, but if they do it might be the i, or the Times on a Saturday or Sunday. They consider it their civic duty to vote (for whoever stands the best chance of beating the Tories) but they would never join a political party or take part in a demonstration.
Taylor Swift Social Democrats are left of centre on social issues and they're younger, more metropolitan and more middle-class than the Old Left, but also, while they will happily pay lip service to things like pronouns or concerns about global warming, they mostly don't REALLY care, and they probably only have a vague awareness of many of the things the Radicals do care about.
I don't think there's an equivalent tribe on the right, because I think "social conservatives, but not passionate about politics" types like the typical Sun reader are aligned to the Traditionalist or Old Left tribes.
Good to see people are still reading the old posts!
And yes, this is a good point. I suspect that, 50 years ago, this tribe (or its equivalent) would have been paying lip-service to the Church of England, Christianity, and patriotism - as those were the things that 'good civic people did' - but similarly without REALLY caring about them.