The poll ratings of Keir Starmer and UK Labour continue to be as one might say, concerning. But that is a one-dimensional view.
A crisis of representation is present in most countries which have some form of representative democracy, how democratic being another question.
The British media is quite parochial although in the social media age engagement particularly from the US market is prized (see the BBC).
Fraser Nelson (former editor of the Spectator) has noted in the Times (15th November):
Of 57 national elections held since lockdowns, 43 ended in a change of government. And often the new ‘guys’ see their support drain very quickly.
It can be seen as a crisis of incumbency, Parliamentary style democracies limiting the ability to respond to crisis of climate, economy and war. The right has an unpalatable and not hugely democratic answer to this. The left’s perspective of for the many not the few needs to expand further. Quickly.
In his novel News From Nowhere William Morris described how Parliament had been replaced by a dungheap with locally based citizens assemblies convened instead. There are socialist democratic ideas and traditions out there.
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