Am I not a real voter?

 The verdict is in. In the eyes of the media and of the main parties, I am not a real voter. Yes, I may literally be a voter and be theoretically an equal citizen. Yes, I may live in the most expensive part of the UK, where bills and rent drain my income on a monthly basis. Yes, I may have to pay the same taxes as everyone else. And yes, homeownership is but a distant dream. 

But I am not a real voter. Perhaps if I had switched from Labour to the Conservatives or Reform UK (the latest UKIP successor), I could have been identified as a real voter. But I did not. Because my sin, and that of millions of other young people working regular jobs, is that I am a liberal progressive living in a city.

I am pro-EU, in favour of bringing back our right to Free Movement, of opening up more to non-EU migrants and of being more accepting of asylum seekers. I believe we need to do substantially more to combat climate change and to invest in the creation of green industries and green energy. I support boosting the provision of not just the NHS but all our public services. I agree that higher taxation is needed on wealth and higher income. I can see that inequality is growing as building up your life becomes ever more expensive for young people and your final outcome becomes more determined by the wealth of your parents. I approve of bringing in a fair voting system and decentralising power from Westminster. And I would argue that to reduce inequality we have to deal with both material factors and race and gender, rejecting an artificial battle between the two. 

Are my views perfectly representative of the country? It's a meaningless question because most people aren't. Most of us are a mix of different views, some of which match the general trend and some of which do not. But nonetheless, it is this set of views, this section of the country that is uniquely held up for questioning and whose legitimacy is doubted. I'm not allowed to merely be wrong, my views are not discarded because they have practical flaws. No, rather they must be in some sense immoral, that I am somehow guilty for even holding these views, having committed the offence of 'being out of touch' with the dominant media narrative. In short, not a 'real voter' and, to some, barely a real citizen.

When Labour saw losses in this week's elections, they were accused of being out of touch with ordinary people, of 'merely' representing young city-dwellers. Now it's inevitable that they would have this accusation levelled at them. Part and parcel of the current politics of the right is to paint those on the left and those with socially liberal views as part of an elite that doesn't truly represent the country, no matter how many millions of them there may be. What is less inevitable is Labour's response: sheepishly looking at the ground and apologising for its voters, apparently wishing they could find better ones that the media would look upon more approvingly. 

Is it any surprise then that those voters are looking elsewhere? Progressive views are disproportionately more common in Scotland - also an old Labour heartland and yet seemingly not on the radar of 'real voters' that Labour should reconnect with. And so the SNP continues to establish its stronghold, backed by the growing Scottish Greens, in the bid to separate Scotland from the UK. Meanwhile, in England's cities, young progressives are drifting away, looking for parties that would actually want their vote rather than regret it. Versus the polling expectations, Sadiq Khan is set to underperform in the race to London mayor, no doubt because many natural supporters decided to give their first preference to other parties, like the Liberal Democrats or Greens, and to warn Labour not to be complacent. More generally, the Greens have picked up a number of new seats in local councils. First Past The Post locks in much of this support but the fabric is beginning to wear at the edges. It would not take much more for these weak spots to rip it apart.

If Labour wishes to be a party of 'real voters' then that is of course their choice. But then perhaps the progressive voters who make up the rest of the country, us 'not voters', should seek an alternative? It may actually be more successful for these two sections to work independently in taking votes from the Conservatives, rather than trying to fit under an increasingly shaky big tent that only seems to deliver Conservative governments anyway. Not a progressive alliance exactly but more of a non-aggression pact. Certainly, as it stands today, why would we prefer a Labour majority to a Red-Green coalition?