Why right-wing politics will never gain power
If you feel a bit hopeless about all the politics right now, take heart. This is not a political site, and it’s actually understandable why some people are voting more right-wing, as they often don’t feel listened to. And the media is mostly right-wing, so gives wrong facts (immigrants are not the cause of the cost-of-living crisis). So people believe it, then vote based on fear, rather than facts.
Thomas Harries (a smashing young man with his finger on the pulse of modern politics) and Maximilian Robespierre (that’s not his real name – another good political pundit). They and radio presenter James O’Brien are worth listening to while you’re ironing your shirts, to keep you feeling hopeful.
Who knows who will win going forward? Labour is bound by unions, and some of their policies are daft: approving the Berwick Bank offshore wind farm (that will decimate local puffin populations), a possible drilling of oil (which will create more wildfires and not bring down bills – the oil is then just sold on international markets). And more homes (good) on wildlife green belt (bad).
Greens have better policies, but they won’t get into power (and its nice leader needs to stop going on social media, as the right-wing media will keep coming after him for any silly mistake).
The Conservatives (that used to believe in stopping climate change) now have changed their mind (not sure which science changed their mind?) And of course, we have the fisticuffs between Reform UK and Reform Britain). And Lib Dems (who are nice but so wishy-washy it’s not clear what they believe).
It sometimes gets quite ‘tear your hair out’ frustrating. We don’t need more wind farms. We already have enough energy needs – if we use less oil:
- More local organic food (pesticides use oil)
- More local indie shops and markets (supermarkets use oil from 24-hour lit buildings, and ferrying food up and down motorways in lorries which use oil, to chill in central distribution houses which need oil).
- More local food (importing food in aeroplanes uses oil).
- Nearly all processed food uses palm oil – not good for orangutans and is imported from Indonesia and Borneo – more oil.
- If all older homes were insulated (and people used radiator boosters to draught proof cold homes), oil needs would plummet, and all our older people and pets would stay warm (and cool) with no need for more oil.
- If town planners focused more on walkable communities and better (and free) public transport, people wouldn’t need their cars as much, so that would be a colossal amount of less oil.
- And if we changed to alternatives to GDP like the happiness index, we would use less plastic (made from oil) to make disposable goods, and society would have less consumerism.
Here’s a great way to use less oil: just switch to recycled paper bathroom tissue, in paper packs. No trees chopped down abroad, no oil from aeroplanes to fly it to England, and no oil to make the plastic packaging, nor to store it in 24-hour lit supermarkets. And if you subscribe online, it even works out cheaper than the premium brands!
Why right wing never wins
Thomas has it right in one of his videos. He’s spot on. England has had some centre-right governments (Boris Johnson was likely the most right-wing). But that’s mostly due to the first-past-the-post system (he only got around 30% of the vote).
Why won’t Reform UK or Restore Britain ever win? Because unlike Trump Land, this is England. However angry or frustrated people get, we are not just a country that would let the Navy put an innocent child on an unseaworthy boat (illegal anyway and the Navy would not do it), then push it back into the sea and say ‘there you go, it’s not right that you are coming here.
There are other ways. Compassionate patriotism still addresses the issues and tries to find solutions to genuine problems. But not the right-wing way, that has no empathy with the reasons many come here.
And people don’t forget. Those without empathy (like Boris Johnson) think that people have forgot he was partying, while people could not hold the hands of their dying loved ones (often with dementia) on his say-so to protect the country. People of course remember – they will till the day they die.
It’s the same with most issues. In England (and the rest of the UK), there is simply a limit to how far people will go to pander to right-wing philosophies. Decency takes hold.
If you look back in history, there’s never been a strong right-wing movement (the British National Party lost its official status when support crashed during the 2010 general election). The leader later lost his European parliament seat, and was then expelled amid internal power struggles.
What will likely happen in the next election?
Who knows? It’s a democracy. And it’s up to the people!
But what is likely going to happen is this. When Andy Burnham finishes his honeymoon (drilling oil, building on wildlife land, approving controversial wind farms to kill our native birds), he will likely have to find support from Greens, Lib Dems and perhaps Alliance MPs.
He will almost certainly then get enough MPs to find a working majority in a hung parliament. And to do this, he will have to agree to bring in some kind of PR voting for the next parliament, otherwise Greens and Lib Dems won’t get on board.
So this will mean the right-wing parties won’t be in power. But crucially, once PR kicks in, it will probably be the end of most far-right politics for good.
The latest opinon polls (August 2026) now seeing Labour taking a slight lead over Reform (25% to 23.6%), with Conservatives just under 20%. Greens and Lib Dems are around 10 to 11%.
This would give Labour a working majority in a hung parliament. But likewise Reform UK could cobble together other right-wingers to form a majority too (say if Burnham did not give PR to Greens and Lib Dems).
But under PR, the above looks very different (and thinks may change in the next 3 years):
Labour would get 163 seats (10 ahead of Reform). Conservatives would get 127 seats, but Greens would get a whopping 72 seats and Lib Dems 65 seats.
The majority of the others (MPs for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) would support Labour, so it’s a done deal that Labour would win, and then with PR, it would always be some kind of progressive alliance.
Why? See below!
Younger voters in the future
By far, younger voters are less likely to vote Reform or for right-wing parties. It’s pretty rare. People under 50 overwhelmingly vote left-of-centre, so this bodes well for left-wing parties in the future.
Labour has gone from dominating the youth vote to being in a three-way race with Greens and Lib Dems. Reform (despite the headlines) isn’t even close. Dr Stuart Fox of University of Exeter
