Working-class ‘red wall’ voters decided the last UK election. How do they feel now?

Stefan Rousseau/PA/AP
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer arrives on board his election bus in Halesowen County of West Midlands, England, June 13, 2024, after unveiling Labour's manifesto in Manchester.

By Katie Marie Davies Contributor

June 20, 2024|TYLDESLEY, ENGLAND


When the United Kingdom heads to the polls July 4, all eyes will be on towns like Tyldesley.

With its tangle of narrow streets and red brick homes dating back to the area’s industrial heyday, Tyldesley is typical of towns across England’s northwest. Labour Party candidate Jo Platt has already spent weeks campaigning here, diligently pushing glossy leaflets into letterboxes and engaging in doorstep conversations with voters.

“We need to give a little bit of hope back to the country. I think that’s what we’ve lost,” she says earnestly, already walking to her next canvassing event. “We’ve lost pride in our towns. If we’re fortunate enough to get into government, then I hope that’s something that we can bring back.”

In 2019 elections, Britons living in “red wall” constituencies felt disrespected by the Labour Party, which helped lift the Conservatives to victory. Now, they may decide the election again – and they feel it’s the Tories who aren’t doing right by them this time.

Labour is campaigning hard here. Once it was all but given that the traditionally left-leaning party would win the votes of working-class, industrial towns like Tyldesley. Then came 2019. The area’s constituency switched allegiances to the opposing Conservatives, ending decades of Labour domination.

Tyldesley was not alone. The 2019 election saw a landslide of small towns across England’s north and Midlands as well as in Wales – an area often described as the “red wall” in honor of Labour’s traditional colors – vote in Conservative members of Parliament, many for the very first time.

The collapse of the red wall was a key factor in pushing then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to 2019 election victory with an 80-seat majority. But five years later, with Conservative approval ratings rapidly tumbling and Labour looking at overwhelming gains in Parliament, it’s these seats – and accordingly, their voters – that are likely to push Labour across the finish line.

Identity and the red wall

The legend of the red wall – and its 2019 collapse – is tightly bound to an idea of British political tribalism. Throughout the 20th century, northern, working-class voters were seen as loyal Labour devotees, while rural, more affluent areas were judged to be unquestioning Conservative heartlands.

Karen Norris/Staff

The 2019 election brought new political divisions to the fore, with old class divides overshadowed by issues such as Brexit, when the U.K. left the European Union. Many red wall areas – towns that too often felt overlooked and forgotten in a new era of globalization – had voted to leave the EU, but were concerned that Labour would not honor the referendum results. In Tyldesley, the mood soured in the run-up to the 2019 vote. Local Labour councilor Jess Eastoe, who has been handing out leaflets with Ms. Platt, describes being verbally assaulted and spat at.

“The political wrangling over Brexit forced many people to choose between their EU identity [as a ‘leaver’ or a ‘remainer’] and their party identity,” says David Jeffery, a senior lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool. “Most studies show that, until quite recently, the EU identity was held much more strongly. Brexit really broke down this strong loyalty toward Labour.”

But that is now changing. As of June 13, just over three weeks before the election, the Conservative Party was polling at just 26% for the Leigh and Atherton constituency of which Tyldesley is part, compared with 50% for Labour. Similar figures are being seen across red wall seats, many of which are projected to fall back under Labour control.

“Of the red wall seats, I’d be surprised if more than a handful stayed with the Conservatives,” Dr. Jeffery says.

“The Conservatives have done nothing”

The Conservatives’ fall from grace across red wall towns has a regional accent. Across Wales and northern England, many voters feel cheated by shortfalls in the government’s “leveling up” plan, a targeted program supposedly designed to help balance regional inequalities between London and other U.K. regions.

Leon Neal/Reuters
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) walks with energy secretary Claire Coutinho (right) at the Rough 47/3B Bravo gas platform in the North Sea, June 17, 2024.

The program was a key part of the Conservatives’ promise when they won red wall seats in 2019; at that year’s party conference, then-leader Mr. Johnson vowed that “leveling up” initiatives would repay the region’s trust.

There has been little, however, in the way of results. The government’s flagship plan for a high-speed train line between London and Manchester, HS2, for example, was canceled in October 2023. (The line will instead stop at Birmingham, 100 miles farther south.) Similar policies, such as reducing regional differences in life expectancy or building 40 new hospitals by 2030, have also fallen flat.


Discontentment in towns like Tyldesley also mirrors concerns seen across the country as a whole. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is unpopular, and after a flurry of four Conservative leaders in just over six years – including Liz Truss, who spent just 44 days in office and remains best known for being compared to a lettuce – there is a dearth of likely replacements. Meanwhile, the party’s rhetoric of fiscal austerity is wearing thin after 14 years, particularly against a background of inflation and rising prices.

“The Conservatives have done nothing,” Tyldesley resident Charlotte Steel says when asked who she’ll be voting for in the election. She’s particularly worried about a health and social care system that has been hit by repeated Conservative funding cuts, and says that she’ll be supporting Labour. “This government doesn’t care about people.”

The cost of living in particular is on everyone’s lips. Doorstep issues focus on local infrastructure: People are desperate for more housing, but the new estates being hastily erected are too expensive for locals and serve commuters from nearby Manchester instead.

PA/Reuters
HS2 workers look on as the boring machine Cecelia breaks through after finishing a 10-mile-long tunnel for the HS2 project under the Chiltern Hills, March 21, 2024.

Local schoolteacher Paul Crowther remains undecided, but is already sure that he won’t be voting Conservative either. The party’s leader, Mr. Sunak, is simply out of touch with the needs of local people, he says. “We just need more funding,” he says, “For the NHS and for education.”ing?

It’s voters like Mr. Crowther that Labour hopes to bring back into the fold. In order to do so, its manifesto has introduced new themes, such as pledges to create a “new Border Security Command” and “crack down on antisocial behavior,” as well as plans to recruit more teachers and promises of economic stability.
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Critics have accused the party and its leader, Keir Starmer, of moving away from Labour’s left-wing roots and heading for the political center. Yet the move – a deliberate break from the policies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was seen by many small-town voters as too radical – seems to be resonating.

Mr. Starmer may not be wildly popular, but he is a safe option – and after years of political upheaval and an increasingly disliked government, that might just be a winning formula.

“People are worried about issues that affect this town, like drugs and petty crime,” says Ms. Eastoe, the Labour councilor. “We need to put the boring back in politics. We’re running a country, not a circus.”

UK

Whisky distillery staff to strike in pay dispute

BBC
Getty Images


Distillery workers at whisky maker Whyte & Mackay are due to walk out next week after rejecting the company's latest pay offer.

The GMB union said staff would strike at three Highland distilleries on Monday, with 11 more days of action in July then a two week walkout in August.

It comes after 84% of union members at the company's Dalmore and Invergordon distilleries in Ross and Cromarty, and Tamnavulin in Moray, voted to reject a pay offer in a ballot, which saw a 90% turnout.

The GMB claimed that Whyte & Mackay had "angered members" by saying that a strike by a small number of staff would have little impact on operations.


GMB Highlands organiser, Lesley-Ann MacAskill said: “The company’s rush to suggest distilleries are somehow less important than bottling and distribution operations was insulting and inflammatory.

“It should instead have been rushing to offer fair pay to our member because without their skill and experience there would be nothing to bottle and nothing to distribute."

GMB members were balloted following what the union said was a pay offer of between 6% and 7%.

The offer was accepted by Whyte & Mackay staff at the company's bottling and distribution sites at Grangemouth, but not the Highland sites.

Whyte & Mackay said its priority was to resolve this dispute.

A spokesperson added: "We do not recognise the substance of the statement regarding the negotiations.

"Whyte and Mackay has acted in accordance with legal advice, and approached the negotiation in an open and transparent manner throughout.

"We continue to engage both our trade union partners to reach a sustainable resolution."

The walkout comes as GMB members at whisky maker Edrington, which makes The Macallan and Famous Grouse, are also being balloted on industrial action in an ongoing pay dispute.

The Iberian lynx is back from the brink of extinction. Here’s how it happened

By Teresa Medrano And James Brooks The Associated Press
Posted June 20, 2024 11:32 am

Things are looking up for the Iberian lynx.

Just over two decades ago, the pointy-eared wild cat was on the brink of extinction, but as of Thursday the International Union for Conservation of Nature says it’s no longer an endangered species.

Successful conservation efforts mean that the animal, native to Spain and Portugal, is now barely a vulnerable species, according to the latest version of the IUCN Red List.

In 2001, there were only 62 mature Iberian lynx — medium-sized, mottled brown cats with characteristic pointed ears and a pair of beard-like tufts of facial hair — on the Iberian Peninsula. The species’ disappearance was closely linked to that of its main prey, the European rabbit, as well as habitat degradation and human activity.

Alarms went off and breeding, reintroduction and protection projects were started, as well as efforts to restore habitats like dense woodland, Mediterranean scrublands and pastures. More than two decades later, in 2022, nature reserves in southern Spain and Portugal contained 648 adult specimens. The latest census, from last year, shows that there are more than 2,000 adults and juveniles, the IUCN said.

“It’s really a huge success, an exponential increase in the population size,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red list unit, told The Associated Press.
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One of the keys to their recovery has been the attention given to the rabbit population, which had been affected by changes in agricultural production. Their recovery has led to a steady increase in the lynx population, Hilton-Taylor said.

“The greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation (…) is the result of committed collaboration between public bodies, scientific institutions, NGOs, private companies, and community members including local landowners, farmers, gamekeepers and hunters,” Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, who coordinates the EU-funded LIFE Lynx-Connect project, said in a statement.

IUCN has also worked with local communities to raise awareness of the importance of the Iberian lynx in the ecosystem, which helped reduce animal deaths due poaching and roadkill. In addition, farmers receive compensation if the cats kill any of their livestock, Hilton-Taylor said.

Since 2010, more than 400 Iberian lynx have been reintroduced to parts of Portugal and Spain, and now they occupy at least 3,320 square kilometers, an increase from 449 square kilometers in 2005.

“We have to consider every single thing before releasing a lynx, and every four years or so we revise the protocols,” said Ramón Pérez de Ayala, the World Wildlife Fund’s Spain species project manager. WWF is one of the NGOs involved in the project.

While the latest Red List update offers hope for other species in the same situation, the lynx isn’t out of danger just yet, says Hilton-Taylor.

The biggest uncertainty is what will happens to rabbits, an animal vulnerable to virus outbreaks, as well as other diseases that could be transmitted by domestic animals.

“We also worried about issues with climate change, how the habitat will respond to climate change, especially the increasing impact of fires, as we’ve seen in the Mediterranean in the last year or two,” said Hilton-Taylor.

RIP

 Canadian actor Donald Sutherland,  whose career spanned 'Fellini’s Casanova' to 'Hunger Games,' dies at 88

Donald Sutherland, the prolific film and television actor whose long career stretched from “M.A.S.H.” to “Fellini’s Casanova” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88.


Issued on: 20/06/2024 -

CANADIAN  actor Donald Sutherland poses for photographers as he arrives at the opening ceremony of the 11th Lumiere Festival, in Lyon, France, Saturday, October 12, 2019. © Laurent Cipriani, AP

Kiefer Sutherland, the actor’s son, confirmed his father’s death Thursday. No further details were immediately available.

“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” Kiefer Sutherland said on X. “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.”

The tall and gaunt Canadian actor with a grin that could be sweet or diabolical was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”

Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s .

Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — parts in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” More, recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films. He never retired, working regularly up until his death. A memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” was due out in November.

“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”

Born in St. John, New Brunswick, Donald McNichol Sutherland was the son of a salesman and a mathematics teacher. Raised in Nova Scotia, he was a disc jockey with his own radio station at the age of 14.

“When I was 13 or 14, I really thought everything I felt was wrong and dangerous, and that God was going to kill me for it,” Sutherland told The New York Times in 1981. “My father always said, ‘Keep your mouth shut, Donnie, and maybe people will think you have character.’”

Sutherland began as an engineering student at the University of Toronto but switched to English and started acting in school theatrical productions. While studying in Toronto, he met Lois Hardwick, an aspiring actress. They married in 1959, but divorced seven years later.

After graduating in 1956, Sutherland attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts to study acting. Sutherland began appearing in West End plays and British television. After a move to Los Angeles, he continued to bounce around until a series of war films changed his trajectory.

His first American film was “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the officer-impersonating psychopathic. 1970 saw the release of both the World War II yarn “Kelly’s Heroes” and “M.A.S.H.,” an acclaimed smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom.

“There is more challenge in character roles,” Sutherland told The Washington Post in 1970. “There’s longevity. A good character actor can show a different face in every film and not bore the public.”

If Sutherland had had his way, Altman would have been fired from “M.A.S.H.” He and co-star Elliott Gould were unhappy with the director’s unorthodox, improvisational style and fought to have him replaced. But the film caught on beyond anyone’s expectations and Sutherland identified personally with its anti-war message. Outspoken against the Vietnam War, Sutherland, actress Jane Fonda and others founded the Free Theater Associates in 1971. Banned by the Army because of their political views, they performed in venues near military bases in Southeast Asia in 1973.

Sutherland's career as a leading man peaked in the 1970s, when he starred in films by the era’s top directors — even if they didn’t always do their best work with him. Sutherland, who frequently said he considered himself at the service of a director’s vision, worked with Federico Fellini (1976’s “Fellini’s Casanova”), Bernardo Bertolucci (1976’s “1900”), Claude Chabrol (1978’s “Blood Relatives”) and John Schlesinger (1975’s “The Day of the Locust”).

One of his finest performances came as a detective in Alan Pakula’s “Klute” (1971). It was during filming on “Klute” that he met Fonda, with whom he had a three-year-long relationship that began at the end of his second marriage to actor Shirley Douglas. Having been married in 1966, he and Douglas divorced in 1971.

Sutherland had twins with Douglas in 1966: Rachel and Kiefer, who was named after Warren Kiefer, the writer of Sutherland’s first film, “Castle of the Living Dead.”

In 1974, the actor began living with actress Francine Racette, with whom he remained ever after. They had three children: Roeg, born in 1974 and named after the director Nicolas Roeg (“Don’t Look Now”); Rossif, born in 1978 and named after the director Frederick Rossif; and Angus Redford, born in 1979 and named after Robert Redford.

It was Redford who, to the surprise of some, cast Sutherland as the father in his directorial debut, 1980’s “Ordinary People.” Redford’s drama about a handsome suburban family destroyed by tragedy won four Oscars, including best picture.

Sutherland was overlooked by the academy throughout most of his career. He was never nominated but was presented with an honorary Oscar in 2017. He did, though, win an Emmy in 1995 for the TV film “Citizen X” and was nominated for seven Golden Globes (including for his performances in “M.A.S.H.” and “Ordinary People”), winning two — again for “Citizen X” and for the 2003 TV film “Path to War.”

“Ordinary People” also presaged a shift in Sutherland’s career toward more mature and sometimes less offbeat characters.


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His New York stage debut in 1981, though, went terribly. He played Humbert Humbert in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” and the reviews were merciless; it closed after a dozen performances.

A down period in the ‘80s followed, thanks to failures like the 1981 satire “Gas” and the 1984 comedy “Crackers.”

But Sutherland continued to work steadily. He had a brief but memorable role in Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991). He again played a patriarch for Redford in his 1993 movie “Six Degrees of Separation.” He played track coach Bill Bowerman in 1998’s “Without Limits.”

In the last decade, Sutherland increasingly worked in television, most memorably in HBO’s “Path to War,” in which he played President Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford. For a career launched by “M.A.S.H.” it was a fitting, if ironic bookend.

(AP)

HIS GREASTEST ROLE

 

Donald Sutherland hailed as 'one of most important actors' in movie history following death aged 88

By Dale Miller
Published 20th Jun 2024


Donald Sutherland had starred in numerous blockbuster films and TV programmes, including Ordinary People, M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games film series and Six Degrees Of Separation

Kiefer Sutherland has called his father Donald Sutherland “one of the most important actors in the history of film” following the Canadian actor’s death aged 88.

The star of Ordinary People, M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games film series and Six Degrees Of Separation died on Thursday in Miami, Florida, following a “long illness”, his agent CAA said.

In a tribute, the 24 TV show star Kiefer wrote on Instagram: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away.

Donald Sutherland attending the UK Premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 at the Odeon Leicester Square, London. Picture: Daniel Leal/PA Wire

“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”

Sutherland won a Golden Globe for the TV movie Path To War for playing presidential adviser Clark Clifford and another gong along with an Emmy Award for the the mini-series Citizen X.

In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his acting but failed to get an Oscar nod during his lengthy career.

Sutherland’s most recent roles included The Hunger Games film franchise as dictator president Coriolanus Snow, and as a judge in the 2023 TV show Lawmen: Bass Reeves.

He also had roles in thriller The Mechanic, Roman epic The Eagle, war film The Dirty Dozen, satire The Day Of The Locust, horror Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, period drama Pride & Prejudice and drama Space Cowboys.

Sutherland is perhaps best known as the womanising Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce Jr in the 1970 film version of M*A*S*H, and would eventually becoming a leading campaigner against war.

In 2012, he became a Commander of the Arts in France and was praised by the French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand for his “extraordinary” career.

Sutherland was about to publish his memoir Made Up, But Still True, later this year, which was set to explore “an unfiltered account of his memories of his life” from how life-changing a role M*A*S*H had been along with “his far too many brushes with death”.

The actor had infantile paralysis and rheumatic fever before almost dying from spinal meningitis as a child, and later left Canada for the UK to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda).

Sutherland’s early roles in the 1960s included European and UK productions such as Castle Of The Living Dead, which starred Christopher Lee, and Fanatic with Tallulah Bankhead, before he was cast in The Dirty Dozen as one of the American convicts sent on a secret mission as part of the D-Day landings in the Second World War.

A statement from CAA said: “Acclaimed actor Donald Sutherland died today in Miami, Florida after a long illness. He was 88 years old.”

It also said: “Sutherland is survived by his wife Francine Racette, sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer, daughter Rachel, and four grandchildren.

“A private celebration of life will be held by the family.”

Sutherland’s son Roeg is an executive at the talent agency CAA, and his sons Rossif and Angus have also worked as actors.

PM Justin Trudeau remembers ‘truly great Canadian artist’ Donald Sutherland

Among those paying tribute was British actress Dame Helen Mirren.

SUTHERLAND WAS DESCRIBED AS ‘TRULY A GREAT CANADIAN ARTIST’ BY JUSTIN TRUDEAU (ALVARO VELAZQUEZ GARDETA/ALAMY)

ELLIE IORIZZO

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has remembered actor-turned-activist Donald Sutherland as “truly a great Canadian artist” following his death aged 88.

Mr Trudeau first learned of Hollywood star Sutherland’s death while hosting a news conference in Westville, Canada, related to the national school food programme.

“I didn’t know, thank you for telling me,” he told the journalist.

“I had the opportunity when I was much younger to meet Donald Sutherland and even as a young man who hadn’t had a full exposure to the depth of brilliance of Donald Sutherland, I was deeply, deeply starstruck.

“He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft, and truly a great Canadian artist and he will be deeply missed.

“My thoughts go out to Kiefer and the entire Sutherland family, as well as all Canadians who are no doubt saddened to learn as I am right now.”

During his esteemed career, Sutherland garnered hundreds of film and TV credits alongside star-studded casts.

Among those paying tribute was British actress Dame Helen Mirren, who appeared alongside Sutherland in 2017’s The Leisure Seeker, following their 1990 drama Bethune: The Making Of A Hero.

“Donald Sutherland was one of the smartest actors I ever worked with,” Dame Helen said in a statement given to the PA news agency.

“He had a wonderful enquiring brain, and a great knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.

“He combined this great intelligence with a deep sensitivity, and with a seriousness about his profession as an actor.

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Donald Sutherland: An enduring legacy of playing both heroes and villains

Legendary MASH and Hunger Games actor Donald Sutherland dies at 88

“This all made him into the legend of film that he became. He was my colleague and became my friend. I will miss his presence in this world.”

Meanwhile two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas, who starred in 1994 film Disclosure alongside Sutherland and Demi Moore, shared a picture of the pair together on Instagram.

“What a lovely, talented, and curious man. RIP Donald Sutherland,” he wrote.

US star Rob Lowe, who lead the cast of Salem’s Lot in 2004, based on Stephen King’s novel, opposite Sutherland, said “today we lost one of our greatest actors” in a post on X.

“It was my honour to work with him many years ago, and I will never forget his charisma and ability.

“If you want a master class in acting, watch him in Ordinary People”, Lowe said.

Sutherland starred in drama Ordinary People in 1980, which later won four Oscars, including best picture, supporting actor for Timothy Hutton while Robert Redford won the gong for best director.

It came a decade before Sutherland starred in US thriller Backdraft, opposite Robert De Niro, Kurt Russell and William Baldwin.

“One of the most intelligent, interesting and engrossing film actors of all time,” Backdraft director Ron Howard said on X.

“Incredible range, creative courage and dedication to serving the story and the audience with supreme excellence.”