Is Britain Really a Nation Divided?
| Author | Bobby Duffy |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905820958819 |
22POLITICAL INSIGHT•SEPTEMBER 2020
It’s difficult to escape the sense that
Britain is a divided nation. It seems
intuitive that we would be when
you look at the political events in
our recent history. In six short years,
our divisions have been revealed and
reinforced by two acrimonious referendums
and three bitter general elections.
The 2016 EU referendum, in particular,
split the country down the middle, and
the following general election shattered
the House of Commons, leaving a hung
parliament and faction-riven parties. In
her resignation speech in July 2019, Prime
Minister Theresa May reected on this
entrenched division and how ‘when opinions
have become polarised – and driven by
ideology – it becomes incredibly hard for a
compromise to become a rallying point’.
The December 2019 General Election, with
its comfortable majority for the Conservative
government and the nal commitment to
‘get Brexit done’ may have seemed like a
route to a kind of resolution. Boris Johnson’s
victory speech emphasised the ‘One Nation’
ambitions of his government, reecting
their electoral success in previously staunch
Labour constituencies.
However, far from heralding a new-found
spirit of national unity, Britain has often been
characterised as even more divided in recent
months. Even in the middle of the COVID-19
global pandemic, a new front has emerged.
Indeed, the fact that the UK is in the middle
of a ‘culture war’ is increasingly asserted as
an unquestionable reality. And while the
terminology may already feel familiar, it is
actually very new ground for us.
When you look back at news coverage
from June 2015, there were barely any
mentions of ‘culture wars’ in the UK media,
and what there were mostly referred to
Is Britain Really a
Nation Divided?
The UK is often depicted as being in the midst of a US-style ‘culture
war’ between liberals and conservatives. But is this really the case?
Bobby Duffy reviews the evidence and finds plenty of consensus in
Britain – but also signs that polarisation could be coming.
the US. By the summer of 2020, there were
countless news pieces and comment pieces
arguing over the source and shape of the UK’s
culture war. But are we really in the grip of a
cultural conagration? Despite the headlines,
the data suggests we’re not nearly as far apart
as the rhetoric would lead us to believe.
Polarisation
At the end of 2019, we produced a report
with the charity Engage Britain that revisited
the concepts and history of polarisation,
and tested the evidence from the UK
against these more precise denitions. This
review highlighted how we were quickly
and uncritically importing US discussions of
polarisation, even though the ideas often
don’t t the UK’s very dierent context. We
highlighted the risk of this slipping into a
full-blown culture wars framing, which does
now seem to be where we’re heading.
Encouraging more precision in our
denitions and the evidence supporting
claimed trends, is not an exercise in academic
pedantry. It is vital in revealing the risks
we face from deliberately or accidentally
embedding division.
Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 22Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 2204/08/2020 13:2804/08/2020 13:28
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