A New Political Vocabulary
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905818764696 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
APRIL 2018 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 3
A New
Political
Vocabulary
We live in deeply political
times. Just take a look
at the
Oxford English
Dictionary’
s recent
choices for word of the year. In 2013, the
judges chose ‘selfie’. The following year the
gong went to ‘vape’. In 2015, there was not
even a ‘word’ of the year – an emoji won.
In the wake of Trump and Brexit, the
Oxford English Dictionary
selected ‘post-
truth’ as 2016’s word of the year. Last
December, the dictionaries team plumbed
for another politically-tinged neologism:
‘youthquake’.
In the 2010 General Election, young
voters split almost equally between
Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
But 2017 saw a dramatic surge in support
for Labour among those aged 18 to 24.
This ‘youthquake’ – more than anything
else – cost Theresa May her overall
majority.
In recent months, some political
scientists have suggested that June’s
‘youthquake’ was little more than a
tremor but in this issue’s main feature,
James Sloam, Rakib Ehsan and Matt Henn
come to a very different conclusion.
The split between young and old could
have profound implications for British
politics, and, they argue, dismissing the
‘youthquake’ as a myth risks reaffirming
the erroneous narrative that young people
are apathetic and not interested in politics.
The other great cleavage in British
politics is beyond dispute – Brexit. Rather
than a nation uniting around some vision
of the future, the UK looks increasingly
divided by the June 2016 referendum,
with the government so far reluctant to
lay out in any detail what their plans are
for Britain outside the European Union.
Given the razor thin referendum result
and the ensuing political tumult, it is
no surprise that some talk of a second
vote on Brexit. But has the public really
changed its mind? John Curtice assesses
the evidence and finds that the debate
over the merits of holding another
referendum has yet to be won or lost.
One of the key Brexit issues is Ireland.
The UK’s land border runs for over 300
miles and has more crossings than the EU’s
entire eastern frontier. As Ireland has risen
up the agenda – most notably during the
fraught discussions ahead of December’s
phase one agreement – talk of Ireland
following the UK out of the European
Union has grown more voluble. So what
are the chances of Irexit? Kathryn Simpson
looks at the data and finds that Irish public
opinion firmly believes life is better inside
the European Union.
Trade and Brexit is on the agenda in the
Last Word, too. The EU is the UK’s most
important trading partner, accounting for
43 per cent of our exports. Sam Lowe from
the Centre for European Reform argues
that the prospects for replacing the single
market with bespoke trade deals are slim.
Brexit is not the only political
earthquake to have hit in recent years. The
electoral eruption that propelled Donald
Trump into the White House is still being
felt. James D. Boys looks back at a very
unorthodox President’s first year in office
and finds that much of the radical reform
promised has yet to materialise.
One of Trump’s signature campaign
pledges was to deliver lasting peace in the
Middle East. But in office he has shown a
strong preference for regional autocrats,
Saudi Arabia and Israel. The prospect of
an accommodation with the Palestinians
looks ever more distant, writes Ian Black.
While Brexit has preoccupied the UK,
the EU has also faced challenges to the
east. Jasmin Mujanović reports from the
Western Balkans, a region slated to benefit
from EU enlargement but where Brussels
has failed to challenge local elites or
encourage grassroots alternatives to the
status quo. Alexander Clarkson looks at the
dark side of the war against corruption in
Russia and Ukraine.
In our regular In Focus slot, Benjamin
D. Hennig plots the value of different
citizenships – and finds that not all
passports are equal. Elsewhere, Jane
Duckett and Matthias Stepan examine
the domestic politics behind China’s
international engagement, and Anthony
Ridge-Newman examines the past, present
and future of the Conservative party.
With so much uncertainty, few would
bet against the political vocabulary
expanding further in the coming years.
We will be there to follow every political
– and linguistic – turn. I am delighted to
announce that as of 2018,
Political Insight
will appear four times a year. If you would
like to join the debates or contribute to
Political Insight
get in touch or visit
www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus.
Peter Geoghegan
Editor
Political Insight April 2018.indd 3 19/02/2018 11:18
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