Switching Sides in Britain
To pull off its landslide victory in last week’s election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party flipped dozens of districts in the “red wall” of British politics — a gritty stronghold of coal and factory towns that had supported the Labour Party for decades. Our correspondent traveled across the United Kingdom to understand what the region’s political realignment may foretell about the future of the country.
Guest: Patrick Kingsley, an international correspondent for The New York Times, who spoke with constituents in Shirebrook, England. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
Background reading:“Votes for the pro-Brexit Conservatives had 10 times the effective power of votes for the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.” Our columnist writes that this is thanks to the electoral system used in Britain and the United States.On a road trip from London to Glasgow, our correspondent found a country longing for a past that may be impossible to revive.
- Duration
- 30m
- Broadcast on
- 17 Dec 2019
- Audio Format
- other
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To pull off its landslide victory in last week’s election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party flipped dozens of districts in the “red wall” of British politics — a gritty stronghold of coal and factory towns that had supported the Labour Party for decades. Our correspondent traveled across the United Kingdom to understand what the region’s political realignment may foretell about the future of the country.
Guest: Patrick Kingsley, an international correspondent for The New York Times, who spoke with constituents in Shirebrook, England. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
Background reading:
- “Votes for the pro-Brexit Conservatives had 10 times the effective power of votes for the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.” Our columnist writes that this is thanks to the electoral system used in Britain and the United States.
- On a road trip from London to Glasgow, our correspondent found a country longing for a past that may be impossible to revive.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
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This podcast is supported by the Capital One Venture X Card. Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit for less than you expect. Elevate your earn with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination. Plus, enjoy access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. The Capital One Venture X Card, what's in your wallet? Terms apply, lounge access is subject to change. See CapitalOne.com for details. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is the Daily. Today, to pull off its landslide victory in last week's election, Morris Johnson's conservative party flipped dozens of districts long held by the labor party. Patrick Kingsley on what that historic realignment looked like in one small town. It's Tuesday, December 17th. Patrick, tell us about this road trip that you took back in November. So in the run-up to the British General Election, I went on a 900-mile drive starting off in London, but really aiming to get out of London, trying to get a sense of what people outside the Capital were thinking about the election, and in particular thinking about Brexit. And there was one place that I went to that really I felt evoked a lot of these themes. I'm just arriving in a town called Shirebrook in a constituency called Bolsover. Pretty much the centre of England. It's not a very important place on the face of things. It's a place of 10,000 residents perhaps living in 20 or 30 streets of Red Brick, one-story houses. But nevertheless, it kind of represents the seismic economic and critical changes that Britain has witnessed in the last generation. And in particular, I wanted to visit a grey vast, quite dismal warehouse on the edge of town. I am in the car park outside the Sports Direct Factory. It's a warehouse that stores sportswear, tracksuits for a British company called Sports Direct, which I understand may have an American equivalent in something like the exporting goods. And I wanted to visit this warehouse because it personifies all these economic and political changes that Britain has experienced, and also offers quite a big clue about why there was this surprising election result in Britain last week. So where does the story of this grey warehouse and this entire town begin? Do you want to just sort of who are you to start off with? I know who you are, but it might make sense. Well, to piece all that together, I spent a few days meeting anyone I could. I'm a resident of Boles Over constituency. I've raised my family here. Long-time residents, teenagers. It also hits you.
Transcription truncated.
To pull off its landslide victory in last week’s election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party flipped dozens of districts in the “red wall” of British politics — a gritty stronghold of coal and factory towns that had supported the Labour Party for decades. Our correspondent traveled across the United Kingdom to understand what the region’s political realignment may foretell about the future of the country.
Guest: Patrick Kingsley, an international correspondent for The New York Times, who spoke with constituents in Shirebrook, England. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
Background reading:“Votes for the pro-Brexit Conservatives had 10 times the effective power of votes for the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.” Our columnist writes that this is thanks to the electoral system used in Britain and the United States.On a road trip from London to Glasgow, our correspondent found a country longing for a past that may be impossible to revive.