Are Britons losing the habit of voting?
One low-turnout election is not alarming. But there is a deeper problem
“I didn’t even know it was on,” says Jonathan in Ebbw Vale, a small town in south Wales. Along with four other construction workers who have gathered for a post-work pint in the Picture House pub, he says he did not vote in the general election. He does not remember a canvasser knocking on his door, and says the only leaflets he received before the election came from local kebab shops. In the chair next to him, Kyle is even more apathetic. “I’m 35 and I’ve never voted,” he says. “Never have, never will.”
Explore more
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Turnout trouble”
Britain July 27th 2024
Discover more
British MPs vote in favour of assisted dying
A monumental social reform is closer to being realised
The slow death of a Labour buzzword
And what that says about Britain’s place in the world
Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is
At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be
Can potholes fuel populism?
A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party