Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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On Wednesday, the UK held an election for local authorities (borough councils, district councils, county councils etc.).
Although the votes are still being counted, the results so far have been astonishing. From a starting position of 2, Nigel Farage's Reform party have gained an incredible 1,426 seats. Labour, who hold an outright majority in the House of Commons after their landslide victory in 2024, have lost a whopping 1,375 seats, and Labour MPs are already calling on incumbent Labour prime minister Keir Starmer to resign within the year. The picture is only marginally better for the Tories, with Kemi Badenoch's Conservative party losing 552 seats so far.
The districts which voted for Reform include working-class districts which reliably voted Labour during the war in Iraq, the fallout after Blair, the Great Recession and when outspoken socialist Jeremy Corbyn led the party. After the general election in 2019, common wisdom had it that the so-called "red wall" had collapsed, with numerous working-class districts making the historic decision to vote for the Tories rather than Labour. Now, it seems, working-class Brits have had it with both major parties, and have decided to take a third option. Brendan O'Neill at Spiked is already arguing this might be the most seismic realignment in UK political history since the founding of Labour itself. If Farage and co. can maintain this momentum until the next House of Commons election, it doesn't seem remotely out of the question that, for the first time since 1906, we might witness a political party other than Labour or the Tories achieving an outright majority in the House.
Local government has very little power in Britain, which is an extremely centralized state. Garbage collection, potholes, community centers. Even education, policing, healthcare etc are directly or indirectly controlled by the national government, something that is especially true in England.
Is it a realignment? A lot can happen in 3 years. I think after Kemi goes some kind of Reform - Tory merger is likely. Reform aren’t very right wing, really, they’re closer to the GOP or maybe the centrist wing of Meloni’s faction than they are to, say, the French National Rally, who are themselves moderates compared to the AfD, who are themselves….
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