The Conversation Documentaries

Know Your Place part 5: the real class divide

The Conversation Documentaries

Show Notes

The neglect of working-class voters in the past few decades has had profound consequences for British political life. Disillusioned with the two main parties, many have turned to Nigel Farage’s Reform and others are simply not voting at all. With the next election likely to be a tight race in many key constituencies, something must be done to win these voters back.

But as we find out in this fifth and final part of Know Your Place: what happened to class in British politics, the relationship between class and voting could be about to become even more complicated. So it’s difficult for any party to know how to put an electoral coalition together.

Featuring, Geoffrey Evans, professor in the sociology of politics at the University of Oxford, John Curtice, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research, Oliver Heath, professor of politics at Royal Holloway University of London, Paula Surridge, professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol, Rosie Campbell, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King's College London and Vladimir Bortun, lecturer in politics at University of Oxford.

The Conversation Documentaries, formerly The Anthill podcast, is home to in-depth audio series from The Conversation UK, a not-for-profit independent news organisation. Find out more and donate here. And consider signing up for Politics Weekly, an essential briefing on the big stories of the week from The Conversation UK's politics and society team.

Further reading: The true class divide in British politics is not which party people choose, but whether they vote at all Why the Tories may be wasting their time trying to compete with Reform Class identity: why fancy freebies are a bigger political problem for this Labour government than its Tory predecessors

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