The announcement of a UK General Election on Dec 12 — the third in less than five years! — was attended by predictable rises in the numbers of people registering to vote, but as official statistics show, the end of October saw a massive spike in voter registration among under 45s, led by under-25s and 25-34 year olds.
It’s a commonplace that Labour can’t possibly win this election, but that’s what they said in 2017, and that election was a bloodbath for the Tories and saw Labour come within a hairsbreadth of forming the government, despite dirty tricks, panicmongering, and a smear campaign that was backed by the Labour establishment itself.
The reality is that Labour is the only party with policies that are supported by the vast majority of Britons, and while that support comes from all demographics, Labour’s embrace of the Green New Deal makes it the only party on the British political stage that is aligned with the largest mass movement in recent memory, Climate Extinction, which skews younger.
All election polling is primarily a guessing game about who just won’t bother to vote, and models assume very low turnout among young voters. The massive influx of young voters means that the election is truly anyone’s to win.
I am a member of the British Labour Party and a donor to Jeremy Corbyn’s election campaign.
(via Naked Capitalism)