I think that part of the problem is that most of the signs are that Kier Starmers is a party that follows right-wing neoliberal economics. This is a policy that has ultimately failed many areas of the country, as skilled industries have been closed down, and the 'hand of the free market' quite simply has not provided the sort of quality jobs that used to exist - instead it's mostly service work, and low-skilled industries without technical progression opportunities.
Absolutely. As my friend says, none of the parties have anything to offer his town, as the problems always hinge on the fact that any future is going to involve a lot of capital investment. They aren't struggling for jobs, but the jobs that exist are essentially either dead-end retail jobs or a dead-end warehouse-type jobs. There is some small-scale industry there, but none of the businesses are financially capable of investing in several hundred new jobs there.
I once asked him what he would do to save the town, and he asked back: "should it be saved?". We got into it, and he explained that the town had developed around the mine and that there was no natural reason for it to exist apart from that. It doesn't have a particularly good geographical location, it doesn't have any industrial potential, there are no raw material resources except coal, and with the town having zero identity except the former mine, it would need a huge amount of investment.
He said that part of the issue is that even though there are still coal deposits there that could be mined, modern technology would mean that it still wouldn't employ the numbers that it did in the past. That's before we discuss the fact that there's simply no market for the coal, and even the locals themselves are against burning coal for their own use.
I'll admit, this combination of right-wing social policies, and left-wing economics that seems to be more present in reform is a little worrying - there is a real risk that the ineffectual immigrant bashing get the credit for positive progress in those sorts of policies.
I would argue that it's very, very difficult to fight against. Law and Justice in Poland ran probably the hardest left-wing economic government since 1989 in the 2015-2023 period, and it's still exceptionally hard to fight against. While they did almost nothing for the 'ordinary man' and many of their large scale projects simply failed miserably, there's no doubting that it was very popular with the electorate.
It goes back to the same story: neoliberalism badly failed many communities. There are certainly jobs and opportunities out there, but I don't think anyone ever explained to these people exactly what was going to happen next and how. There's also the problem that in a wealthy country, people simply don't want to do the jobs that they think they want/need: for instance, if they won't work as a long haul truck driver, they're not going to work down the mines.
I used to work as a teacher in a past life, and part of my job was to do careers-related talks with students. I remember telling one group of 16 year olds that truck driving was a decent industry to get into, that if they got all their qualifications, they could earn a decent amount with a very normal shift pattern. The general consensus was "nah", even among girls who had little prospects once they left school beyond minimum wage jobs. The problem was partially cultural: no-one had ever shown them female role models who earnt a lot of money from trucking. I did manage to swing one soldier to come to us who was a driving instructor for the Army, and she had managed to get all her driving qualifications at 17 from the Army for free. But again, when you got into it with girls, it was always a cultural problem: they were being brought up at home to end up in dead-end minimum wage childcare jobs, not professional careers with decent salaries.
