Fiona and Marlene chat with Stuart Donald about his landmark research paper, “Lifting the Lid on Britain’s Pressure Cooker Politics: How Inequality and Neoliberal Capture Broke First Past the Post.”
In “Lifting the Lid” , Stuart reveals how the UK’s First-Past-The-Post voting system is directly linked to the chronic inequality crisis we see across Britain today. Drawing on 40 years of data on regional deprivation and voting trends, this groundbreaking paper connects Margaret Thatcher’s accentuated Parliamentary majorities of the 1980s, the rise of neoliberalism, and the structural inequalities that have made the UK one of the most unequal nations among its Western European peers.
Stuart makes a compelling case that Britain’s current crises didn’t happen by accident—they’re structural. Tune in if you want to understand the roots of regional inequality, political polarization, and populism in Britain.
Key topics covered:
- 00:02:10 UK worst inequality compared to Euroean peers
- 00:03:16 Neoliberal capture in FPTP countries
- 00:07:20 The Barker Report – Labour’s Dilemma
- 00:11:04 The Middle Class Revolt
- 00:15:44 Downward Mobility and the Brexit vote
- 00:17:46 Marginality more important than Need
- 00:18:28 Orphaning the Have-Nots
- 00:24:36 Andy Burnham and PR
- 00:29:00 Farage’s new power base
- 00:32:59 Looming effects of the climate emergency
- 00:37:45 Individualism – the Road to Hell
- 00:40:18 What about Scotland?
- 00:50:08 The Only Conclusion
- Watch the video version of this podcast on our YouTube channel
- Catch up with our conversations with Stuart focussing on inequality and our voting system in UK: “The Hidden Costs of Inequality” and “Can We de-Fang the Far Right?”
- First time Stuart came on august he debunked Unionist’s claims about the benefits of the Union!
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