T he leaders have been slugging it out on TV debates . The memes have been coming thick and fast. And now, we’ve got all of the party manifestos .
Make no mistake: we’re in the middle of election fever – and there’s still three weeks to go. Elections make me feel quite excited and nerdy – I can’t confirm or deny whether I set an alarm each day for when the latest News Agents podcast episode drops. (OK, I get a unique thrill out of hearing Emily Maitlis being cutting about Tory gaffes.
) But the overall feeling that seems to be emerging when the electorate are interviewed by journalists or broadcasters is a sense of fatigue. Voters are feeling uninspired by the choices on offer, and demoralised about who can really make a difference when so much in this country – from the NHS to schooling to social care to housing to dentistry, the list goes on – seems completely broken. The UK goes to the polls on 4 July – so if you’re still feeling undecided about where your vote will go, or just want to reflect more on the main protagonists and how we’ve ended up where we are, we’ve created the ultimate pre-election reading list to prime you for the big day.
She may be stepping down at this election, but the UK’s first ever Green Party MP is certainly not leaving the conversation. Caroline Lucas’s new book proposes that our national storytelling has been hijacked by those on the right – “take back control”, for example, was a far more effective campaign than.
