In a development conservatives should welcome, a new report—published on Friday, May 23rd—indicates the extent of the crisis of the Left across the West.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) points to a Western trend, where votes for progressives and their ideas are slipping away. The solution—working together to “develop a 21st century identity for the centre-left” in the face of rising populism—would tackle three “big challenges” for the Left: reasserted national borders; broken faith in markets; and a lack of common ground in society.
The problem for the report’s authors is that their prescriptions for action include issues that the populist Right, including Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, are successfully taking on board. Yet co-author Dr. Parth Patel, associate director at IPPR, warned centre-left parties against trying to “imitate their opponents”:
Progressives are losing ground not only in the battle of votes but the battle of ideas against the populist radical right … The problem is that the progressive engine of ideas seems to have run out of steam. When leaders don’t appear to have new ideas, they reach back for old ones or imitate their opponents. That will not work at a moment of great change and challenge.
