12 June 2017
There’s one thing that has prevailed in the General Election 2017, and that is the rise of politics driven by emotion.
This was meant to be a cut-and-dried election to firm up a Conservative majority, yet it has resulted in the opposite.
And it’s certainly not what my clients were hoping for. Indeed, they told me that they mostly didn’t mind which party came into power – as long as it was a decisive result and provided a clear mandate.
These are business owners who simply want to know the direction our economy – and our tax regime – will take over the next five years.
Youth voters amass
So what happened? I believe one factor was the mass turnout by younger voters, whose attendance was up 20% on 2005 (to 58%).
These Millennials are less business-orientated, instead educated on their way to the polls by thriving social media platforms peddling half-truths and gossip. With formal campaigns clearly aimed at older people, there was little out there to give younger voters a view of the big picture.
But it’s this big picture of political chaos that my clients now face as they head towards Brexit.
As we heard from CBI’s Carolyn Fairbairn on Friday, the priority is for politicians to now “get their house in order and form a functioning government” so we can continue negotiations with Europe and maintain our status on the world stage as a strong, stable economy.
So, while it’s great that more young people turned out to vote, we need to learn how to communicate better with this new generation of politically motivated folk about the hard facts. It shouldn’t be left to their favourite celebrities to explain.
Sources
CBI: http://htl.li/nKKd30cs5l3
SkyNews: http://news.sky.com/story/six-out-of-10-young-voters-turn-out-for-election-10360458
Author
David Fort
Managing Director
