top of page

The Quiet Cannibalism of Identity Politics

Dec 12, 20244 min read

Co-founder of Whole Nation Conservatives Igraine Gray is a Conservative activist and former council candidate, writer, published author and rehabilitated rough sleeper. Prior to the 2024 General Election she was Policy Assistant to Sir Simon Clarke.


Cannibalism is defined as the practice of a person who eats human flesh, or the behaviour of an animal that eats others of its own type (1). To most civilised souls it would seem a particularly reprehensible practice, and yet there are ways in which we quietly indulge in it, day after day.


Identity politics is an exceptionally insidious example of this. It is natural to seek our identity, to seek belonging and a better life. It is not this instinct that is so damaging, but how that instinct materialises. We encourage each other to cannibalise our hardship, in order that we achieve a seat at the table. We teach each other that the most valuable things about ourselves are the things we cannot change, instead of the things we are capable of. It creates nothing and divides everything.


At this point, many would point to activists and influencers who tout this to anyone who will listen, but this phenomenon did not become widespread through the creation and promotion of a vocal few. It is a beast of our own making. With burgeoning regional and generational inequality, where meritocracy is not fully realised, when where you are born and to whom still largely dictates your path, we should not be surprised that many have continued to turn to identity politics. 


There are concentrations of deprivation in large urban areas that have historically had large heavy industry manufacturing and/or mining sectors (such as Birmingham, Nottingham, Hartlepool), coastal towns (such as Blackpool or Hastings), and parts of east London, as well as pockets of deprivation surrounded by less deprived places in every region of England (2). The comparison of the 2019 and 2015 English Indices of Deprivation (and even further back) shows ingrained deprivation in the worst affected areas (2) with the top 10 being somewhat stable. Blackpool, a regular in the top 10, now has the lowest male life expectancy in Britain (3). The 10 highest local area male and female life expectancies at birth were all located in the south of England (3). 


If we do not give these areas the hope that we will deliver on meritocracy, that we will help create the opportunities for them to succeed, with actions not words, then it is entirely natural they will use what is available to them to get on. 


Generationally we are failing too when, for example, younger millennials, born in the late 1980s, earned on average 8 per cent less at age 30 than members of generation X, born 10 years prior, at the same age (4). Is it any wonder younger generations band together in these circumstances? What else have we given them to work with or rally round?


By playing with identity politics we reinforce the falsehood that the unluckiness of their birth is their only selling point. There is a reason after all, that so-called ‘sob stories’ work. It is the only currency we have given them to trade with, and therefore we keep them in this never ending cycle of cannibalising any experience they had in search of success and security. It denies them the agency that many of us now take for granted. That is not kind nor empowering no matter the intention. It is cruel.


So how do we end this cruelty?


Boris Johnson had already seized the gist of this problem in 2019, with the manifesto pledge to ‘level up every part of the UK - not just investing in our great towns and cities, as well as rural and coastal areas, but giving them far more control of how that investment is made. In the 21st century, we need to get away from the idea that ‘Whitehall knows best’ and that all growth must inevitably start in London’ (5). This means investing, both through government and private enterprise, in many of the areas the Whole Nation Conservatives team have talked about from education and jobs to housing and energy.


It subverts that defining experience, that oppression based on identity, and restores agency and confidence to those who have been denied it. Collectively, this then bleeds into society and achieves the real cultural change we need to face down our problems as a nation. We have spoken before about the tradition of fairness that we have in Britain (6) and levelling up, that promotion of meritocracy, is the ultimate antidote to identity politics, and is key to ending this ‘quiet cannibalism’ before its damage is irreparable.


References

Comentarios

bottom of page