The general election is done. We have woken from a nightmare to find ourselves trapped inside another. The pollsters are yet to explain their deception, the politicos are spouting their stuff: Alex Salmond, more jellyfish than big cat, tells us the Scottish lion has roared; the Kippers are smoking, successful and unsuccessful (lots of votes, 1 seat). Doorstepped voters give us their deep analysis and the reasons they voted Conservative: the banal (‘I don’t trust Labour’), the inane (‘I don’t like Ed Miliband’), the crass (‘look what he did to his brother’).
One is tempted to think there is a political version of the Stockholm syndrome. The electorate, most of which has been disadvantaged by the Tory policies that principally benefit the very rich, prefer to back more of the same than elect a party that promised to address the inequality they endure. But this is too ‘left wing’. Against a right wing Tory Party, anything approaching a policy for social justice is too ‘left wing’. Once again we get the impression of a reactionary, philistine country, but now a more nationalist one also, especially in Scotland.
Nationalism is the most contagious disease in politics. Thanks in part to the surging popularity of the insular parties the country now has a majority Tory government, almost inconceivable just a week ago. In England UKIP are the third party in vote share but have been almost entirely kept out of parliament thanks to the peversities of our electoral system. In Scotland nationalism is suddenly rampant; the other parties are wiped out but for a solitary seat each. Apparently the English were scared of the SNP even while over 12% voted UKIP; the Scots have turned into foreigners. Not that one can entirely compare UKIP to the SNP; some SNP policies are progressive and could benefit the whole United Kingdom. Except the Saltire wavers and screamers will have no chance of seeing these implemented. The SNP will certainly make a lot of noise but is unlikely to have that much influence, for the time being anyway: the small Conservative majority will hold to begin with.
What does this mean for higher education? The neoliberal tide flooding universities really got going after the last election and will not recede. Whether the water climbs higher up our necks depends on how deep further cuts to the public sector go. There is talk that the economic throttling these would cause will force the refreshed Government to quietly ease back, bang on some more about economic growth instead, and concentrate on extricating itself from the EU referendum mess it has stumbled into. At Kingston it will be business as usual. Ratty will carry on with his intimidating management, enthusiastically supported by Mad Ronnie Barking and Slippery Eels-Reynold the Edusearcher. But as with the election result, their power to do this depends on the support or compliance of the staff. How many are do-nothings or closet supporters of the regime, the ones who tell the pollsters one thing but think another?