How the Conservative Party weaponised the culture war from social media for their campaign strategy
Whether it be Jonathan Gullis scoffing at the so-called ‘chai latte drinking, almond butter eating wokerati' or Lee Anderson proudly exclaiming that the next general election will be fought on the ‘culture wars and trans debate’, it seems clear that the Conservative Party have adopted a strategy primarily lifted from social media in order to appeal to voters. If the 2010 general election was fought on the economy, the 2015 election on the potential of an EU referendum, and the 2017 and 2019 elections on Brexit, the 2024 election will be the election of the culture war. Why is this, and when did such a cultural phenomenon take precedent in Conservative campaigning methods over questions over the economy and spending?
Firstly, it is important to consider the current state of the Conservative Party. With the Labour Party miles ahead in the opinion polls and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis sending Tory approval ratings plummeting down into oblivion, it seems clear that Conservative MPs have attempted to weaponize social media debates to re-establish their former popularity. The Conservatives are desperate to hold onto the so-called ‘Red Wall’ voters in the North, primarily former mining towns who, up until the 2019 election, had been held by Labour and switched to the Conservatives due to concerns over Labour’s position on the Brexit referendum. The makeup of such towns is predominantly working-class people, who have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and who, polling suggests, may switch back to Labour at the next election due to concerns over Conservative handling of the economic crisis. In light of this, Conservative campaigning strategies are changing, in order to focus on contemporary social issues and a contempt of political correctness, or ‘wokeness’, concepts which have been widely debated on social media, in order to appeal to these voters.
So, what is ‘wokeness’ and how did it become to be used as a political weapon? The word ‘woke’ originates from the idea of black people ‘waking up’ to racial oppression and was widely used in leftist and anti-racist circles. Gradually, the word was co-opted by the far-right on social media and was used to represent anyone with liberal social views, be that anti-racist campaigners, feminists or LGBTQ activists. Today, the word is a negative term which can be used for anything which could be interpreted as slightly left-wing or used by liberal millennials and young people – be that electric cars, chai lattes or cyclists. As described in a previous blogpost, so-called ‘wokeness’ attracts many criticisms, and newspapers like the Daily Mail have written various articles chastising political correctness gone too far.
Conservative MPs have sprung upon the word with eagerness, with Jacob Rees-Mogg chastising the idea that authors such as Roald Dahl should have their books edited to remove offensive or outdated language. This proclamation came after an uproar on social media about the topic, with many commentators claiming ‘woke publishers’ were censoring Dahl’s work. This is a prime example of the culture war playing out in front of our eyes, and how Conservative MPs are jumping on the opportunity to oppose ‘wokeness’. Whilst the issue of Roald Dahl books being edited might seem inconsequential to many, it represents a much broader issue of older voters in red wall seats feeling isolated from ‘the metropolitan class’ in cities such as London and Manchester and subsequently becoming fearful of ‘wokeness’ taking away from ‘traditional British values.’
An important figure in the Conservative’s culture war is Lee Anderson. Anderson hails from a working-class upbringing and was a member of the Labour party up until 2018, when he defected to the Conservative Party due to the ‘hard left takeover’ of the Labour Party. Ever since his defection, Anderson has sprung upon the culture war with great fervour and has recently become Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Such an appointment demonstrates the party’s eagerness to weaponize the culture war into a prominent campaigning strategy – Anderson has spoken out against many ‘woke’ cultural issues such as net zero, football players taking the knee and immigration, going as far as to claim that most asylum-seekers are illegal migrants. Anderson frequently uses his Twitter account to criticise the ‘woke’ issues of the day, and recently came under fire for this tweet which suggested that people who used food banks were genuinely in need. The Anderson appointment clearly indicates the Tories’ campaigning strategy – focus on benign cultural issues on social media, such as the editing of Roald Dahl books, which will rile up ordinary people, and use this to regain political support.
It remains unclear when the next election will be, but one thing which you can be sure of is that it will be unlike previous elections and will be fought on the grounds of social media. Expect less about the economic issues of the day, and more about the party leaders’ definition of what a woman is, such as in this jibe by Boris Johnson towards Labour leader Keir Starmer. It remains to be seen if this strategy is a successful one, or if the opinion polls prove to be correct.
