Bring Back Politics-by-the-sea

Mace | Issue 2 | Magazine

From the Archive

Seaside-town voters in red wall seats helped secure the prime minister’s landslide

It is 13 years since the Conservative Party hosted a seaside autumn party conference. Next year – after going virtual – the prime minister should support struggling coastal communities, along with the great English seaside, by returning to the tradition of politics-by-the-sea.

It was on 11 October 1985 when Margaret Thatcher told conference that “We all love Blackpool”. No longer. That the Tories have not held a conference in Blackpool since 2007 – and Labour since 2002 – is symptomatic of how paranoid party leaders have become with being associated with the metropolitan gospel of British decline-ism. In a notorious Times column, Matthew Parris described seaside towns like Clacton as resorts “trying not to die”, being symbols of failure and social depression.

This is the wrong approach. One of Labour’s greatest mistakes at the last election was to ignore the seaside vote in towns like Blackpool, where homelessness and disadvantaged pupils are well above the national average. Coastal communities have ageing (ie voting) populations. The disaffected coastal vote, including fishing ports like Grimsby, can have a political sting – 67.5 per cent of Blackpool voted Leave in 2016. While Parris advised the Tories to ignore rundown coastal towns, the prime minister can’t afford not to tackle their problems.

With Covid accelerating the decline of many coastal towns, the pandemic presents …

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