A new political vocabulary

We live in deeply political times. Just take a look at the Oxford English Dictionary’s recent choices for word of the year. In 2013, the judges chose ‘selfie’. The following year the gong went to ‘vape’. In 2015, there was not even a ‘word’ of the year – an emoji won.

In the wake of Trump and Brexit, the Oxford English Dictionary selected ‘post-truth’ as 2016’s word of the year. Last December, the dictionaries team plumbed for another politically-tinged neologism: ‘youthquake’.

In the 2010 general election, young voters split almost equally between Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats. But 2017 saw a dramatic surge in support for Labour among those aged 18 to 24. This ‘youthquake’ – more than anything else – cost Theresa May her overall majority.

In recent months some political scientists have suggested that June’s ‘youthquake’ was little more than a tremor but in this issue’s main feature James Sloam, Rakib Ehsan and Matt Henn come to a very different conclusion. The split between young and old could have profound implications for British politics, and, they argue, dismissing the ‘youthquake’ as a myth risks reaffirming the erroneous narrative that young people are apathetic and not interested in politics.

The other great cleavage in British politics is beyond dispute – Brexit. Rather than a nation uniting around some vision of the future, the UK looks increasingly divided by the June 2016 referendum, with the government so far reluctant to lay out in any detail what their plans are for Britain outside the European Union.

Given the razor thin referendum result and the ensuing political tumult it is no surprise that some talk of a second vote on Brexit. But has the public really changed its mind? John Curtice assesses the evidence and finds that the debate over the merits of holding another referendum has yet to be won or lost.

One of the key Brexit issues is Ireland. The UK’s land border runs for over 300 miles and has more crossings than the EU’s entire eastern frontier. As Ireland has risen up the agenda – most notably during the fraught discussions ahead of December’s phase one agreement – talk of Ireland following the UK out of the European Union has grown more voluble. So what are the chances of Irexit? Kathryn Simpson looks at the data and finds that Irish public opinion firmly believes life is better inside the European Union.

Trade and Brexit is on the agenda in the Last Word, too. The EU is the UK’s most important trading partner, accounting for close to 50 per cent of our exports. Sam Lowe from the Centre for European Reform argues that the prospects for replacing the single market with bespoke trade deals are slim.

Brexit is not the only political earthquake to have hit in recent years. The electoral eruption that propelled Donald Trump into the White House is still being felt. James D. Boys looks back at a very unorthodox president’s first year in office and finds that much of the radical reform promised has yet to materialise.

One of Trump’s signature campaign pledges was to deliver lasting peace in the Middle East. But in office he has shown a strong preference for regional autocrats, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The prospect of an accommodation with the Palestinians looks ever more distant, writes Ian Black.

While Brexit has preoccupied the UK, the EU has also faced challenges to the East. Jasmin Mujanović reports from the Western Balkans, a region slated to benefit from EU enlargement but where Brussels has failed to challenge local elites or encourage grassroots alternatives to the status quo. Alexander Clarkson looks at the dark side of the war against corruption in Russia and Ukraine.

In our regular In Focus slot, Benjamin D. Hennig plots the value of different citizenships – and finds that not all passports are equal. Elsewhere, Jane Duckett and Matthias Stepan examine the domestic politics behind China’s international engagement, and Anthony Ridge-Newman explores the past, present and the future for British conservatism.

With so much uncertainty, few would bet against the political vocabulary expanding further in the coming years. We will be there to follow every political - and linguistic - turn. I am delighted to announce that as of 2018, Political Insight will appear four times a year. If you would like to join the debates or contribute to Political Insight get in touch or visit www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus.