The Pure giving advice to the hoi polloi... Stop answering centrist questions: The Left can only win when it answers the questions it was founded to pose

Johnson, Matthew, Johnson, Elliott and Nettle, Daniel (2023) Stop answering centrist questions: The Left can only win when it answers the questions it was founded to pose. Transform! Europe, Brussels, Belgium. ISBN 9783903343344 (In Press). Feb 2023. https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/51341

Abstract: This article summarises a series of findings from a programme of research on the viability of Universal Basic Income as a transformative public policy. The findings suggest that the left should stop answering liberal questions. This means no longer being preoccupied by who currently votes and their assumed ‘inherent’ values. Instead, as the left’s founding figures thought, it must consider how the vast majority of the population who would benefit from transformative material change can be persuaded of the benefit of voting for left policies. Our findings suggest that workers are keenly aware of the need for transformative material change and can be persuaded to support that change electorally through narratives that demonstrate specific benefits to specific groups. The findings ought to grant hope to progressive policymakers: change is possible and incrementalism is not an inevitable strategy.