Britain’s latest battle of Hastings is about the economy

Bloomberg

The people of Hastings on England’s south coast know a thing or two about staging a battle.
The decisive defeat to Norman invaders in 1066 is one of the most notorious events in British history. More recently, the seaside town has seen conflict as the country tears itself apart over membership of the European Union. The last election two years ago was such a close contest in Hastings that it went to a recount and almost cost a top government minister her job.
With another vote coming on December 12, the town is again witnessing a key political fight, and it’s one that encapsulates more than just the struggle over Brexit. The underlying economic malaise in Hastings and similar places helps explain how Britain has ended up at what’s likely to be a watershed moment.
Statistics show that a greater proportion of people in Hastings is likely to have no formal education than most other places in Britain. A fifth of the working-age population has no qualifications whatsoever. The University of Brighton shut its Hastings campus at the end of September due to a lack of students.
The town also has one of the highest percentages of rough sleepers. Locals are often stuck in joblessness for generations, yet employers ranging from high-tech manufacturers to basic healthcare providers struggle to recruit. The disparities over skills and opportunity as well as income, meanwhile, are being amplified by an election campaign where rival parties are promising to tackle inequality by educating more or relying less on foreign workers.
“Aspiration is definitely one of the things that matters in this election,” said Sonia Blizzard, founder and managing director of Beaming, an internet-services provider based near the town that employs about 20 people. “People need to feel that they can access jobs and the economy in the way that other parts of the UK can.”
The lack of skills is both a threat to business and a key part of the election. For years, migrant labor, particularly from the EU’s poorer eastern members, has plugged the gap. But such workers have been increasingly leaving or not even arriving ahead of Brexit, which is currently scheduled for Jan. 31 after numerous delays.
Average salaries in IT have already risen by about 10,000 pounds over the last two years as a result, according to recruitment firm Broadbean. Educators, meanwhile, bemoan a lack of funding that leaves many locked out of progress.
In the UK, it takes five generations for the descendants of a low-income family to reach the average income compared with two or three in Scandinavia, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Fears over automation—companies opting for robots rather than people should labor costs rise after Brexit—also loom.
“If people don’t feel they can participate and benefit from the economy of the future, they will vote for policies that thwart modernisation of the economy,” Minouche Shafik, head of the London School of Economics and a former Bank of England policy maker, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Much of the politics of today, the sort of nostalgia politics we see, is a reflection of individuals feeling like ‘I haven’t got a chance in that future, so I’m going to do everything I can to thwart it.”’