What has happened to the Left in Britain?

That was the soul-searching theme of Guardian columnist Zoe Williams’ talk on the first day of the Brighton Festival.

It would be a cheap shot to say she was preaching the converted, yet this was no sermon, more a thought-provoking analysis on the state of progressive politics.

Housing and inequality were the twin principles she says Labour in particular has failed on.

Shockingly, for every £4 spent on housing benefit, just £1 is spent building new homes.

This welfare subsidy, paid for by middle-earners, ends up in the pockets of a landlord elite who make up just 2% of the population.

As rentiers see their wealth soar, graduates face the prospect of £50,000 worth of student debt and never owning their own home.

Meanwhile lowly-paid supermarket workers receive benefits so they can afford to buy from the supermarkets. 

Williams is scathing about this capitalist trajectory, but finds hope in the political deadlock facing the country.

While Labour fails to listen to its members, a minority government propped up by smaller, radical parties, could push a grass-roots progressive agenda, she says.

Yet one understandably unmentioned clue to the Left’s failure could lie in the make-up of the audience – apparently devoid of diverse or young members.

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