Democracy in the UK is being subverted. We have a silenced majority: disenfranchised, ignored – and endangered – and almost nobody is talking about it.

Millions of people across the country hold socially liberal, economically centre-to-left views.

They believe in strong public services; in human rights; in tackling inequality and facing down climate collapse. They are the mainstream — or should be.

But they’ve been pushed to the margins of politics, shut out by parties that no longer represent them, and gagged by a media obsessed with fringe voices and false balance.

This is the silenced majority — and ignoring them isn’t only unjust. It’s dangerous.

Simon Wren-Lewis’s current Mainly Macro article exposes the scale of the problem: Labour, the Tories, and Reform UK may wear different colours, but their platforms are increasingly indistinguishable: low-tax, low-service, and socially conservative.

And now we’re seeing the fallout. Not just in policy. But in participation.

Young people are checking out — and it’s not apathy

As Vox Political reported only yesterday (April 15, 2025), fewer than a third as many under-25s have registered to vote this year as in the same period in 2024. It’s a staggering drop — from 160,000 to just over 50,000.

This isn’t just local election apathy. It’s a red flag for democracy.

Voter ID laws, housing instability, and deep disillusionment are locking people out — especially the young, the poor, and the marginalised.

And Labour, the party that once stood for democratic empowerment, hasn’t lifted a finger in response.

There’s no campaign to scrap voter ID.

No push for automatic voter registration.

No serious effort to rebuild trust in the ballot box.

Just silence — or worse, complicity.

Farage doesn’t speak for the UK — he just has a louder microphone

While millions are struggling to be heard – including This Site – one man never seems to leave the airwaves: Nigel Farage.

He is treated like a barometer of national feeling — even though his party has only a handful of seats in Parliament.

His views on immigration, identity, and Britain’s place in the world are hard-line, outdated, and out of step with most of the public.

Yet the media hang on his every word, reinforcing the myth that he represents “ordinary people.”

This distortion matters. When the BBC and other broadcasters equate “balance” with endless Farage airtime, they silence the actual majority — the millions who don’t want scapegoating, culture wars, or cuts.

And when Labour panders to that same manufactured centre-right consensus, it confirms the worst fear of disengaged voters: that no one is fighting for them.

Disengagement is not indifference — it’s rejection

It is convenient to blame low turnout on laziness. But the truth is far more serious: people are retreating from a system that has already retreated from them.

Democracy in the UK isn’t dying with a bang. It is eroding in silence.

In falling registration numbers.

In closed polling stations.

In a generation of people who feel democracy has stopped answering their calls.

And when that happens, it is those in power — or those waiting to take it — who benefit.

The right turns out. The status quo holds. The chance for change disappears.

This isn’t inevitable — but it is urgent

There’s still time to turn this around.

We need automatic voter registration.

We need to repeal voter ID.

We need to pressure Labour to stop chasing Daily Mail headlines and start building a truly representative democracy.

That is because right now, the danger isn’t just that the majority is being ignored.

It’s that they’re being deliberately silenced — and if we don’t act, someone like Farage will claim to speak for them, fully-supported by the system.

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