No, ‘woke’ culture war isn’t the biggest dividing line in Britain

“‘Woke’ culture war is biggest dividing line among voters”

The Times recently reported on new research conducted by the Centre for Policy Studies about cultural attitudes across Great Britain. 

The headline, featured on the front page of Monday’s edition, said “‘Woke’ culture war is biggest dividing line among voters.” 

This isn’t what the research found at all. 

The problem was neatly summed up on Twitter by Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University Philip Cowley:

In the time it takes to move from the headline to the first sentence, we go from "is" to "is on course to" (trans: "is not"). pic.twitter.com/yctAoM1aNs

— Philip Cowley (@philipjcowley) July 5, 2021

The survey of 1,500 voters across Great Britain found that 20% said “Woke vs. non-woke” was one of the three greatest divides in Britain today, from a list of 17 options.

The term’s definition is debated, but “woke” broadly refers to people who are alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice. 

The “woke vs. non-woke” divide was the seventh-most selected option in the survey, with the divide between rich and poor being chosen most, by 39% of respondents. Respondents were shown a pre-defined list of dividing lines meaning, there might be others that were not captured by this survey. 

The fact that voters thought wokeism was the seventh biggest dividing line in the UK doesn’t necessarily mean it actually is. Voters may think the issue is more or less divisive than it actually is, however that might be measured. 

The Times then went on to report that the research “found that ‘wokeism’ was a top-three cause of concern among voters, more than sexism or populism.”

This comes from another question in the same survey, which asked: “Which of the following concerns or bothers you most?” It then listed a number of possible answers, such as racism and sexism, from which people could choose three. 

Altogether, 23% chose “wokeism”, making it the third most popular answer behind “racism” (34%) and “religious fundamentalism” (27%). “Cancel culture” came fourth, selected by 18%.

But this was hardly a comprehensive list of the issues facing voters. For example, the pandemic, the economy, the NHS, Brexit, education and climate change were not included. 

We know that when people are asked to name the most important issues facing Britain, without being given a list to choose from, these things are reported to be far more important than wokeism or cancel culture.