Don’t vote on Wedge Issues

Although its not election time, the recent discussion of the niqab by Boris Johnson has made me think about how politicians try to influence the public using wedge issues.  This is largely done at election time, but also in times of a leadership crisis. This tactic is used by politicians across parties and countries.  A wedge issue is largely irrelevant to running the country but it creates a divide between the voting population, usually along liberal and conservative lines.

The Trump campaign controversially engaged Cambridge Analytica to trawl through facebook data in their election campaign, in their search for suitable wedge issues.

Key issues such as: Education, Economics, Healthcare, Social Security and National Security, should be the topics debated by politicians.  Instead they discuss wedge issues as everyone has an opinion on these controversial issues.  If the public could identify wedge issues and not vote based on them, then politicians would be forced to engage in proper debate about the running of the country and economy.

The discussion surrounding the Niqab was a perfect wedge issue.  In 2016 the YouGov poll indicated that 57% of the UK population would support a ban on the burqa. This is an issue that the majority of the country could get behind, and if they voted based on it, this could turn an election or influence a leadership campaign.

There is no clear UK data on the number of women wearing the face covering burqa in the UK.  However in France, 1,900 women wore the face covering burqa in 2011, this was just 0.04% of the French Muslim population and just 0.003% of the general French population.  This makes it a true classic wedge issue.  Assuming the data is similar in the UK, then a very tiny percentage of the population are directly affected, yet 57% of the population have a view on this.

Other wedge issues that have been used in the past include: the right to bear arms, anti-semitism, abortion rights, gay marriage, fox hunting and the boat people in Australia amongst others.  All topics that people have strong views on.  Don’t let the politicians take us for fools.  We can discuss the main issues and vote based on these.