She joined a panel of experts to explore the implications of research by the Policy Institute
The Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, spoke at King's this week at an event exploring recent findings on "culture wars" , division and identity in the UK from the Policy Institute and Ipsos.
The research reveals perceptions of division in the country have reached their highest level since tracking began in 2020. Some 84% of the public now say the country feels divided - up from 79% two years ago and 74% five years ago.
Presentations by Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King's, and Gideon Skinner, Senior Director of UK Politics at Ipsos drew out several key aspects of the report. Notably, the proportion of people who believe the nation is divided specifically by "culture wars" has risen even more sharply - from 46% in 2020 to 67% today.
During the event, the Secretary of State addressed a number of issues related to cultural tensions in the UK, including the importance of the BBC, the role of social media in shaping debate, and the government's use of platforms such as X.
I do think symbols matter…that question...about government being on platforms like X is one that is very much up for debate, and it's a debate that we're having
The Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP
John Burn-Murdoch, Chief Data Reporter at the Financial Times, explored the drivers behind this shift, while Dr Kate Ferguson, Co-Executive Director of the NGO Protection Approaches and a Visiting Research Fellow at King's, highlighted the implications of culture wars for national security.
Adversaries have recognised the cheapest way to destabilise democracies is now not to breach our borders with tanks...the cheapest way is...through these wedge issues
Dr Kate Ferguson
The latest [social media] algorithms push a lot of criticism of outgroups, much less positivity about ingroups and just a huge amount of political content in general. That's where people's eyeballs go, so that's what gets promoted
John Burn-Murdoch
The sold-out event, held in partnership with Ipsos and UK in a Changing Europe, forms part of a wider, long-term programme of research by the Policy Institute and Ipsos which seeks to understand the particular drivers and features of cultural division in the UK, including how political attitudes diverge between women and men, and how climate change is increasingly being brought into culture war debates.
