Have the fine people of Essex become the new vanguardists in the fight against the progressive elites?
Could it be that the county that has long been the butt of so many derisive jokes is about to serve as the principal battleground in a political and cultural struggle that may determine the future direction of the entire nation?
Well, that may be overegging things a little. But in the wake of some recent events inside the county, as well as the personal interventions of some of its more high-profile natives, these questions may not be entirely misplaced.
I know Essex well. I grew up in Dagenham, a place that, until it was drawn into the administrative clutches of Greater London in the 1960s, was firmly part of the county – a fact that locals of my parents’ generation, no fans of the new arrangement, are always quick to point out. My roots, therefore, lie in Essex, and so I feel at least semi-qualified to offer a view.
Epping – just a short drive from Dagenham – hit the headlines for reasons we all know. Then Rylan Clark sparked a storm when he went on to national television and – rare for an image-conscious celebrity, this – came out against mass immigration.
Meanwhile, straight-talking Apprentice star Tom Skinner, like Clark, a proud Essex lad, has been rubbing shoulders with the US Vice President and preparing a bid for the London mayoralty on a distinctly populist platform. Needless to say, both men, like the protesting Epping townsfolk, have aroused the ire of metropolitan liberals everywhere.
The county’s institutions have also been involved in culture war skirmishes. Essex Police was caught in a scandal when officers arrested the journalist Allison Pearson for allegedly posting something offensive on social media. And just last week, the county council attracted criticism after writing to staff and advising them to ‘reach out’ if they felt ‘unsettled’ at the sudden appearance of national flags on the streets.
The snobbery directed at Essex has lit a fuse that could bring down the whole establishment - Paul Embery
So in the fraught public debate over issues such as immigration, populism, free speech and state over-reach, Essex has found itself centre stage in a way that few would have expected.
But the predictable thing about Essex and its people is that they are unpredictable. In a world which is comfortable with stereotypes and tribal loyalties, the county refuses stubbornly to conform.
Geographically, Essex is a patchwork of industrial new towns, salt marshes, picture-postcard villages, traditional seaside resorts and well-trimmed suburbia.
Politically, too, the county doesn’t always follow the rules. Constituencies populated by large numbers of working-class voters frequently vote Tory. The term ‘Essex Man’ was coined to reflect this phenomenon.
Labour will generally pick up a smattering of seats here on the occasions when it hasn’t gone completely insane (though I would venture that there is much more affection in these parts for patriotic old Labour rather than its modern cosmopolitan-liberal incarnation); the Lib Dems will scrape the odd victory; and Clacton, now represented by Reform’s Nigel Farage, became the first seat in Britain to elect a Ukip MP.
Every constituency in the county voted for Brexit, and some of them (such as Thurrock) are well-recognised bellwethers in general elections.
All of this is a sign that the county’s voters refuse to be pigeon-holed. I have been visiting Canvey Island (I have close relatives there) on a fairly regular basis all my life.
Though I always feel I am among my own people (the island is home to thousands of families with their roots in London’s East End), I have to remind myself that Labour, my party, has never had much political presence there.
In a popularity contest between Nigel Farage and Keir Starmer – or, for that matter, any high-profile current Labour figure – there would be only one winner.
Among all the Home Counties, Essex is seen as the most downmarket. Most well-heeled professionals or social climbers would sooner opt for, say, Hertfordshire or Surrey.
Essex-dwellers who have succeeded have usually done so through their own efforts rather than as a result of advantages conferred by the old school tie. Many people with money and status would not, unless they already had links here, come anywhere near the county. Frankly, it’s their loss.
The snobbery that is directed towards Essex may well explain its single-minded, anti-establishment attitude. There is a raw authenticity here, a politics of the gut rather than of the tribe.
And it’s that resistance to groupthink, which means that, when it comes to political issues, its people are unencumbered by tradition or expectation. If they don’t like what’s being done to them, they’ll make their views known. They have few airs and graces and are happy to tell it as it is. As the rest of the nation is now discovering.
The traditional motto of Essex is: ‘Many minds, one heart’. Whoever thought that up all those years ago clearly knew the place very well.