I disagree, it isn’t contradictory.
The power of the unions was broken back in the early 80s and we’ve had a constant shift towards the right ever since.
The fact is Conservatives will always hold the balance of power. The reason is because the wealthy will always fund the party that helps them maintain their wealth, that includes the billionaire media tycoons.
Have a look at the media which has the biggest funding, the biggest readership, it is:
The Telegraph
The Daily Mail
The Express
The Sun
The Times
all owned by billionaires and Conservative donors.
add on all the right wing lobby groups, the Tufton street cabal pushing out non stop libertarian propaganda, whose spokespeople get booked as “experts” all the time, it’s no surprise the right get to win the propaganda wars.
the only left wing media really is Mirror and Guardian.