Disengagement

Celia Hannon (London, Demos): In April 2007 charlieissocoollike, a 16 year-old vlogger from Bath joined YouTube. So did the British Prime Minister. Since then Charlie has amassed 70,000 subscribers. The Prime Minister has 5,000. These figures betray a very naked truth - young people are not flocking to listen to their presidents and Prime Ministers when they talk to them via internet videos. Instead, they are seizing power for themselves; taking on roles as reporters, distributors, commentators and artists. It seems that while their parents and grandparents won their freedoms by challenging governments, this generation of young people would rather find their ‘route-around’ existing institutions and forms of media.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK):  Fascinating post by occasional OK contributor James Graham over on his Quaequam blog about his growing ennui and disengagement from the Lib-Dems. Even the party conference has not boosted his steroids and he might leave the Party - well, the thought is there. It's an almost poetic description of how people get fed up with the routines of party political life, its lack of imagination and inspiration. Can this be the rest of his life? If I was Nick Clegg I'd be worried, but it is about more than just the Liberal Democrats losing the mood of one of their bloggers of the year. It's also a tale of the fate of how politica activism - including blogging NB - just not giving food for the soul and the heart and the brain not to speak of other parts. (hat tip Iain Dale)

Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): Slight shifts in public knowledge of and interest in politics, nothing tectonic. "Key findings" in the poll for the fifth annual Audit of Political Engagement, now produced solely by the Hansard Society, show that just over half the public report an interest in politics (down 4% since last year) and rather more (55%) say they know nothing or not very much about politics (up 4%). More than half the public feel that they don't understand any of 11 "key constitutional issues."

Jon Bright (London, OK): Frank Field is the latest person to have a stab at the problems of disengagement and governance - releasing the above named pamphlet (opens pdf) through Policy Exchange. "Cumulative social and political changes have undermined the concept of active citizenship" is the pull quote from the Executive Summary, which is all I've had time to read so far. He maintains that disengagement is down to increasingly "rational" voters (who won't be very interested in voting in safe seats) and a decline in strongly held "ideological" voting patters.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Thoughtful post by James Graham on Quaequam on the way politics in Britain is also rotting from the bottom, not just the top, and how even when there is an opportunity for local politics the local subjects in our kingdom remain passive and become victims of the BNP:

Why do so few people stand for parish and community councils? There are lots of factors, but the main ones in my experience are an unholy alliance between a profoundly undemocratic electoral system and a profoundly undemocratic culture that regards elections as vulgar. Villages have a tendency to be ruled over by hegemonies. Political parties in all but name, they dominate by perpetuating the myth that they are above such things. The worst examples of nepotism and venality can be found but somehow this gets justified as a natural feature of village life. It works because the passive majority simply cannot imagine anything else.

Jon Bright (London, OK): Mike Garnett was at the ippr yesterday to discuss and promote his new book - From Anger to Apathy: The British Experience since 1975. The problem of 'disengagement' in our current political system seems central to a number of things we publish on OurKingdom, and it was interesting to get a bit of historical perspective on it.

Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): I was on a demo this weekend, protesting about the government's manipulative evasions of the rule of law and its irresolute conduct, irregular party political spending, corruption, the absence of positive alternatives. Sounds familiar? This demo was in Riga, capital of Latvia, and the demo took place in snow and cold wind, yet up to 10,000 people stood there, umbrellas overlapping, to hear artists, actors, activists and some politicians deliver brief and overlapping speeches.

Suzy Dean (London, The Manifesto Club): From all the current Westminster hype you might think the replacement of our current Single Member Plurality System (SMPS) with Proportional Representation (PR) would be a revolution akin to giving women the vote. According to PR advocates, by making our seat-to-vote translation more proportional, those that feel the current system renders their vote irrelevant will finally be tempted back to the ballot box, and new life will be breathed into our old political system. But can we assume that public dissatisfaction with the First-Past-The-Post voting system is the root cause of public disengagement from politics?

Jon Bright (London, OK): Another hat tip to Gareth Young for flagging up this YouGov poll. It makes negative (if not entirely unexpected) reading for those interested in constitutional reform: asked to choose 4 government priorities from a list of 13 options, only 2% picked "Reforming the constitution" - equal bottom with 'none of the above'. This really gives me pause. Given the option, 2% of the respondents would rather have the government do nothing at all than reform how we are governed (these people must be big fans of the summer recess).

Jon Bright (London, OK): I was at a Google / Demos event on Wednesday night held in Google's rather swanky Buckingham Palace Road offices (note to self: corporate events have the best nibbles). Everyone coming in was made to sign a rather intimidating secrecy agreement which I'm hoping none of the following will be in breech of.

Moderator: This is a response to a speech made by Meg Russell at an ippr fringe meeting in September. The speech itself is reproduced here.

Jon Bright (London, OK): OurKingdom has reproduced a copy of a speech given by Meg Russell of the Constitution Unit here. In it she tackles a question of fundamental importance to anyone pushing for constitutional reform - widespread public disinterest in the subject. Is democratic renewal the way to reverse disengagement? Or is there something more fundamental that needs to be done?

Richard Symons (London, Ministry of Truth): The press and public response to both the Elected Representatives (Prevention of Deception) Bill and our film, "the Ministry of Truth" has been extraordinary. Somewhere along the line we must have struck a chord - the Downing Street e-petition steadily grows as I type and e-mails / comments are flooding in. A minority of these are vitriolic in the extreme. Always a good sign.

Jon Bright (London, OK): Jill Kirby, who was appointed director of the Centre for Policy Studies yesterday following the departure of Ruth Lea, has been quite prolific on the subject of family values, children, and government intervention. Her work, and other pieces on similar themes, often spring to mind when obesity is in the news - and today BBC News has given this headline pride of place since I got into work: "Obesity 'not individuals' fault'".

Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): What is potentially a highly significant political struggle is being fought by an alliance of left-wing Labour and trade union members, the churches and Searchlight (the anti-Fascist magazine and organisation), against the British National Party. This struggle is largely grassroots, and it rarely if ever gains the oxygen of publicity it should have. As Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham where the BNP have long been active, says: "The BNP is emerging as a significant threat throughout the country. It averaged 14.7 per cent in the 742 wards it contested in this year's local elections, now has 47 councillors and, left unchecked, could gain MEPs in the next European Elections." Professor Helen Margetts, at Oxford, is also conducting research that indicates that the BNP's unpopularity among voters is receding.

Jon Bright (London, OK): Is UK politics in a state of crisis? OurKingdom is founded on a belief that it is, to an extent at least. This crisis has many facets. But one of the ones that has been interesting me most recently is disengagement. The nearness of an election sent those of us who live in or around Westminster village into such a frenzy of speculation that it was easy to lose site of the fact that, even if the thing had been called, 30-40% of the country wouldn't have been interested in taking part.

Jon Bright (London, OK): Brown must be expecting a grilling at PMQs today. Not only does he have an election bungle to shake off, he has Darling's shameless appropriation of Conservative policy to spin about. Iain Dale sums it up: "Does anyone seriously believe that Alistair Darling would have made his announcement on Inheritance tax or on Non Domiciles if the Tories hadn't made hay with this last week?" I have a hazy recollection of voting for Labour a couple of years back (which is increasingly hard to explain to people) and I'm pretty sure "Whenever the Tories say something popular, we'll say it as well, in slightly different language" wasn't a manifesto pledge. This is exactly the type of politics that disengages people - relentless triangulation, tacking towards the middle ground, refusal to campaign on principle. 61% voted in the last election - how many will vote in the next?