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.
Not knowing what they were actually saying, though I could pick up on tone, urgency, etc., gave me a curious insight into the dynamics of political gatherings. The equal representation of women speakers - equal, not just token - gave the protests a pleasing rhythm, as did the non-party pluralism of the women and men who spoke. Latvia has a strong choral tradition and speeches were interspersed with communal singing of songs that under the Russian occupation had expressed their national identity and a resistance that escaped sanctions. For me two themes emerged.
First was the power of humour mixed with passion that enabled some speakers to win over the protesters and engage them in the political demands that followed. Our risk-averse politicians just don't dare use humour or passion (I remember how Mandelson et al stopped Neil Kinnock, one of the funniest politicians of our time, from deploying his great gift of humour, thus transforming him so damagingly into 'the Welsh windbag'). It was typically the humour that people translated for me.
Secondly, was the plainly corrosive effect both of corruption and manipulation and evasion of the constitutional rule-book. It is destroying faith in politics in Latvia: people who have withstood one vile occupation after another feel cheated now that they have come into their own inheritance. Our political class too engage in the same kinds of transgressions as their Latvian counterparts and they protest self-righteously when critics like Peter Oborne identify and point out their failings, protesting, "You are destroying trust in politics". But it is their conduct that is doing the damage.
