Young
People in Politics
At a recent Labour Party meeting I was
asked how we could engage more young people in politics. As the youngest person
in the room at 35, I understood why they asked me! However, at 35 I would say
it has been about 15 years since I genuinely thought of myself as young. Also,
I grew up in a politically active environment which is not typical of most of the
friends I grew up with. An interest in politics, for the majority of people I
know outside of my council work, is limited to election time, voting and commenting
on something that directly impacts them in a negative way. Right now, there are
a number of issues which I see as a barrier to more people of all ages getting
involved in politics and also a reason for an increase in apathy towards
politics. Below are a few of the key ones, but definitely not the only ones.
The
Debate
One of the great problems and
frustrations I have encountered from people with regards to politics is the way
in which political discourse is undertaken. It is difficult to have an honest
debate about any issue where there are politically differing opinions. Both
sides desperate to save face will only argue on their own point and not engage
in any points that could make them look bad. This means that a piece of
genuinely interesting political discourse is never interrogated in public with any
integrity by politicians.
Channel 4’s Factcheck has shown that
there are plenty of occasions when politicians simply lie. Tony Blair will
always be remembered for WMD’s that never appeared and introducing student fees
despite saying he had no plans to do so. David Cameron may well be remembered
for his pre-election promises of, amongst others, no more top down
reorganisation of the NHS, to protect NHS Spending, to protect Sure Start
Centres and his cutting of the educational maintenance allowance despite saying
he had no plans to do so.
An example of where the debate has
fallen down so badly, for me, the student fees debate. The fees were increased
from £3k a year to up to £9k a year. At the end of three years student
education, a student would owe nearly £20k more as a result of these changes.
However, when watching the debate, it was impossible for me to understand what
was happening. Conservative politicians were all saying that students would pay
less which simply does not seem possible. Why would anyone believe they will
pay less when they will owe £20k more than before? With discussions like these,
it is perhaps unsurprising people don’t believe politicians.
The
Media
(examples of the poor standard of reporting around immigration. The article at the bottom was factually deficient and required a small print retraction)
One major guilty party in this is the
media. The majority of the UK media is right wing, due to wealthy owners
pushing their own political agendas. The exceptions are the Guardian and the
Mirror which are left wing and the Independent which is probably just left of
centre in UK politics. If we take a hot topic like immigration, all parties in
UK politics are currently claiming they want to limit immigration and it would
be political suicide to say otherwise. The right-wing papers have fuelled this
debate by printing selective negative stories and in some cases inventing
statistics and stories meaning people genuinely believe most immigrants are
just here to receive benefits and not work. The hysterical and dishonest media
approach means that any politician that claimed to be in favour of immigration
for the following completely factual reasons would receive negative headlines
on the subject without any attempt to investigate what they are actually saying.
Studies have proven that economically,
immigration is good for this country. Immigrants tend to come over at working
age and so are net imputers to the tax coffers. Also, studies have proven that
they are more likely to work than the indigenous population. Finally, when we
look at our NHS, it is staffed by a large number of immigrants from overseas
including countries like India, South Africa and Kenya. Without immigrants our
NHS would be in a poor state.
Party
Politics
I am a Labour supporter, but I do not
agree with everything my party does. Recently, Ed Milliband distancing himself
from the unions, who have done so much for worker’s rights, has frustrated me. However,
I have more in common with Labour supporting the NHS, State Education and the
vulnerable than any other political party. My local MP Andy Reed damaged his
political career, but gained the respect of many people including myself, when he resigned his cabinet position because of his objection
to the Iraq war. Right now, the Liberal Democrats in government have sold out many
of their principles to be part of a coalition government. However, whenever any MP speaks out against one of their party’s ideas, the opposition seizes upon
it in an almost rabid way treating it as a weakness instead of treating it as an opportunity for a piece
of genuine political discourse.
Party Politics frustrates those
outside of politics and some inside politics. I remember when I was younger hearing
Michael Portillo stating frustration with party politics as a reason for quitting
parliament. Rousseau stated that the party political system prevented the
British people from ever being free. Democracy is imperfect. Any future Utopian
democratic system would have to find a way of eliminating or at least subduing
party politics if it is to improve from what we have today.
References
