‘People power’ must set new parliament agenda

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‘People power’ must set new parliament agenda

27.01.2010 // by Helena Kennedy

This article appears on the BBC's Democracy Live website:

With several months to go until the next election, and the political parties already in campaign overdrive, many have predicted that this will be one of the longest and most bitterly fought campaigns yet.

Less frequently remarked on, but far more important to the health of our democracy, is the very real danger that the upcoming election will see yet another decline in turnout as millions of people opt to stay at home rather than vote.

This is not a new phenomenon. For a long time, people in the UK have been switching off from formal politics. Voter turnout in the last two general elections has hovered at around 60% - a historic low - whilst membership of political parties has been dwindling for years.

As chair of the Power Inquiry, which carried out the largest ever investigation into the sources of disengagement from British democracy, I was privileged to travel the length and breadth of the country, listening to the views of ordinary people detached and distant from the political process.

That inquiry exploded the myth of voter apathy.

If British citizens stay away from the ballot box, it's not because they can't be bothered to track down to the polling booth; it's because they see parties and politicians as "all as bad as each other" and feel powerless to do anything about it. They want their voice heard.

If anything, the coming election will be fought against an even more toxic background of anger and distrust stoked by the twin scandals of MPs' expenses and the banking crisis.

Read on.