Widespread Public Anger at Politicians





Only 12% of the young will vote!

DAVID Blunket hit out today at the number of young people who intend to vote (according to the Hansard Society), and speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today program, he challenged Will Self, the author, for being negative about politicians.  Mr. Self said that  it didn't require critics of politicians, such as himself, to put people off politics as the politicians created a repugnance of political life through their own greedy and selfish actions.

Self had criticised Blunkett for taking many thousands of pounds doing work for Rupert Murdoch's news empire and involvement in two political scandals that contributed to his resignations as a minister under the last government.  And Mr Blunkett tried to identify himself with good causes, saying : "People, thousands of them, day in, day out, give their time voluntarily to work within political parties and campaigns such as Make Poverty History, to try and make the world a better place.'

These remarks come after the Guardian last month published ICM research showing that nearly half of Britons say they are angry with politics and politicians, in a survey analysing the disconnection between British people and their democracy.  The research found anger with the political class and broken promises made by high-profile figures that most rile voters, rather than boredom with Westminster. 

Lord Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, warned last month that voter trust in institutions is 'crumbling into dust' and raised the problem of disaffection.   He said:

'I cannot exclude the possibility that we'll see people who don't believe they can make their point within the political system making their point on the street instead.'

Ashdown has said voter disaffection could have a radical impact on the general election 2015:

'We are all proceeding on the basis that the next election will be a conventional election.  I'm not entirely certain that if the leviathan lying below the surface decides to swish its tail, that's necessarily the case.' 

Sarah Teather, the Lib Dem former children's minister, has also spoken about some of the reasons for declining trust in politicians.  She said ministers have become caught up in a 'cycle of democratic self-harm'. 

Pity the British anarchist movement is in such a poor state; indeed it's in a worse state even than that of the British politicians at Westminister, or it could to take advantage of this situation.