We encourage our kids to get involved in the decisions we make around the house (well, to a degree, otherwise we’d be having lollipops for breakfast and jacket spud for tea every single day) and this freedom to be involved in decisions like where we go on holiday will hopefully stand them in good stead when they get older.
One of the biggest threats to democracy in this country is voter apathy. It’s not first past the post, it’s not the EU “stealing our sovereignty”, it’s simply people not bothering to make their voice count. Yes, turn out is up in the last two general elections, we’re now dangerously close to two thirds of people who are eligible to vote actually voting.
A lot of people probably nodded at Russell Brand’s anti institution rant a few months back, tacitly taking it as a good explanation of why they didn’t bother either, even if they’ve never properly articulated their problem with politics further than “they’re all as bad as each other“. The reasons this view isn’t right are many and varied but a simple way to look at it is to look at the front of the Independent today:
