Politics is dead. People just don’t care any more. Voter turnout is at record lows, with more young people voting in X-Factor than in General Elections.
The most common reason given for such apathy is that ‘they’re all the same’, that it doesn’t matter whom one votes for, the same sleazy politicians with their ambition and their expenses claims are elected, and the same shocking inequality, disadvantage and pain remain. To many it seems that politics has lost its vision for a nation transformed, and reverted instead to the politics of management, full of career politicians who sound and do exactly the same.
Perhaps some of this is true. Certainly some of the ideology has appeared to have left politics over the last decade or so in the drift towards a neoliberal consensus, and it remains to be seen whether the divide over the response to the downturn is permanent. Likewise, the shameful personal attacks of recent weeks will have come as no big surprise to those who have been alarmed by the apparent strangulation of the politics of values and policy by the politics of personality.
It is no wonder that thousands of young people across the nation who care about injustice and poverty, who wish to see the concerns of the needy met and the hopes of the marginalised raised, are put off elected politics, the very arena where those aspirations of change can still be reached. To too many young people, politics is unappealing and lifeless.
If it is to recover – and, in particular, if Labour politics is to recover – it badly needs a shot in the arm, and I would argue that this could come from the most unlikely of sources: the world of faith.
Many Labour members remain wary of those who profess religious belief, fearful of moralising and forgetful of the party’s strong foundations in Methodism. Of course, it would be facile to suggest that the commitment to eradicate injustice and bring hope to the vulnerable is one held by those people of faith alone or that those who express a religious belief have a monopoly on integrity or a sense of duty.
But those who doubt the power of religious movements for political change need look no further than the success of Barack Obama, who is openly motivated by his strong Christian faith and was successful in reaching out to a new faith constituency in the United States like no Democrat before. Few would doubt the rejuvenation he has brought to politics in America.
Politics, and the Labour Party, is at its strongest when it is tapping into popular movements, shaping them and leading them. Make Poverty History, Stop the Traffik, Jubilee 2000, End Child Poverty: all these movements have been successful in reaching out to people wanting change but disaffected by mainstream politics, and all (particularly the first three) have had faith groups at the centre and been populated by young people of faith.
If Labour is to win the next election it must do two things. First, it must convince the public that it is indeed a party of values, populated by men and women with integrity and a commitment to social justice. Second, it must reach out to new constituencies, to those people, especially the young, disaffected by politics but hungry for social transformation. It could do far worse than reach out to faith communities for inspiration.
Tom Quinn is undertaking the CARE Leadership Programme for Christians seeking to engage in public life and is the Founding Chair of the Young Christian Socialist Movement.
