You may as well shoot me now

When someone like Anthony Painter, a Labour commentator, writes an article telling protestors they are irrelevant, suggesting that they all just give up and go home, you may as well shoot me now.

When Ed Miliband (leader of the Labour Party) follows it up today with the emphatic declaration that ‘protests aren’t the solution to the problems out there’ I would simply like to ask him : So what are Ed?

What will work? Macrame banners? Wishing circles? Rock/Paper/Scissors tournaments?

A well organised opposition, speaking for the neglected voices of a nation? Clearly not that either.
Democracy? Yeah, that’s not working out so well is it? 34.9% of the electorate didn’t bother to vote at all at the last election – that’s way more people than voted Labour – nearly as many as the total who voted Conservative in fact.

While we’re on the subject of democracy (for all those that tell me we have it) I had been under the impression that politicians had some obligation to uphold manifesto pledges as part of the deal, but that doesn’t seem to have been true for years either.

According to Anthony, evidence for this apparent irrelevance, is that opinion polls around the world are not swinging wildly to the left. We are not becoming a more progressive, socially democratic world because people are not queuing up to put their tick in the box of various left wing parties.

Well, here’s a thought – could that be because they feel there ARE no left wing parties anymore? Could it be that people aren’t really interested in putting their X’s anywhere at all?

If various protestors started their own “We’ve had enough of this nonsense” party, who can say that they wouldn’t mop up a good few million votes that currently, are not votes at all?

Voting figures have been falling for years. People just do not trust any of the main political parties to represent them. “What’s the point?” you will hear if you ever knock on a voter’s door. “They’re all the same” “I don’t bother voting, me” “They’ve just got their noses in the trough haven’t they?” “They don’t care about me or my life.”

Now, I’m no flag waving crusty. Until recently, I was a happy little, card carrying, Blairite. I’ve never painted my children’s faces and dragged them in front of a bulldozer. I’ve never sipped peppermint tea around a campfire, singing protest songs.

Until recently, I thought that if you had a genuine grievance (and I can’t think of a much more genuine grievance than throwing a few million disabled people to the wolves) then you could change things politically. Hazily, I imagined that you might perhaps write a letter or two, maybe meet with a minister here and there to explain things and democracy would prevail.

Rather worryingly, I discovered for myself that was not the case. Politicians neither listened to nor cared about my concerns, or the concerns of millions like me. They didn’t seem to care much about taxing the banks or helping the vulnerable or saving our libraries, hospitals and forests. And so, 38 Degrees was born. And the Robin Hood Tax. And my Diary of a Benefit Scrounger and The Broken of Britain and Avaaz and UKUncut.

This year, 38 degrees have collected nearly 1 Million signatures on their original NHS petition – I’m not sure I know of any petition that has ever received that level of support. What’s more, They’ve saved our forests, not Westminster. 100s of 1000s turned out for the March for the Alternative and Avaaz regularly get half a million or so people supporting their causes.

In the spirit of investigative-anecdote-sharing, I canvassed opinion amongst local Iceland staff. All young, all poorly paid, all pretty disinterested in politics.

“Who best represents your views, politicians or protestors?” Answer : Protestors

“Will protest make a difference?” Answer : I bloody hope so

“Do you vote?” Answer : What’s the point, they’re all the same

“Would you join a protest?” Answer : *Shocked look as if the thought had never occurred to them.*

“Are you feeling worse off or better off than last year?” Answer : Worse off

“Who do you think is to blame for that?” Answer : Dunno

I think the days of judging how left wing – or any wing – people are by how many of them say they will vote for a particular party may be long gone. It would seem the days when my Labour party stood for – in fact, stood with – the voiceless, the disenfranchised and the impotent are long gone too.