The nation had barely recovered from its New Year’s Day hangover when it began. As David Cameron unveiled his party’s slick, shiny new election poster, the longest general election campaign in British history stuttered into life and the pattern for the next four months was set. Until May 7th, the front pages will run thick with cheap political potshots and more numbers than a Countdown anniversary special. David Dimbleby, presumably surviving solely on a heady cocktail of caffeine pills and Red Bull, will be so omnipresent on our televisions that if he doesn’t change his tie, you might think he hasn’t left the studio.
But the last general election saw the introduction of a little more razzmatazz to proceedings. The focal point of the campaign was the televised debates. David Cameron did well in 2010 and was keen for them to go ahead this year. You’d think it would be a walk in the park – after all, he should breeze it. His opponents are Nick Clegg, a man who is tumbling downwards through opinion polls faster than you can say ‘coalition agreement’ and Ed Miliband, who appears unable to successfully eat a bacon sandwich, never mind lead a country. So, what’s he got to worry about?
His fear could be found perched in the beer garden of a rural country tavern. Clad in tweed, waving a cigarette and quenching his thirst with a pint of ale (British, of course), this chap is more than just the average patron propping up the bar and putting the world to rights. Nigel Farage has dragged his party from the fringes of British politics to centre stage and with early polls suggesting another hung parliament, he holds a position of serious political clout. Farage has appealed to those who feel left behind by the Westminster status quo; when he speaks, the world listens.
It’s Farage’s charisma and ability to engage with people that has Cameron “running scared”. He fears that on a podium opposite Nigel Farage, the leader of ‘the people’s army’, he would simply appear feeble – a ‘career politician’ and a member of the ‘Establishment’ which UKIP berates so much. Even without Farage stealing the limelight, he’d also have to answer for his Prime Ministerial record, which is not without its blemishes. The televised Presidential debates in the USA show that incumbents always have a rougher ride and it’s hard to see Miliband not taking the bait when issues like the bedroom tax and the Conservatives’ programme of extensive welfare cuts are dangled in front of him. With that in mind, it’s understandable that Cameron announced that he wouldn’t appear without the Green Party present.
With that in mind, it’s understandable that Cameron seized on the BBC’s declaration that they wouldn’t accommodate the Green Party. That is, until the BBC called his bluff. The BBC debate will feature not only the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems, UKIP and the Greens, but Plaid Cymru and the SNP too. Suddenly, this becomes a much more complicated affair.
Then, if 2010 taught us anything, it’s that television can apparently perform miracles. Remember “I agree with Nick?” Clegg’s performance saw the Liberal Democrat leader go from total underdog to a genuine contender for No.10 for some voters. This time around, who knows? With the Greens and UKIP moving from relative obscurity to potential gamechangers in a hung Parliament, we may just witness the death of two party politics live on national television.
But that’s just the televised leader’s debates. While they might be hogging the headlines, Cameron has also distanced himself from the Leader’s Live debates hosted by the Bite The Ballot initiative. When pressed on whether or not he would appear in Prime Minister’s Questions, his response was hardly one of overwhelming enthusiasm – or, indeed, clarity. This sends a more worrying message.
David Cameron thinks his words would fall on deaf ears. People aged 18-24 are notoriously unreliable voters. When they do vote, they tend to vote Labour, Green or Lib Dem. While the latter may not have quite as large a role to play (remember tuition fees?), Cameron doesn’t seek to gain a lot. That’s hardly the point. I don’t particularly care if David Cameron doesn’t think discussing welfare reform with a group of students will translate into a cup of tea with the Queen on May 8th, asking her permission to form a government. He has a duty, an obligation.
People think democracy is about elections. It isn’t. Democracy is about representation. There’s a lot more to our political system than us all trotting up to the ballot box every five years, ticking a cross next to a name and hoping for the best. We put our faith in politicians – they’re accountable to us. As our Prime Minister, the figurehead of the government that represents us, David Cameron is the most accountable of them all.
By avoiding these debates, David Cameron hinders any progress that the youth vote is trying so desperately to make. It plays on the general perception of apathy among young people – a trend which hands a monopoly on power to older generations. This is why the Bite The Ballot initiative is so essential. It’s an opportunity for the Prime Minister of this country to show its young people won’t be taken for granted and if he won’t seize that opportunity, we should. Sitting on your backside, eating crisps and watching Geordie Shore repeats on polling day is essentially a sanction of Westminster’s belief that our generation is a lost cause and doesn’t want a stake in our society. So on May 7th Don’t boycott the system – change the system. Demand more from your politicians. Get angry. Get your vote’s worth.
By Thomas Johnston