To grasp the theme of this article, one only has to recall the recent and controversial episode of Question Time. The Farage vs Brand set up seemed to be predominantly to allow Question Time to increase its viewing figures. Of course, any panel that has two such characters is bound to entice viewers, particularly when those people are two of the most talked about in both political circles and the mass media. It was a continuous game of one-upmanship, resulting in embarrassingly low blows – the “chest hair” comment made by Mr Farage for example – and a war of words. Therefore the entire concept of ‘Question Time’ was out of the question from the offset. It inevitably became a battle of the personalities: there were no resolutions, no reasonable suggestions made, just two disillusioned men laying the blame on the other for the problems within Britain.
This event seems to allude to a current trend in British politics. Because of the consensus between the two main parties on many domestic issues such as welfare, taxation and public spending, the electorate are forced to consider more than black-and-white policies. This has trivialised politics; politicians’ personal lives are scrutinised more than ever nowadays. In the Venn diagram of their public and personal lives, the overlap is almost as large as the circles themselves.
The Ed Miliband vs. a bacon sandwich news story is a prime example. Due to the ubiquity of social media, politicians are given the celebrity treatment on a daily basis – and that doesn’t mean fast cars and big parties. I’ve lost track of the number of people who have said to me that they would vote Labour if Ed Miliband was not party leader, yet Yvette Cooper or Andy Burnham was leader, party management and policies would remain largely unchanged. The media portrayal of Miliband as “Wallace” has led to a decline in the support for Labour.
Of course there are occasions whereby a politician’s personality must affect one’s judgement of their career. Sexual harassment accusations, expenses scandals and racial slurs, are that show are leaders to be unprofessional and highly unpleasant. But it’s disingenuous to dislike David Cameron because The Guardian slated his holiday wardrobe choices. Read his speeches, look at his policies, his track record, whether he keeps election promises and THEN make a judgement. Petty reporting on the personal lives of politicians has only served to make the cynics of the electorate. Different newspapers will slate politicians for insanely trivial things solely to serve their own political agendas. It is now almost impossible to find unbiased news reporting, which makes it unsurprising that young people are so disillusioned when it comes to politics.
It’s evident that this kind of reporting also brings with it a diminishing faith in today’s “career politicians”, and gives rise to the likes of Farage. Despite his insistence that “I’m just a regular Joe, look at me in the pub with my pint”, he can also be classified under that definition also. One thing I respect Brand for is for being intuitive enough to recognise this loss of faith. It’s difficult to say where the solution lies, but for me it comes down to breaking this cosy consensus and ensuring that the main parties have a definitive stance on the many issues up for debate in modern Britain – namely education, the NHS, EU membership, immigration, the deficit. The success of this would be twofold: it would be easier for young voters to align themselves to a party whose views they agree with, and the mainstream media might have something more interesting to write about than the colour of Nick Clegg’s socks or Ed Balls’ umbrella.
Words by Beth Chaplow