Politics...

British politics is really interesting at the moment (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7525592.stm).

Not for most people in the UK, granted. The general public opinion appears to be represented by this song (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Who_Could_Care_Less_%28song%29).

A phone in programme I listened to on a national radio station this week was full of people wanting Gordon Brown to resign and David Cameron not to take over. Strange really because these will be the two choices the British public will face for their Prime Minister after the next election. Forget about leadership challenges. They will not materialise.

Why? I cannot see a successful challenge to current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, before the next election. Why? Because if there was a successful challenge before the next General Election (which does not have to happen until 5th May 2010) the Labour government in the UK would have imposed two Prime Ministers on the British electorate without offering them the chance to vote on either.

The public do not like anyone other than themselves deciding who is Prime Minister. And the Labour Party in the UK does not want an election at the moment because the fear they would lose it. And the Conservative Party will not change their leader whilst he is ahead in the opinion polls. And he is (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/polls).

I fully accept I will probably be wrong about this. The statement that “A week is a long time in politics” is only nonsense because in reality, a day is a long time in politics.

British politics does not fascinate me because of leadership struggles. It fascinates me because of personalities. Or the lack of them…

1. Gordon Brown came to power with a huge level of support. The fact he has lost that support is not about circumstances but personality. People like their politicians to be characters and most people in the country do not know what sort Gordon is. So despite the continuing bad news that surrounds the Prime Minister, he could and should be able to do better than he is at the moment. The problem is no one seems to know who he is or what he stands for.
2. David Cameron has a similar problem. In the battle to secure centre ground politics, both leaders appear to have forgotten to tell people who they are. Why is this causing a problem? Because we are prepared to disagree with (and forgive) pretty much anything that anyone does, but we hate not knowing who people are. In the age of celebrity, being aloof is not a positive.
3. I do wonder if Gordon Brown’s problem is that he wanted to be Prime Minister so much that doing the job is not as rewarding as wanting the job. The guy spent ten years as number two, wishing, wanting and desiring the top job. Perhaps intellectually he felt he was more worthy. Whatever, I wonder if he now believes the reality is as good as the desire.
4. Whatever else, this I know is true. Unless British politicians start engaging with the public in new ways, a whole generation of them are in deep trouble. The public are becoming more and more disillusioned with politics. At the last election there was a 61% turn out. The Labour Government was elected with a large majority, despite the fact that only 22% of the population voting for them. If things do not change, reality TV shows are going to have more voters than general elections. This not only threatens the credibility of a government, but threatens the credibility of democracy.

They say nature abhors a vacuum. I wonder which politician or party will be the first to fill the void left by disillusioned voters and bring them back to the ballot box.