Democracy 2015 is a movement recently started by the Independent’s founding editor Andreas Whittam, aimed at tackling a “nationwide disillusionment” with the institutions and practices of Westminster.
It wants to change the way we look at politics, how we interact with our politicians and, most importantly, how they interact with us. But can Democracy 2015, along with other social movement like Occupy, expect to have any impact on British politics as a whole?
Whittam’s call for change comes on the back of growing public disenchantment with the three major parties, triggered by the expenses scandal and the broken Lib-Dem tuition fee pledge. Voters are turning away from a system that has stood by them for so long. Only 65% of the British public turned out to vote at the last general election, compared with 80% in the French Presidential election.
Of course, some might say that a vote counts for more in a presidential election, but it was not that long ago that nearly 90% of Brits would turn up at the ballot box. Clearly many people are beginning to feel that voting is futile, as no party ever honours the grand promises made in the run up to elections.
Such a backlash was perhaps inevitable in light of recent events; in fact it almost seems surprising that no real opposition has emerged until now. After all, few can be expected to trust a parliament which recently lost four MP’s and two peers to her majesty’s prisons for fraudulently spending taxpayer’s money.
It is not the system that is faltering, more the people who are a part of it. A “political class”, as Whittam puts it, has come under scrutiny over the last 25 days, a group whose only interest is in “winning elections and gaining power”. Our prime minister’s background is in public relations, the chancellor’s as a Tory researcher; in fact an enormous 90 members of the present parliament have spent their entire lives working in politics, with no experience of a world not dominated by spin, electioneering and party politics. What Democracy 2015 is calling for is a new brand of politician altogether, cast from a very different mould. Doctors, lawyers, economists – successful in their vocation and ready to make the move into the Commons.
Whittam believes that such an influx would really make a difference; the difficulty however lies in bringing it about. Social media plays an important role in Democracy 2015’s vision of growth, galvanising small pockets of support and bringing them together on one platform. This is all well and good, but hashtags don’t win elections, votes do. The challenge lies not in getting people to understand the concept of the movement, but to believe in it enough to vote for it if offered the chance.
One advantage that Democracy 2015 has over the myriad of similarly aimed independents at the last election is organisation. Stray independent successes do little in the long-term and quickly lose momentum but together each achievement can be built on, with support increasing gradually over time.
There is no doubt that the movement faces an incredibly tough challenge; breaking into British Politics is notoriously hard. Even the Liberal Democrats, who appeared to have fostered massive support pre-election, failed to make considerable electoral inroads. But Democracy 2015 is offering something distinctly different.
The next general election is still some way off. The test will be how quickly Democracy 2015 can find its way into the mainstream, becoming more of a viable option and less of an alternative.
Andreas Whittam has certainly founded something with the potential to change British Politics for the better but it remains to be seen whether or not we are ready for that change.