The amount of choice that modern life offers us is bewildering. British supermarkets display more than 10,000 lines; 2,000 permutations of coffee are available at high street caffeine stations; the average cable television package offers 30 channels; 100,000 new books are published each year. Such variety, with its promise of fulfilling individual preferences, can be pleasing. But it can lead to paralysis. Without sufficient time and information to make objective assessments, we must either filter decision-making through our limited knowledge, experiences and prejudices, or rely on the promise of quality suggested by the big brand names.
One area of life, however, does not suffer from such an embarrassment of riches: our political system. At the coming general election, you can have any colour you like so long as it’s red or blue. It is hardly surprising that the next generation of voters, treated as highly sophisticated consumers when choosing their trainers and mobile phones, feel uncomfortable, perhaps even offended, when presented with such restricted options for their vote.
This second bulletin from our research into the political views of generation-NEXT (aged 15-21) probes more deeply the initial finding that young people find no embodiment of their heterogenous concerns in the current political system. In the first wave of research, conducted through an e-mail survey on another.com, 52 per cent saw little or no difference between the two main parties. But our respondents are not necessarily apathetic. This week’s survey finds that 44 per cent want to learn more about the parties’ policies in order to cast their vote effectively; 16 per cent feel that, no matter how small the difference, voting is still important; and only 11 per cent allow the apparent convergence in 21st-century political ideology to excuse them from a trip to the polling station.
Young people’s respect for the democratic process is absolute, but not absolutist. The statement that “voting is important but there are other things I can do which have a greater effect on society” got support from 70 per cent. Just over 60 per cent of our respondents listed “political” activities, other than voting, that they had been involved in: boycotting products, notably of teen-friendly companies such as Nike and Gap; taking part in demonstrations; supporting animal welfare, student rights and a greener environment; campaigning for better school and community facilities; volunteering and raising funds for charities. More singular suggestions for “political” activity include heckling politicians and forming a punk band.
We also investigated attitudes towards two big recent political stories: the Peter Mandelson resignation and William Hague’s speech claiming that Britain under Labour was becoming a “foreign land”. The answers demonstrate a more discerning approach to the realities of politics than might be expected from a generation whose understanding is gleaned from tabloid indignation, political satire and the occasional glance at a televised Prime Minister’s Question Time.
We gave our respondents five reasons why the former secretary of state for Northern Ireland might have resigned. Only a few thought it had anything to do with the Dome or the Irish peace process. Half agreed that it was something to do with “a rich Indian businessman”, and 27 per cent said that the PM thought Mandelson had misled him. But significantly, 15 per cent thought that he resigned because the media had demanded that he do so.
This view of media power was echoed in the responses to another question. Well over one-third (38 per cent) agreed that “the media has too much power over a politician’s career”, and 30 per cent that “the media is too obsessed with relatively unimportant details”. These two statements got more support than alternative suggestions: that “it is important that politicians are held accountable by the media” (21 per cent) and “the truth would come out whether the media was involved or not” (10 per cent).
Yet even if they felt he was a media victim, the majority also felt unmoved by Mandelson’s plight, with only 17 per cent saying they felt more sympathetic to him as a result of his resignation. More worryingly for politicians in general, 33 per cent (see chart on the right) agreed that he was just unlucky to be caught doing what other politicians were doing anyway.
Another question showed that young people insist on “honesty” as the foremost personal quality in a politician, greatly more important than “compassion”, “understanding” and “good policies”. Asked to compare Mandelson to a celebrity, the largest single unprompted response was “Nasty Nick” Bateman (from Big Brother), who was famed for manipulating and double-crossing his housemates.
So it is hardly surprising that, when asked to judge the trustworthiness of ten national politicians (see chart above), our respondents put Mandelson at the bottom of the heap. Mo Mowlam topped the poll, with nearly twice the endorsement (71 per cent) of her nearest rival, Tony Blair (44 per cent). Those who think Labour would be better off with Gordon Brown as PM may be disappointed to learn that he had fewer supporters than Blair as a trustworthy politician, although, paradoxically, there were also fewer respondents who thought Brown was untrustworthy. Any Tory hopes of generationNEXT will be dashed by the finding that the combined vote for trustworthiness of the three Conservatives (William Hague, Ann Widdecombe and Michael Portillo) was 63 per cent – less than Mowlam managed alone. Yet – another paradox – 67 per cent felt able to vote for a politician who, they believed, did not always tell the truth but who, overall, had a positive effect on the country.
More bad news for the Tories came in the response to Hague’s “foreign land” speech. The majority (62 per cent) disagreed with him, and 65 per cent said it made them less likely to vote Conservative.
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Beth Egan is the deputy director of Demos. This week’s generationNEXT is based on more than 2,400 responses to an e-mail survey. The project is conducted by Demos, the New Statesman and Another.com; further results from the survey will appear in the coming weeks as the general election approaches
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