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> Young People and Democracy - Westminster Hall debate
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From
House of Commons Hansard 23rd March 2006
Mr. Sadiq Khan (Tooting)
(Lab): I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this
important debate. I am even more pleased that I was able to
be present at this morning's Operation Black Vote and
Electoral Commission shadowing scheme event, which the
Minister talked about in her introduction. I congratulate
her on the widening of her portfolio to include electoral
reform, House of Lords reform and party funding, as of the
close of business yesterday. I am not sure what they will be
by the close of business today. That portfolio is
challenging, but I am sure that she agrees it is an exciting
one at this juncture in the development of our democracy.
There clearly is a huge problem with young people's
participation in democracy. When the Minister kicked off the
debate, she mentioned that in the last general election only
37 per cent. of those aged between 18 and 24 bothered to
vote. That is a slight decrease from 39 per cent. in 2001,
and she mentioned that 68 per cent. of young people voted in
1997. That is a cause for huge concern to all of us, and it
is one of the reasons why it is apt to have this important
debate today.
However, work has been done on the decrease in young
people's participation in mainstream policy. For example,
the presentation given by the Electoral Commission touched
on two reports of recent times. Its report of 2003
considered political engagement in ethnic minority
communities, and in 2004 there was an update, looking at
political engagement among young people. The writing has
been on the wall for some time. The main point that seems to
be coming from the commission's work is that we wish
political parties looked a bit more like us, and that
reflects issues of both gender and age.
I was pleased—the Minister touched on this at the
presentation—that there was a sea change in 1997, which
meant that for the first time the number of women MPs
reached three digits. To a large extent, that was thanks to
the all-women shortlist policy imposed by my party in the
lead-up to 1997. We see the fruits of that in any Question
Time in the Chamber, where women on the Government Front
Bench are taking part in important decisions for our
democracy.
Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire)
(LD): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is also
wonderful to see so many women MPs from all parties in the
House and on both Front Benches? Does he also agree that
although the Labour party pursued one way of increasing
women's representation, there are other ways of doing that,
such as the participatory methods that he outlined and which
Operation Black Vote launched today? I brought my shadow
with me to observe the debate and I am sure that she will
find it interesting.
Mr. Khan : I welcome that intervention
by the youngest Member of Parliament. The hon. Lady is
right. OBV and the Electoral Commission want to encourage,
in a mature and non-patronising way, young people and those
from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in democracy.
That is what the programme is about.
Post 2005, we saw the highest number of ethnic minority
parliamentarians in the House—13 on the Labour Benches and
two on the Conservative Benches—and we all welcome that. It
is slightly unfortunate that the Liberal Democrats lost
their one ethnic minority MP, but progress is being made,
albeit slowly.
A question that is worth asking is one that I posed in an
intervention in a slightly more discourteous way than I
intended: are young people really as apathetic as they are
alleged to be? The answer is clearly no. There is no
evidence of that, but there is clear evidence from
statistics that they fail to engage in the party political
system by voting in general elections. The Power commission
report is interesting, but I am reluctant to quote from it
because it is against politicians cherry-picking parts of
its report. It said that cherry-picking is
and will not work. However, I
will quote from it because I quite like some parts of it,
but not other parts, which is life.
Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey)
(LD): The hon. Gentleman may not want to do so now, but I
hope he will later reveal which progressive ideas that he as
a progressive Member of Parliament has not yet signed up to.
I would be very surprised if there was anything in the
report that he opposes in his heart of hearts.
Mr. Khan : I agree with the report's
point that it is a red herring to say that politicians are
of low calibre and lack probity. As a progressive
politician, I passionately agree with that. However, I
disagree with its comment that an overtly negative news
media is not to blame for some of the disillusionment of
young people and people generally. The media have a large
role to play and I sometimes wonder whether their sole
motive is to portray all politicians as being sinister
rather than as people who seek to serve the public by going
into politics because they believe in a certain ethos, value
and vision of society.
Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye)
(Lab): Is it not politicians who bring down other
politicians in people's eyes? The press report only what we
say about each other. Is that not the big issue?
Mr. Khan : I wish that that was the
case. I feel like a greybeard after nine months in
Parliament, but the suggestion that the media simply report
what we do is, frankly, disingenuous and not the case,
although it pains me to say so.
The Power commission accepted that the British public are
not apathetic and referred to clear evidence of involvement
in pressure politics. For example, the number of people
signing petitions, supporting consumer boycotts and joining
campaign groups has grown significantly in recent years. I
mentioned the Make Poverty History campaign because the
report gave an example of the mass public, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer and the Prime Minister coming together on an
issue that is dear to the hearts of many people.
Since I was 15, I have been knocking on doors for the party
that I have been a member of since then and never before has
making poverty history been the sort of issue that it was
during the last general election. That is a testament to the
public and young people in particular getting involved in
politics, but not necessarily party politics. The fact that
the Conservative party now talks about Africa in terms other
than how much money we can make out of it is a testament to
young people changing the way in which we discuss politics,
poverty and development.
The Power commission also referred to the reasons for the
decline in formal politics and the fact that it began in
earnest after the 1997 general election. The report is
worthy of reading because it made an international
comparison and the reality is that it is a problem for most
of the western developed world. It is not unique to this
country. We can learn lessons and teach other western
countries about participation of young people in politics
and try to use that as a way of levering them into party
politics and democracy.
The Power commission discussed voting at 16 and received
publicity on that. There were murmurings from my hon. Friend
the Member for Doncaster, North (Edward Miliband) when the
Minister referred to her personal view that voting at 16 may
not be a bad thing. My concern about that is that there is a
danger that it may be a gimmick to get out of the bigger
problem that many people over 18 do not vote. The debate is
about engaging young people in democracy, but there is a
crisis with those over 18 who do not take part in mainstream
politics.
One reason for that is that politics is not accessible to
the general public. Our language—I cannot say Ed Miliband
and must say my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster,
North—is one reason why the public do not understand what we
are talking about. The fact that we must refer to people in
the third person is a source of concern. Most people in my
constituency of Tooting, which is less than five miles away,
have not been to the Palace of Westminster and do not
realise how accessible it is. That is also a source of
concern.
I shall give an example of the problem. Recently, I was
approached by an organisation that wanted to organise a
promotion by a young music band for young people taking part
in democracy. I rang the Serjeant at Arms to find out
whether the band could use a room to promote the CD and was
told that music is not allowed on the Estate, which meant
that the event could not be held in the Palace of
Westminster. I then thought of the wheeze of holding it in
College gardens across the road, where there would be a
backdrop of Parliament. I rang the Director of the Estate
and was told, after to-ing and fro-ing, that it could happen
if there were fewer than 12 people, if props were not used
on the grass and so on, and that there would be a charge of
£250 per hour for the promo to get people to vote. I was
then told to contact Victoria park gardens.
The matter went on and on and eventually the organisation
that wanted to hold the event to persuade people to vote at
elections decided to pull the plug and not to hold it. It is
a sad story. I tease the Under-Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport, my hon. Friend the Member for
Tottenham (Mr. Lammy), whenever I see him by saying that one
reason why I became involved in politics was that he managed
to get Alicia Keys to Parliament to perform. I suspect that
that is why there is now ban on music. I thought that if I
could meet lots of pop stars by being an MP, I should become
one. The point is that Alicia Keys and musicians are able to
access an audience that we cannot. I am not suggesting that
all of us or any of us should go on "Big Brother" or "The
Games", although one hon. Member is involved in "The Games"
and I wish her luck in her competition, but that may not be
the best way of making politics more accessible. There are
problems with the place where democracy is seen to take
place, because it is not accessible to a significant number
of our constituents.
Simon Hughes : We can debate which
programmes advance the cause of politicians. I have not seen
any previous episodes of "The Games" but, having watched it
last night and seen my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth
and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) take part in the curling
competition and ending up in second place overall, I thought
the good news was that it regularly reported her as having
taken part in the Budget debate. It linked her day job and
that activity in a positive and useful way.
Mr. Khan : I agree. The programme also
mentioned the special helicopter laid on to take her from
London to Sheffield and back, but I will not go into that.
Before we leave the point about politics not engaging young
people—the Heineken dilemma—it is worth mentioning that we
need to find a way of reaching those parts of our community
that we have hitherto not been able to reach, including the
hip-hop generation, people in our mosques, those who follow
football and sports teams, and so on.
My hon. Friend the Minister talked about the citizenship
curriculum and how we could use that as a way of getting
people involved, and engaging and teaching them about
politics and the community. For me, the reason it is so
important to do that was compounded by what happened on 7
July 2005. Not only did those four people kill themselves
and 52 Londoners, and injure 700 people, but they were born
and raised in this country. They went to our schools and,
for all intents and purposes, were integrated, but they
thought that the only recourse that they had was to commit
an act of terror against their fellow citizens.
When I was involved in the task force, going around the
country speaking to people, I discovered how disengaged they
felt from the process. They thought that their Government
and politicians were not engaging with them on simple issues
to do with foreign policy, why we do certain things, why
certain things happen and their knowledge of the political
process. That is an example of the extreme end of the
spectrum of what can happen when politics is completely
disengaged from the lives of ordinary people.
I conclude with two points, the first of which is the routes
to becoming a politician, MP or councillor. As things are
structured—they have been like this for a while—politics is
a profession that someone can get into only if they are a
person of means. When people have applied to me to become an
intern, I have been surprised that unless they are the son
or daughter of a middle-class parent or have other means, it
is impossible for them to do the work of shadowing a
parliamentarian and learning about the trade, although that
is perhaps not surprising when one considers that interns
work for free.
The hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson)
referred to the OBV scheme. One of the beauties of that
scheme and the Electoral Commission scheme is that they
involve people of low means who would otherwise not have a
chance to shadow MPs. Standing as a parliamentary candidate
for a political party is an arduous process, requiring
people to give up their jobs for 12 to 14 weeks. The
challenge is this: how many working-class politicians will
be standing for a political parties in winnable seats in
four or five years' time? I am concerned that the number
will fall.
Secondly, my hon. Friend the Minister talked about those who
shout the loudest having their voices heard. That is a
concern, but the real travesty—all three parties deserve
blame for this and should take responsibility for it—is
that, in our quest to get the vote in marginal seats in
middle England, we may have neglected those parts of the
country that our party thought formed our core support. That
has led to the rise of the British National party and the 19
councillors that we now have from a far-right party. People
have lost all respect for their politicians and are
disengaged.
The reason the debate is so important is that an opportunity
has been opened up to us by the citizenship classes in our
schools and via a new generation of young MPs who were
elected in 2005 and who are engaged in their communities—I
see evidence of that from all three parties represented in
the Chamber today. The challenge for us is to ensure that
our young communities get more engaged in politics in the
lead-up to the next general election than they have been in
the last two.
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