In the debates about the health of British democracy we’re regularly regaled with the same depressing litany of tales of disengagement and apathy. Electoral turnout in 1997 was lower than in any of the previous 14 elections. In the 2001 and 2005 general elections it fell further still.
But after elections like the rest of the world, politics in Britain is wrestling with seismic changes: changing patterns of work; the fracturing of social capital; the long-term de-alignment of voter loyalties; a step change in the expectations of local electorates in their demands of public services; and an increasingly difficult media environment through which to communicate – to name but five.
Labour’s challenge, therefore, is not just to renew and rejuvenate British democracy, but also to conduct the renewal of our own programme that ten years in office demands.
But look beneath the headlines and there are reasons for optimism. Activism, interest and passion in public life are alive and well in Britain; but in the information age people are looking for a different way into the debate.
When Patricia Hewitt set out the strategy for drawing up the new health and social care white paper, she was clear that it wouldn’t be written in the traditional fashion. So, in place of the traditional Whitehall committees, over the course of three months the department went to the country to ask for their analysis of the future of the NHS and social care.
In all, 8,460 people were invited to local listening events, 254 randomly selected citizens took part in deliberative regional events and nearly 1,000 people from around England were invited to a national citizens’ summit in Birmingham. Thirty thousand people filled in online and hard-copy questionnaires, including nearly 3,500 readers of Prime for Men, Prime for Women, Take a Break and Fit. In all, views were heard from nearly 43,000 people in what was the one of the largest listening exercises ever conducted in England.
The results were reassuring, but instructive about what people want for the future of the NHS. People no longer want a ‘sickness service’; they want a service that helps them get the most out of life. 71 per cent of the citizens’ summit participants said they are satisfied with the service they get – just 12 per cent were unhappy.
But for the future, people wanted something different: rapid access to local services; far more support for staying well with regular NHS ‘lifechecks’; more support for carers; and a strong push for better working between professionals. And what was instructive is that people knew that resources were not unlimited; but they expected to be part of shaping local decisions even when those decisions were tough.
The quality of the white paper which emerged spoke volumes. Listening works. And what’s clear is that the same approach to writing white papers also works in local communities.
There can be few media myths as damaging or false as the disengaged teenager whose idea of recreation resembles an apprenticeship for a walk-on part in Clockwork Orange. So, in my constituency of Hodge Hill, we set out to challenge fiction with fact and pin down the reality of young people’s priorities. Using a mixture of workshops and an ‘ask the audience’ electronic-voting system, kindly donated by the West Midlands police, we set out to chart our young people’s hopes, frustrations and visions of the future, as they appeared to people aged between 11 and 16 in youth conferences in every single one of our schools.
Our results here too were startling – and inspiring. As the father of three children under five, I am just beginning a lifetime’s adjustment to my kids disagreeing with me. But Hodge Hill’s youngsters were in almost complete agreement with their parents about what was wrong with our community and the priorities for change where they lived. Litter, graffiti, the lack of CCTV, not enough police and the need for more traffic calming dominated the debates about what needed to change where our young people lived.
But what was deeply impressive was the sheer scale of ambition and aspiration that breathes in some of the toughest conditions. Hodge Hill has two-out-of-three wards among the five per cent most deprived in the country. Yet when asked for the single, number one priority for organised activities in the future, ‘learning a new skill such as starting a business’ came out top, commanding support from over a fifth.
And our young people too were clear about their ambition to stay engaged. 64 per cent said they were never asked their views, but 69 per cent said they would like to stay in touch through their schools’ councils or groups where they lived.
As Labour approaches its 10th year in power, in the time-honoured fashion there is always a great danger that the process of renewal in office becomes an exercise in introspection. We have to set an alternative course: taking our agenda out to the public, young and old; and, through our leadership, debate a renewed application of our values, from writing white papers to setting the agenda in our wards.