Good News and Other Stuff
Yesterday's Grauniad reported:
It's not all good news though. While "ten per cent was actively engaged in political activity, 5% had joined a political party in their teens: twice the rate of the age group immediately above them." Because that's what we need. More party hacks!
The report notes that the survey "does not provide an explanation, only clues to why political interest may have grown." This allows the Michael White to speculate that the Indian Ocean Tsunami was a factor. This seems strange. Recall that the tsunami was barely six weeks ago, is it really plausible then that it was a major cause? I think not, leading me to conclude that the Iraq War is the decisive factor. This should hardly be a surprise to anyone who remembers the amazing protests against the war in schools up and down the country.
It's coming to something though when school kids are more radical than students...
Young people are regaining an interest in politics, because of the controversy aroused by Iraq, global terrorism, crime and natural disasters which hurt the developing world, a survey by the Electoral Commission, published today, says.Presumably then Nottingham Student Peace Movement and our comrades at other institutions can expect a succesful period of recruitment over the coming years. Which'll be nice.
The commission found that today's 16-to 20-year-olds appeared to be much more interested in politics that their recent predecessors. Eighty per cent said they felt strongly about political controversies that affected their daily lives and 73% discussed such matters with their friends and family.
It's not all good news though. While "ten per cent was actively engaged in political activity, 5% had joined a political party in their teens: twice the rate of the age group immediately above them." Because that's what we need. More party hacks!
The report notes that the survey "does not provide an explanation, only clues to why political interest may have grown." This allows the Michael White to speculate that the Indian Ocean Tsunami was a factor. This seems strange. Recall that the tsunami was barely six weeks ago, is it really plausible then that it was a major cause? I think not, leading me to conclude that the Iraq War is the decisive factor. This should hardly be a surprise to anyone who remembers the amazing protests against the war in schools up and down the country.
It's coming to something though when school kids are more radical than students...
posted by Disillusioned kid at 1:44 pm
1 Comments:
there is an enourmous difference between saying to an opinion pollster that you "feel strongly" about political issues, and getting actively engaged actually doing something. i doubt that this really demonstrates an increase in political engagement- the fact that the anti war demonstrations of 2003 have totally failed to be replicated is a testament to this. school children naturally rebel against authority, and the iraq protests gave them a convinent opportunity to do this- their protests were characterised by childishness, rather than radicalism. the fact that students are harder to involve in politics is a symptom of both the apolitical times we live in, and the fact that they have a slightly higher level of critical thinking, and won't become engaged unless we offer them something really worthy of their attention. anyway, its a challenge.
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