Generation No ‘X’ – Part II

Hope your blood pressure has recovered from that last post.

Here’s Terrence Blocker on the utter futility of politicians trying to appeal to the likes of Sian Anderson and her posse:

It was a worthy idea for BBC3 to broadcast a Question Time specifically aimed at first-time voters – or, as is more often the case, non-voters. In a colourful hangar of a studio, a panel consisting of three moderately young politicians, a reality-show winner, a satirist and a pop star, under the chairmanship of the man who presents The X Factor, made a game attempt to make the forthcoming election something for Generation X-Box to care about.

Ooh, how exciting! It sounds like just the sort of pandering celebrity-obsessed rubbish that dear dim Sian was claiming da yoof wanted.

It was a profoundly depressing experience. The MPs did their uneasy best, allowing a little street swagger to enter their presentation and occasionally addressing the audience as "you guys". The chair, Dermot O'Leary, introduced celebrity whenever possible and suggested that politicians should be locked into the Big Brother house to sort things out.

Yup, that seems to be what was required, according to Sian (I suppose 50 Cent and Dermot O’Leary are interchangeable, right?). Did it do the trick?

Ah:

This, perhaps, is what happens when the establishment tries to get down with the kids. It is deeply embarrassing, like a daddy singing a rap song. The more those on the platform sucked up to the moody first-time voters in front of them, the less impressed the audience was.

And what conclusions did you draw from that, Terrence?

Heh, how unexpected. Much the same as everyone else:

. The extraordinary achievement of First Time Voters' Question Time was not just that it patronised its intended audience (what on earth was Jamelia doing there?) but that it made one despair of the young non-voters themselves. In most areas, the voice of youth tends to be less hidebound and compromised, and sometimes a lot more interesting, than that of the middle-aged and old but, when it comes to politics, it seems there is only one question of interest to the young voter: what's in it for me?

To be fair, that’s not a million miles away from the adults….

How dispiriting it is that a generation steeped in cynicism and defeatism has come of age under New Labour. Its perspective on the political scene is simple: blame, whine and do absolutely nothing to change the situation.

Dispiriting, maybe. But hardly surprising.

Perhaps the time has come when grown-ups in public life should stop cringing before the young and treating them like children who need to be bribed with sweets to do their homework. If politics fails to satisfy them, they should be invited to do something about it. If they feel they are being ignored, they should be reminded that the best way to attract a politician's attention is to vote.

Couldn’t agree more. Stan would no doubt agree too.