When the low turnout at the 2001 general election first brought the issue of political disengagement into focus, it was often said that this was an aberration: a product either of voters’ basic contentment with New Labour, or more likely of the Conservatives’ unelectability. Neither condition is now present, yet only the most optimistic foresee a return to politics as it once was.
The final report of the Power inquiry, published in March, carefully chronicled the depth of this disengagement. The report takes aim at a political system “significantly out of step with the values, expectations and interests of the individuals and many groupings that make up British society.”
Power’s comprehensive description of this disengagement has made it a rallying point for those concerned about British democracy at the end of the Blair era. David Cameron’s enthusiastic response to the report—”the Power inquiry is one of the most important initiatives we’ve seen… for many years”—was similar to the way some Labour modernisers latched on to Charter 88 two decades earlier.
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