Seen the Russel Brand video? Despairing of politicians? Here's how you can_really_ make a difference

[fearmeforiampink]

So, you've watched the Russel Brand video, and you're despairing about the state of our politics. Or you're just doing the latter without having done the former.

But you want to do something that will actually make a difference, which Brand's call to arms of "Hey, don't bother voting!" will utterly fail to do. How can you get active, change things?

As someone who works in the area of democratic reform, I thought I'd try and put together a list of things you can get involved in to make a difference. (I'll note that this is just me personally doing this, due to I've seen a few friends asking what they can do - it's not anything official from any organisation). I do honestly believe that if more people got involved in these sorts of areas, it would help improve the system.

Will it be an instant change? No, theses sorts of things are a case of pushing over the long term, changing how people look at things. But the more people pushing, the more change will be achieved.

I'll start off with organisations you can get involved in, that are trying to fix politics:

— Unlock Democracy. http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk / https://www.facebook.com/unlockdemocracy
I'm biased, because this is the organisation I work for. UD campaigns for democracy, rights and freedoms. At the moment the concentration is on the (awful) lobbying bill that's going through parliament, but there's also stuff on local democracy, plus lords, electoral and constitutional reform. Local Works ( http://www.localworks.org ) is one of UD's projects, which works on giving people more power in their communities, and there's legislation they're part of that allows local communities to make changes that help their local area — one of the proposals there is to let local people call for their councils to be elected by a proportional system.

What can you do to get involved? There are regular 'speak out' campaigns where you can write to your MP through the website, and express your views on legislation. Whilst MPs are increasingly ignoring the petitions that take people two seconds to sign, they do notice personally written letters from their constituents, as they're the people that care enough to vote them in and out. There are also local groups across the country ( http://unlockdemocracy.org.uk/pages/local-groups ) where people can get involved in the local area, campaigning on local issues, but also having public meetings and other events to draw attention to national issues.

— The Electoral Reform Society. http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk / https://www.facebook.com/electoralreformsociety
ERS concentrates on electoral reform, but covers stuff from votes at 16, the problems of things like Safe Seats (where it's near impossible to unseat the incumbent MP or councillor), and other matters around the problems with our votes.

— Bite the Ballot. https://www.facebook.com/bitetheballot
They're the people who made the video I shared responding to Brand. They concentrate on educating & engaging young people in politics — making them votes worth winning.

— Republic. www.republic.org.uk
They're somewhat concentrated on getting rid of the monarchy, but they also call for a constiitution for the country. They do well at making their points when stuff on the monarchy comes up, and they're after activists around the country to be visible in doing just that.

— Reform Groups Network. http://reformgroups.net/site-list
A site for local groups that are pushing for reform to say what they're doing, how to get involved, and to share good ideas.

There are plenty of other organisations that focus on specific areas like the Open Rights Group ( http://www.openrightsgroup.org ) who have a particular focus or cause that they're concentrating on, and they're also good for putting your time, effort and support into.

---

What about the political parties? I think there's two ways to go; there are alternative political parties, or there's getting involved in the major parties and trying to fix them from within. On the former, I know people say that those parties make no difference, but I'd argue that's not true — in 1989, the Greens got 15% overall of the European Parliament vote, and whilst that didn't get them any seats, it made the major parties suddenly had to treat environmentalism a lot more seriously; that was when they all started including greener policies. I think that can happen again.

I was going to include a list of alternative political parties here, but having thought about it, I'll be honest — they're not my area, and I don't want to advocate causes at people when I can't back up their worth. I invite people to make suggestions on parties that are worth supporting in the comments here, though.

The other option is to get involved in the existing parties, and make a change there. People are likely to laugh at that, aren't the parties the problem? But one of the issues is the way that people have disengaged from the parties, making it easier for the heads there to do what they want. The way the membership of the parties has dropped, if people started joining them again en masse, and calling for specific changes, then the parties would have to sit up and take notice.

---

So, there you go. That's my thoughts, my suggestions for how to make a difference. I think there are real issues with things how they are, we need change, but I think the way to make that change is to get engaged, to actually *do* something to make that change happen. And if all the people who aren't happy with things did get involved in making those changes, we would see the difference it'd make. If anyone else has any suggestions for groups or points to add, I'm very willing to edit them in.

Comments

[demona-hw.livejournal.com]

To 'join a party' I'd add 'become a candidate'.

It's a greater investment of time, to be sure, but it's also a way to be the person making the decisions.

You probably won't get to be an MP from obscurity (although you might be a candidate for a smaller party). But parties of all colours struggle to recruit councillors, and minor parties can hold office this way. In the last county elections in Cambridgeshire the Tories actually lost overall control of the council because of voters turning to UKIP.

Sure, there's a lot happening at national level that is important, and will trickle down to, and restrict, councils. But I also increasingly find that the things that actually affect me and my community day-to-day are in the hands of councillors.

There is precedent for building support at a local level resulting in an MP: Brighton's Green council now have one. At the very least you could find the candidates from the major parties re-positioning themselves because they are aware of local support for minor parties.


Also, you don't need to be a member of a party to approach your MP and councillors. They don't know if you voted for them last time or will vote for you next time, but they're keen for you to do so. Elected representative have to vote on far more things that they can possibly understand in detail. If you know what you're talking about and approach someone who hasn't made their mind up, or only holds an opinion loosely, you can influence them without even voting.

[steer.livejournal.com]

As solutions go, these solutions are nearly indistinguishable from the "problem". The suggestion by Brand was a fullscale revolution... whether you think this is a great idea or childishly naive, that is a very radical change. Instead, what you point to is a bunch of essentially footling changes which even if wholly implemented would really leave the system pretty much as it is. If we had votes at 16, proportional representation and a written constitution we'd still have the same parties... possibly in a slightly different mix. The fact that you see this as a response and "making a difference" is in itself somewhat depressing.