Chloe's speech to Politics@UEA on 'What’s the Point of Parliament? (Friday 12th December 2014)

Christmas is coming.  You may have spent twenty hard-saved pounds on the hardback of Russell Brand’s latest book, Revolution.  It’s not a gift I’d value myself.

Russell Brand preaches a few things:

1. He preaches inaction.  He says:  “I have never voted,” and calls on Billy Connolly’s gag: “Don’t vote, it only encourages them.”


2. He preaches deliberate separation from politics:  using Billy Connolly again (funny how his thoughts are so derivative) he argues, “the desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever being one.”


3. Here he also falls into hypocrisy, unfortunately, claiming that “the deceit of the political class has been going on for generations now,” but neglecting to own up to becoming a politician in his own right now he’s published a political book and earns plenty of money from his hot air.


4. He also denies the importance of the freedoms of a democratic state.  He says:  “I know my grandparents fought in two world wars (and one World Cup) so that I’d have the right to vote. Well, they were conned.”

He is wrong.  I could list all the celebrities who support, as I do, the necessary effort to get more young people registered to vote, counter to his depressing arguments.  I could quote Theodore Roosevelt who reminds us that:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs.”

I will rebut his three arguments myself and go on to explain why I have bothered to become that most hated of figures:  a politician.

1. Inaction very often places you in a less powerful position.  It is to deliberately omit the courage of your own convictions, and would anyone here tonight, in an educated space, really tell me that you deliberately want to avoid holding your own opinion and being your own person?  I first became interested in politics around sixteen, growing up in rural West Norfolk, at a comprehensive school but with little transport outside school to do anything much.  I decided I would get together with others who shared my frustration, to try to use our opinions and get action.


2. Deliberate separation from an ‘other’ is often a great shame.  I very strongly believe we are all individuals, who are each free, and can each do things if we try.  There is no bloc of me and bloc of you.  Who here tonight likes to set up divisions between people?  And more importantly, who here amongst students of politics does not want to do something decent for their community?


3. Denying the importance of democracy is the most worrying charge of all.  There are many people around the world today, struggling for their right to self-expression and good government, who share my disdain for this man’s lazy luxury.

Politics is worth your while.  My lecture today will describe what our generation is doing in politics, why Parliament remains at the heart of politics and the freedoms of Britain, and my role and yours in the future of this country.

One of our great reforming Conservative Prime Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli, tried to break down the barriers between “two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.”   Are there still two planets?  Yes:  the figures suggest there’s a dwindling tribe of older voters and a growing camp of young non-voters.  The Hansard Society reported in 2013 that only 12% of 18-24 year olds plan to vote.

Most of today’s 18-24 year olds are not voting.   Britain’s problem is worse than elsewhere in Europe and the US.  Today’s youngest Brits report less interest in traditional politics when asked, less belief that voting is a civic duty, and less affiliation with parties.  This is not going to go away;  this is political evolution.  It would be wrong, stupid and fearful to turn our backs on this phenomenon.  As this generation gets older, and those coming after it act in a similar way, politics must change.  There’s about ten years before a possible tipping point where half of the electorate may simply not bother to vote.  I don’t want that to happen – do you?

Some people don’t agree that there’s a problem here.

Firstly, some take comfort in the notion that it is scaremongering to discuss intended turnout, because all those young people do all just turn out regardless of what they say before the election, don’t they?  No, we don’t, in comparison to our elders.  Actual turnout relates enormously to age.  Whilst turnout in the 2010 general election was 65.1% across all age groups, it was over three quarters for pensioners and under a half for those 18-24, and other age groups were arranged neatly between these extremes.[1]  Polls in the peak of the recent Euro elections showed the same distribution by age in turnout intention.[2]

Secondly, some find it reassuring to think that young people are just going to bounce into the same behaviour that their parents or grandparents did, when they hit a certain point in the lifecycle.  I don’t believe they will.  Three things have changed.  This generation reports less interest in traditional politics when asked, less belief that voting is a civic duty, and less affiliation with parties.  This is evolution, not just optional change.  (Indeed, for statisticians amongst us, I believe this is a cohort effect not a lifecycle effect.)

Today’s 18-24 year olds won’t settle down to voting once they get married and get a mortgage – and indeed, if democracy were banking on that happening we’d be waiting a long time, when marriage occurs later, if at all, and house prices crush most twenty-somethings’ hopes of owning a home.

For the individual, voting is a habit that must be formed, and like many habits, it sticks if it is formed early.  And if individuals aren’t doing that any longer, we have “a barometer of broader patterns of change with lasting repercussions”[3];  “a window into the future behaviour of Western citizens.”[4]

As those who are in the voting habit pass away, and those who are not in the voting habit increase in number, traditional British democracy has an existential problem. Generational divergence challenges democracy, because democracy has to balance the interests of different generations.  And if mass rejection of voting really does happen, it will delegitimise democracy and the state.

The UK is the sick man of Europe for turnout by 18-24 year olds. “Participation rates in the UK and Ireland are worrying low across the board...Young Britons participate at a disturbingly low rate,” says James Sloam.[5]

And the latest Pew research suggests that in the US, turnout among younger voters has been remarkably solid[6] – although US turnout at all ages has always been lower than in the UK.  Indeed, a comparative study of the US, UK and Germany shows that the gap between American youth turnout and overall turnout has changed little over the last 40 years, whilst Britain’s gap has worsened dramatically.[7]

So, young people vote less than their elders everywhere, but Britain’s problem has got worse.  Again, it’s not about young people being young like they always have been – something has broken.

2015’s first time voters have an aversion to formal politics – but they are interested in political affairs, in new techniques and in community projects.  They do things other than voting.  They also crave confidence in politics.   Quite right.

I respect these new ways of doing politics.  I find the flowering, with new technology’s and new media’s help, very exciting.

But my point tonight is that Parliament is an important part of formal politics that would certainly have to be invented if it didn’t already exist.

A Parliament is a means of practical democracy.

A Parliament is a means of scrutinising new law so that it is of good quality and good principles.

A Parliament, run on constituencies as ours is, is a means of ensuring that local voices are heard.  I think it is immensely valuable being a local champion as well a national lawmaker.

A Parliament is a guarantor of freedoms.

There are plenty of countries around the world today which restrict freedoms.  Saudi Arabia takes a political choice to ban women from driving.  China takes a political choice to prevent citizens from using the whole internet.  Cuba still restricts some jobs that people can take – in 2012 they announced a set of 181 jobs that you didn’t need government permission to do.  That means many, many jobs that you still do need someone’s permission to do!

Wherever possible, I want the individual to choose what’s best for them rather than have someone do that for them – so long as it doesn’t harm others while doing so.

Fairly obviously, I want women to be able to choose to drive, people to be able to choose to use the internet, and people to be able to start up amazing jobs and do what they want with their lives instead of the state telling them that they have to be a sugar farmer.

My view as a Conservative, by the way, is that individual freedom is extremely important.  It’s the bedrock of what I believe.  It’s the reason I joined my party.  I am sceptical of the state’s power to remove people’s freedom of choice, if that power is used unwisely.  Democracy, and the free arguments that we can all make about how we want our country run, is how we maintain our freedom and limit the state’s power over us.  You don’t need to look far back into twentieth century history, or current affairs in some parts of the world, to know that I am not joking.

An anecdote:  recently I was speaking to another group of students in Norwich.  We were discussing what I call the paradox of information.  In our age, we all agreed, we have so much information available that it can be hard to make choices.  That includes politics – there’s so much stuff online, how do we narrow it down and cast a single vote?  Someone proposed that “they” – the government – should run a single source of information to help citizens make their minds up.  I challenged that view.  The government does taxpayers’ bidding but we discern which tasks it is right and practical for it to do.  It should not be given that task.  In a free country, you need free information.  Only the market can do that – including the marketplace of ideas, however busy it may be.  Otherwise you get Minitrue – as well as Miniplenty, Minipax and Minilove.

(I studied English Literature at university, not politics.  I learnt my trade more practically, but I still have respect for what well-written ideas can teach us.  Thank you, Orwell and many more)

And members of the government are not “they”.  If they become faceless bureaucrats, that’s a terrible example of the division which Brand eulogises.  It takes two to tango.  Both politicians and citizens are participants in the marketplace of ideas.

We can all be Roosevelt’s man or woman in the arena.

What’s the arena that you and I face, the arena of a young person in Britain today?

It’s one where it is more difficult for us than for our parents to get a job and own a home.  There’s no such thing as a free degree any more.  We need politics and the economy to deliver for us – jobs, housing, education, transport, and more.  We are an entrepreneurial generation:  80% of today’s youngest think they will set up their own business one day, say vInspired.

Young people want to be free to choose.  No one wants to be told that they must do something or that there is only one path towards a destination.  And as a Conservative, I passionately share my generation’s belief that people should be able to express themselves through the choices they make, whether that be consumer or moral choices.  Generation Y understands that with freedom comes responsibility and people need to take responsibility for the decisions they make.

Young people want to have options.  They want to have access to the information, tools and opportunities that can help them to achieve their goals.

There is little trust in government.  Young people are likely to be net contributors to the welfare state, they find it hard to own a home, they have vastly more debt at a young age than previous generations, and they face a tough employment market.  Generation Y is aware that they will suffer from the credit crunch even though they did not benefit during the years of largesse.  Policy proposals will be treated with scepticism so they must be robust and promises kept.

Let’s look at welfare.  The latest Ipsos Mori polling, Generation Strain[8], shows that Generation Y does not want the government to concentrate on redistributing wealth.  This does mean that they do not want Government to put money into eradicating inequality, it just that the focus should be on ensuring equality of opportunity.  The question Generation Y will be asking at the General Election isn’t “what will the Government give me?” It’s “what will the Government do to help me succeed?”

We want trust in us, help for us, honesty and competence.

We also want to make a difference.

Recent research from Demos suggests that young people “are motivated to make a difference in their community but the tools they use and the approach they take is different from those of previous generations.  They do not rely on politicians and others to solve the world’s problems, but instead roll up their sleeves and power up their laptop and smartphone to get things done through crowd-sourced collaboration.  They value bottom-up social action and enterprise over top-down politics.”[9]

The Conservative Party has always stood for:

• Enterprise


• Hard work


• Welfare reform

We have spoken honestly about the public finances and are bringing the deficit down for future generations.  We have brought about more jobs and will go further with a jobs tax cut in April 2015 for employing under-21s.  We’ve set out our stall on housebuilding.  We’ve reformed welfare, which 70% of Generation Y could approve of.  We’ve set the most ambitious possible standards of quality and choice in education and put universities on a freer, more stable financial basis.  We are trusting citizens, as in Francis Maude’s ambitious work at the Cabinet Office to make public services work for the consumer.  We have also delivered a successful, large-scale programme for young people through the National Citizenship Service .

I also said I believe that everyone is an individual.  I have no time for labels, for someone else telling me what I can do, what I should be.  I have no interest in being one in a crowd, I want to be myself.

That is why the Conservative Party believes in social mobility.  It’s about where you are going, not where you come from.  No one else gets the right to hold you back.  No one gets the right to stamp on you, and say – you have to do what your parents did...  You have to do what everyone else at your university does...  You have to be working class and believe in this, or that...  You have to be straight, or like a certain kind of music...  You have to go back where you came from, when perhaps you want to sail away around the world...

It’s up to you.  It’s where you’re going, not where you’ve come from.

So I put to you that my party and I share the values of our generation.

I do my role with passion and pride because I want politics to work.  I want politics to work by reflecting your values.  Indeed, democracy has to balance the needs of generations.  For example, in local affairs, that is why Norwich City Council was wrong to try to outlaw skateboarding in the city centre recently.  No one wanted to disrespect the War Memorial or mow down old ladies, but – to borrow words from Myleene Klass – you can’t just point at something and ban it.  You can’t make children into criminals wholesale.  Rightly, skaters rose up and formed a 7,000 person petition – because their needs had to be balanced with others who live in our fine city.

So, we, young people, have a place at the heart of democracy.

Parliament is our place too.  I want to see more young people join me there, where we can achieve things for our community and our country.

My talk tonight was on “What’s the point of Parliament?”.  In passing, I also want to answer:  “What’s the point of parties?”  Parties are a sensible way of getting things done together.  Like Parliament itself, I think they would very much be invented afresh if they hadn’t already evolved.  Russell Brand seems to think they are all peopled by monsters.  Let him be afraid of monsters.  What would you call a group of people who came together to achieve something because they have common goals, and indeed goals that they promised to their electorate in the form of a manifesto?  It’s a party by any other name.

Some of you may be members of 38 Degrees.  That’s a large group of people who work together flexibly to achieve something they think is important.  I once said to its chief executive:  I look forward to you joining me in Parliament, where you too can be the man in the arena, and put your dust and sweat and blood into constructing law rather than often only opposing what others do.  He turned red and got very angry.  I don’t think he needed to.  I do think that we can give credit it where it is due to the format of people working together to achieve a good aim.

I’ve made a few remarks about why I think that my party is a good choice for young people.  You will decide on that.  You will decide how you prefer to get information, and what you choose to sift from what those outside the arena will tell you.

You will also have this choice:  you could stand for Parliament yourself if you find all of what I’ve said inadequate, or if you are mistrustful of politics.  We do have reason to be mistrustful of some politicians:  I entered Parliament after the expenses scandal and I too was outraged at how badly wrong Parliament had gone.  But I chose to get in there and change it by my presence, and to argue for your presence too.

I will make this argument day in and day out.  I try to be an ambassador for politics.  I am very honoured to have been named 2014’s most Youth Friendly MP, for this work and for an enormous project I’ve led here in Norwich to halve our city’s youth unemployment.  I have been the country’s youngest MP, and youngest Minister probably since William Pitt.  But I need your help.

Please take up your right to vote.  Please encourage others to get registered too.  Please help improve Parliament and politics from inside the arena.