Stuffed
Much of today has been spent doing what I am told is normal for a 26 year old man like myself to be doing on a Saturday - namely stuffing envelopes full of NHS surveys and then sticking labels on them. All these stories of “friends” and “shopping”and “going to see things” are rubbish I’m sure.
You know, when I got involved in local politics I expected well oiled political machines staffed by suited party types with hair products and Blackberry’s. It turns out, to my relief I think, that in fact the entire operation is run by a gang of die-hard amateurs in it for nothing more than idealism and the simple enjoyment of doing good.
We hear a lot about civic disengagement, and a lot of what we hear is true, I think. I went to a lecture at Manchester University not so long ago by a guy called Robert Puttnam, who is probably the world’s expert in it. To paraphrase to the point of wildly misquoting, he said that pretty much nobody does anything in the community these days.
The numbers involved in political parties are dwindling as well. The average age of Councillors is 58, the average age of members of political parties won’t be much different I imagine, and the numbers of those declining too. Hundreds of thousands were members years ago. Now so many less.
Maybe one of the reasons is that people think the way that I thought - that they could get involved because they believed in ideas and values, only to be placed at the bottom rung of an enormous ladder populated exclusively by policy wonks and public schoolboy types above. And it simply isn’t true. It’s a cliche to say it, but we really are a friendly bunch, united by common belifes but most of the time talking about normal stuff like football and what we got up to last night. It’s very refreshing, and makes even the largest pile of envelopes imaginable get stuffed and delivered in a very short time.
Rick
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