British Politics

Politics plays an important role in the lives of every individual living in this country. But, how much do we, as ordinary British citizens know about the English Political scene? MP expenses are bought into question every other week, techniques to survive the recession are brought forward every other day, yet the British political scene fails to capture the hearts and minds of the everyday Brit.
Personally, I like to know what is going on around the world, and more importantly in my country, England. The best way to find out about the state of a country is to look at and analyse the state of its politics.

The build-up to the elections in the United States of America no doubt captured everyone's attention, especially the democratic party's' leadership campaign. It was so interesting because pretty much everyone knew the next U.S. President would be a democrat, but would it be the first female President or first black President. In case you live in a cave somewhere, it was the black man who became president. Meanwhile, in British politics Tony Blair had retired and in came Gordon Brown, but nobody really took note, bar a small minority.

This got me thinking, why does nobody bat an eyelid to politics in this country, yet everybody is aware of the intricacies of U.S. Politics.

After much analysis I have come up with 2 categories of people. The first category is those people who are much attuned to the celebrity culture, and Barack Obama, with the help of his wife Michelle have become celebrities. The second category is of those politically aware, they either believe politics is Haraam somehow, yes there are people who believe this, or in this category there are people aware of the political system but wish not to get involved in any level, for whatever reason, mainly laziness.

The first group, the celebrity followers are aware of Barack Obama because he and his wife have become celebrities, both have appeared on the Jay Leno show, which is a prime time show in the U.S.A. And Michelle is always being followed around by paparazzi who wish to see which new dress she is wearing and how she is styled. By celebrity-fying themselves, the Obama's have brought politics into many more household whom previously wouldn't pay much attention.

The second group, which I have noticed consists of politically aware peoples. Out of this group, everybody and there mama could tell you which foreign policy needs to be changed, what needs to be done in the education sector, which ethnic minority needs more representation in the commons etc. but the problem is they either are too lazy to get involved on some level, be it local or national, or use the Haraam excuse, which is probably just a means of justifying laziness. This attitude means that the Muslim community in this country is some 40 MP's short in representation, then we start to complain when the government pushes through a policy which is not in our favour.

It is a fact that British politics is very Aristocratic, and this either puts a lot of people off, or makes it hard to relate for ordinary people, this does not make it impossible to join the political system, you can join local think-tanks, or you can challenge yourself to become more “posh” and join the la-di-da crew later in life.

It remains to be seen if the next Prime Minister of this great nation can be one who can change the face of politics, and bring politics into the living room of the general public.

That's the end of my contention.

Now for important reflection, more than forty years on, can Fabio Capello finally lead us to a world cup victory, and bring football home....COME ON ENGLAND...