The Politics Department were delighted to welcome James Panton, a lecturer in Politics at Oxford University, to address our students on the state of popular democracy in the UK earlier this month (5th November).

 

James spoke to about 70 VIth Form Politics students on the alleged ‘trivialisation’ of politics in recent years. Celebrities seem to have become the new politicians, he argued.  They get to dictate the political agenda and even influence government policy.  We are all aware of Jamie Oliver’s healthy eating campaign, for example, but this celebrity culture also manifests itself in the various global rock concerts such as ‘Live 8,’ linked to the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign, or ‘Live Earth’ to highlight climate change.

 

James said that, “the pop concert is increasingly becoming the model on which all political debate is conducted: the sound bites are short and clear, and the moral message is unassailable, and the engagement required by the citizens is nothing more than nodding our heads and swaying to the music.”

 

He argued that this amounts to a movement away from meaningful politics.  Who, after all, could possibly disagree with ‘making poverty history?’ Just as Chomsky argued that the media ‘manufactures consent’, so modern governments seem to be repeating the trick with celebrities as pawns in their game.  This isn’t proper politics!

 

Mr Panton continued by questioning the arguable merit of ‘political participation’ as we have come to understand it in today’s society.  We have got to a point where participation in and of itself is regarded as a ‘good thing’ even if there doesn’t seem any specific aim to it!  Politicians have become obsessed by trying to gain popular legitimacy for their ideas by way of promoting a ‘Big Conversation,’ as Tony Blair did before the last election, or by being seen to ‘listen’ as Gordon Brown was keen to do in his first months of being Prime Minister.  Mr Panton did not see this as political leadership.  If the people want to participate, engage and debate they will do, but there shouldn’t be a need to drag them into the political arena just to give credibility to MPs’ own agendas.

 

This was a most intelligent talk that stretched and demanded a lot from our students.  However, it was an excellent chance for them to gain access to someone at the cutting edge of modern political thought and, for future university politics students, a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the exciting and challenging world of ideas that awaits them!

 

JDC