For many people, petitions are politics
The Electoral Commission released their annual audit of political engagement earlier this week. Some interesting snippets.
The power of petitions This might come as no surprise but ’signing a petition’ was the form of political engagement that most people either had done, or were willing to do. 47% of people said they had signed a petition in the last two or three years, vs the next form of activism - boycotting a certain product (20%). In fact petition signing also showed the biggest increase (8%) since 2003. Incidentally 45% said they hadn’t done any of the forms of political activism mentioned. To put this in context - only 55% said they would definitely vote if an immediate general election was called.
Issues not politics People were asked - how interested are you in a)Politics b)Local Issues c)National Issues d)International Issues. The highest vote in all cases was for ‘fairly interested’ - but the ‘very interesteds’ were all clustered around Local and National issues. 46% of people were either not very interested or not at all interested in politics.
Most people don’t talk about politics or political news Only 40% of people say they have ‘discussed politics or political news with someone else’ in the last two to three years. Something I find both incredible and depressing. This drops to 27% for 18-24 year olds.
18 - 24 year olds not bovvered In all the stats, this lot are generally not bothered. Least likely to vote. Least likely to talk about politics. Etc etc. Twas ever thus, I suspect.
TV and National newspapers most important Asked to name the two or three sources that people obtained most information about news and politics from, people responded
1. TV (inc satellite) - 76%
2. National newspapers - 56%
3. Radio - 34%
4. Local newspapers - 33%
5. The internet - 14%
The one difference here is that the internet is much higher among 18 - 24 year olds - but it still only gets 25% (it’s down to 5% for the 55s and over).
Now, if someone was really smart and wanted to increase the level of poltical engagement online..they should really launch an e-petitions system…shouldn’t they?
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