If Democracy Isn’t Working, Why Vote?

Politics and politicians no longer inspire people as they once did. The General Election only encourages the parties to be even less radical or visionary than ever. When so many people are dissaffected from society, never mind its democratic processes, who is left to care about indifference?The right to vote, hard won through history, assumes there is someone worth voting for. The exercise of one’s vote once meant taking sides about the future, but now is a strategic decision about the lesser of evils. The technocratic, ideology-free tinkering with givens that passes for mainstream politics goes largely unchallenged.

Young people are assumed to be the least engaged with polictics and even with society in general. But who else will inhabit the future? Could the contempt young people apparently feel for Westminster and its parties one day produce new and exciting ideas?

Is politics still the way to change society? Can you have proper democracy when no-one cares? If society must change before politics can move on, what can possibly happen if people niether vote nor take any other action?

This event has been produced by youth organisation Brighton Left and
The Brighton Salon, and is chaired by Sean Bell, secretary of The Brighton Salon. This event is free but voluntary donations to cover costs will asked for at the end.The Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton, 7.30pm -9pm Wednesday April 22.

Ife Grillo, Vice Chair of the British Youth Council, Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, journalist
Tom Slater of spiked, Time Out and 
The Independent  and Abraham Baldry, University of Sussex Student Union President, will discuss the issues and take questions.This event has been produced by

Thomas Soud, of the youth organisation Brighton Left and The Brighton Salon, and is chaired by Sean Bell, secretary of The Brighton Salon. This event is free but voluntary donations will asked for at the end.