This morning the Guardian has published an article which should act as a spur for all of the Political Parties to spend the rest of their Christmas Holidays working on a plan B to enable themselves to do things differently. However it is clear that this won’t do the trick, and despite the article and what it reveals, none of the parties will miss a beat in their plans and processes and they will all carry on as they have for decades, with the major difference being that their membership now represents a mere 1% of the population rather than 10% as it was in the 1950’s. This article is not a lone voice, and adds to a long series of articles and interviews carried out over the last few years. If these articles and interviews are nails, sealing down a coffin lid on political business as usual, the body was laid in the coffin when you and I made it clear that we did not want any of the three Political Parties to run our nation. Two of them took it upon themselves to carve up their own manifestos and then to add in elements that neither had included such as a top down reorganisation of the health service.

The evidence that the parties are still attempting to carry out business as usual comes from two other newspaper articles with the Independent providing us with the headline “Labour cannot just coast victory in 2015 election, not when it’s running against the current Government – and the previous one too” and another equally depressing piece in the Telegraph which reveals the results of a Freedom Of Information response that Conservative Central Office requested on the cost of travel expenses for the office of Ed Miliband during the last year of the last Government. I came across the piece as a result of a tweet by a Conservative Party Press Officer. I have responded asking her if in the interests of fair and free politics she will reveal the expenditure of David Camerons Office for the same period. As yet Carrie Symonds (@carrieapples) has not responded!

It is clear that the apathy which the Guardian article focuses on is sufficient to keep 56% of 18-24 year olds away from the Ballot box along with the 24% of over 65’s, and probable that unless the Political System changes, that these stay away statistics will grow. However far too many of our Politicians are small c conservative and resistant to change a system that continues to feed their needs. If they are oblivious to a 90% reduction in party membership over 60 years, they are not going to be disturbed by a 25% reduction in voter turnout over 45 years. If there is to be a change and an attempt to recapture the imagination of people of all ages who have lost confidence in our system of government, we need more than apathy. It was clear from the PCC elections in 2012, that the Government could not even be shamed by a 15% turnout. It is unlikely that such a low figure will be reached in general elections for many decades to come if at all! However we cannot afford to wait that long for the current Political class to accept that their way is not sustainable and for them to accept that they have become the problem, not part of any solution. This year all three of the Party leaders published a Christmas message, yet not one of them acknowledged their part in causing pain and damage to our communities, even though the pain is so evident. We need to find a mechanism for changing our democracy that does not depend on the support of political parties that are so clearly dependent on the status quo!