Peoples Republic of South Devon

Apathy Rules OK

March 8th, 2008

posted by Jess Sains

The words of former University of Exeter student Tindyebwa Agaba would probably have been met by apathy this week, if it was not for the fact that he has had that University education paid for by the actors Emma Thompson and Greg Wise. However, because of these circumstances a paper written by Agaba, who once a child solider in Rwanda, has been plastered over certain British broadsheets this week in a way that suggests he should be grateful for being in Britain at all.

So, what has the twenty year old student done to rile up the likes of the lovely Daily Mail? He wrote, whilst on a Politics course at Exeter, that Britain is politically apathetic! How dare he? We English are always out on the streets marching, waving banners around whilst demanding the pits remain open or that the poll tax is scrapped. Oh, hang on, that was practically twenty years ago…

Personally, I, like Agaba, felt cheated and shocked when I first took up my place on a my Undergraduate Politics course. I arrived fresh from a home education where I had been taught solely by two Politics graduates, listened to Radio 4 at lunchtime and thrived on political discussion since I was twelve. I had a Government and Politics A Level under my belt and now I had arrived. Student life, fellow politics enthusiasts, discussion, knowledge, rebellion.

The ultimate low came in our first lecture on British Politics. The lecturer asked a simplistic question about what committed the Labour party post-war to socialisation. I had already answered one question and didn’t want to appear overbearing (that soon changed…) so remained quiet, thinking that someone would surely know the answer to that. Nobody, however, did. In a class of Politics students, at degree level. In the end I couldn’t bare it and muttered ‘Clause IV’. The lecturer whipped around, obviously astonished anyone would know such a thing; “Who said that?” he cried. “Me”, says I. He looked quizzically at me for a moment and then said “that’s very good” and the bloke next to me gave me a nudge, wink and thumbs up. From that moment on I was the swot on my course, the one to beat or show up. I still cannot believe that people on my course did not know about Clause IV just from living through the era when it was removed; I am still surprised my lecturer was surprised I knew about it.

So there you go, on a Politics course there was rife political apathy. On a politics course, let alone the rest of the University.

The closest we got to activism was marching against the war (in Huddersfield, mind, because the Union wouldn’t pay for a bus to take us to London because they were so apathetic themselves) and marching against tuition fees (although we got the bus that time we only got around 15-20 students to march, making us one of the smallest collections heading to Westminster that day).

As a country the only thing in recent years that has stirred up the collection consciousness is the war in Iraq. OK, so that is an important cause and it was great to see that many feet ponding the pavements of the capital in protest, but it was very much a one off. There have been no follow-up protests year-in-year-out, there is only a small movement against the ID cards, people only complain about the BNP after they’ve got themselves ensconced and plan to stand in local elections, strikes are greeted with tutting and annoyance, not solidarity.

We are now a nation that grumbles about lying politicians but does nothing to stop them lying. A nation that fails to vote, fails to think, fails to believe in politics and therefore we also fail at what is most important politically in a democracy, we fail to push for change.

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Entry Filed under: Society