The Political Studies Association is a proud partner of UK Parliament Week. During #UKPW the PSA will be sharing a number of blogs written by teachers and students of politics. UK Parliament Week is an annual festival that engages people from across the UK with their UK Parliament, explores what it means to them and empowers them to get involved. For more information click here.
Famously, Pericles quoted that “just because you don’t take an interest in politics, it doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” As individuals and collectives, there is a plethora of ways in which one can participate in politics. Formally, there are General Election in the United Kingdom. This is the voting not just for Members of Parliament, but local councillors and mayors, who, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, have considerable weight in changing the lives of their citizens. Other more formal methods include joining a political party and thus being involved in grassroots politics. Campaigning is also a more formal method, which is intertwined with that of joining a political party but not exclusively wedded to it. One can campaign on single issues, away from political parties, such as a campaign for a local post-office or bank to be built in one’s village or the changing of speed limits to protect children on their walk to school. Protests are also a formal way of participating in politics but unfortunately are to be discouraged at the current moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, other ways of participating will be discussed below.
One can also get in touch with their local Member of Parliament (MP) through a local surgery, held when the MP has returned from duties in Westminster. These involve one-to-one meetings with the MP to raise certain issues that have occurred within the area. Everyone lives in one constituency, of around 70,000 people, with an MP who represents them. To find your MP and their surgery hours and location, use this link here https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/surgeries/. An MP can also be reached via email. If one follows the link below, they can input their location details to find who represents them – https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons. This will bring up your MP’s email address which they can then be contacted on. Remember, MPs will only deal with issues that have arisen in their constituency, so it is important that one writes to their correct respected MP.
Other ways of participating in the political process have been utilised in recent times due to the creation of communication mediums such as Twitter, Facebook, E-mail and WordPress, that can help drive a political campaign and gain the ear of politicians in Westminster. For example, the creation of e-petitions has given new life to the act of political participation in 2020. E-petitions allow for one, with the help and signatures of others, to have a motion carried into parliament if the support is there. A shining example of this include the Meningitis B vaccine petition, which received over 800,000 signatures and was thus discussed in parliament. As well as this, an extensive panel of medical experts sat to discuss this with the Health Committee. These methods are a great way of interacting with the political process due to the difficulties of living through a global pandemic. More formal methods of campaigning and holding large scale protests are extremely difficult and to be discouraged currently to attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, this does not mean that one still cannot be involved in the political process.
TV shows such as Question Time are also great ways in which one can interact with the political process. Question Time usually has an in-person audience who ask questions and hold to account MP’s (politicians) from a variety of different political parties. As well as providing a forum to ask questions, Question Time can also allow for a greater understanding of the political issues surrounding us. Currently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, one can join and ask questions virtually from their computer device. Opportunities to be in the audience can be found at this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u39697902.
Overall, there are many ways of partaking in the political process which have been aided by the advent of social technologies and methods such as e-petitions. Politics affects us all in one way or another, and the onus is on each and every one of us to attempt to understand and partake, even if it is in small amounts.
Charlie Millward is studying toward an MA in International Relations at Aberystwyth University. A former Politics student at the University of Liverpool. Find Charlie on twitter via @CMillward99
