Dorothy Byrne, former Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, caused a minor ripple in the news pond last week when she made public reference to the Open Society Foundations’ recent democracy barometer of 2023, which had found that faith in democracy was plummeting among the young. According to the Foundations’ survey, 35% of 18-35 years-olds around the world say that having a leader who “doesn’t bother with parliaments or elections” is a good way of running a country (the highest of any age group). An article in the Times reported that Byrne cited these figures in the James Cameron Memorial Lecture at City University (sadly, no recording or transcript exists) which seemed to indicate that the figure for the U.K. specifically was 29%.
This is, of course, concerning if true. But it is perhaps more concerning that Byrne – ostensibly an intelligent person who is now President of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge – is so incapable of thinking through exactly why this cratering in support for democracy might be taking place among the young. In this, of course, she is not an outlier (she is entirely emblematic of her class), and perhaps it is unfair therefore to single her out. But it is useful to do so all the same, because her analysis is so illustrative of the failures of our ‘thought leaders’ to actually think very hard about very much at all.
In Byrne’s world, you see, the problem is really all about Boris Johnson. She has form in this regard, having publicly denounced his “lying” before. But in her lecture at City she seems to have – without naming him – given him centre stage. The reason why young people have lost faith in democracy, she tells us, is “dishonest politicians”. And this means that the issue is fundamentally (yes, you’ve guessed it) inadequate fact-checking by journalists. What we need, she tells us, is for media outlets to inform us when politicians are “lying”. It is only then that faith in democracy will be restored.
It’s all about Brexit buses, in other words: the founding myth of Remoanerist-centrist-dadism, in which everything in the world that has gone wrong since 2016 is the fault of a disputed figure on the side of a campaign vehicle, and in which the only way to fix everything is for journalists, academics and right-thinking politicians to make sure that the stupid proles are never duped into voting for anything so silly as Brexit ever again. (The American equivalent, one presumes, is Donald Trump’s compendium of ‘lies’, handily put together for us by the Washington Post.)
The holes in the argument are, of course, big enough to drive a truck through. It assumes that politicians and spin doctors have not been publicly and notably ‘lying’ for a very long time. It imagines a fantasy world in which the public expects politicians to tell the truth and is violently disillusioned when they don’t. It conveniently ignores the fact that if the proportion of British young people who have no faith in democracy is 29%, this is actually a lower percentage than the international average, suggesting that if anything our politicians are considered somewhat more trustworthy (hated less, might be the better way of putting it) than they are elsewhere. And it entirely overlooks the fact that for older age groups – also exposed to Boris’s ‘lies’ – the percentages of people lacking faith in democracy are lower.
But much worse than the flaws in Byrne’s argument are the many other variables it overlooks, and which a thoughtful person ought really to have picked up on. Just off the top of my head:
- There’s the fact that our elected politicians essentially suspended ordinary democratic processes for the duration of 2020-21 and ruled by executive decree – advised by unelected ‘scientific experts’ – on the basis of there being an emergency, and presented this as a perfectly natural and indeed necessary way to solve problems.
- Then there’s the fact that whichever party gets elected we seem to get more or less the same suite of policies in relation to all of the issues that matter – tax, immigration, national debt, the NHS, benefits, Net Zero and so on.
- And then there’s the fact that when the electorate voted to leave the European Union in a national referendum, journalists and MPs lined up in their droves to tell people they didn’t know what they had voted for, and then connived to their utmost to overturn the referendum result on the basis that voting only matters when votes are cast the right way.
- Then, while I’m at it, there’s the fact that whenever a politician, anywhere in the world, strays a millimetre to the Right of centre, his or her legitimacy – and by extension the legitimacy of the process which got him or her elected – is immediately called into question by journalists labelling him or her ‘far Right’.
- And then of course there’s the fact that whenever U.K. or international courts rule against an elected decision-maker, they are cheered to the rafters by the ‘thought leaders’ of the day, no matter whether that decision-maker is attempting to implement a policy which the electorate have explicitly voted for – and, indeed, often in spite of that fact.
Given all of this, is it any wonder that our young people’s faith in democracy is flagging? Whichever way they turn, they are being told firstly that when voters vote for anything they choose badly; secondly that it is perfectly legitimate – and indeed desirable – to ignore voters, all things considered; and thirdly that the best way to solve problems is through Government ruling by decree on the basis of the advice of experts, and thereby circumventing democratic oversight entirely. Put that way, it’s remarkable, quite frankly, that well over half of youngsters still exhibit basic faith in the democratic process despite its flaws – and this, in its own way, puts a somewhat heartening spin on the entire daft story.
Why does Byrne overlook all of this? Boris Derangement Syndrome is an easy answer, but probably doesn’t entirely capture it. The truth, of course, is more simple yet: as a terribly clever TV exec and now terribly clever Oxbridge college President, it’s probably been a while since her views have really been challenged. In this, she acts as a microcosm for our ‘new elite’ establishment – invincible in the belief that they know best, but constitutionally incapable of looking beyond their own class interests and thereby taking into account what is actually going on in the society ‘beneath’ them. The truth of the matter is that this disconnect between the governing classes and those they purport to govern is the beating heart of the problem when it comes to decaying faith in democracy. But good luck getting any of them to face up to that. Far easier to blame Boris – and far easier to indulge in the fantasy that it’s journalists and ‘fact-checkers’ who can get us out of the quagmire.
Dr. David McGrogan is an Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School. He is the author of the News From Uncibal Substack.
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“According to the Foundations’ survey, 35% of 18-35 years-olds around the world say that having a leader who “doesn’t bother with parliaments or elections” is a good way of running a country (the highest of any age group).”
But that IS democracy in Western Countries.
And deliberately so, it seems to me.
I would think that nothing pleases the global oligarchy more than an upcoming generation that is all too happy to have them running everything without the hassle of the pretence of democracy.
Good point. That is what PASSES for democracy.
I’m sure just because they believe it’s a good idea at the moment the future will teach them a hard lesson and war or rebellion is the only way to put their mistake right, time will tell, history tends to repeat itself!
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
I think we’re generally in agreement on our position in the cycle right now.
Although I must say that Dorothy Byrne looks like she’s been enjoying some good times in her local cake shop. Right after she cleaned out the pie shop next door.
Actually, just to continue my conversation with myself, and doing my bit for equal rights, feminism, blah blah blah, I’m thinking you could quite easily refine Hopf’s famous quote thusly:
Hard times create skinny women. Skinny women create good times (I have a long-running disagreement with both Queen and Spinal Tap on this issue.) Good times create fat birds. And fat birds make everyone miserable.
That made me chuckle
I concur
In my experience skinny women are no fun at all – give me a dormouse in preference to a shrew any time.
Thanks for the laugh
LOL
Harsh, but fair.
I’ve got to say that’s the best laugh I had all day. And your “Good times create fat birds…2 version below
That’s an excellent statment
Considering this, the serious hard time Germans went through from 1914 – 1918, soldiers and civilians alike, should have created strong men which ought to have created good times. The creation of the latter whas the third reich, whose good times ought to have created weak men which – in turn – should have created hard times …
This statement is a nonsensical witticism even a cursory look at history easily reveals as such.
My apologies. I shall endeavour to do better tomorrow, Sir.
This O tempora, o mores! howling from the fringe parts of the still pretty much US-dominated internet is usually not particularly sensible, not the least because it’s designed to undermines those it’s also designed to appeal to. The essence of this particular meme is just defeatism — our problems are due to us living in good times and we really deserve to be punished for that!¹ In reality, our problems are a sign of our times very much warranting improvement and we ought to address them instead of whining about their inevitableness.
¹ Another repurposed ‘Christian meme’ …
Yeah I think Shimpling is being mildly ironic in ‘apologising’ to you, RW. (‘Not least because’ – not “not the least because”, by the way)
Oh, really?
I’m not sure that’s the case. The statement merely points out the cyclical nature of stress and consequence. To me the privations of WW1 and the armistice settlement led to the 3rd Reich which by comparison was better that what had gone before. Somehow the strong men became weak and too self assured and failed to leverage the national gain, squandering it on the Eastern Front and a few other mistakes.
But as we know from climate change cyclical phenomena are not simple and obvious and have to be analysed to see the pattern.
Heuristics are notoriously imperfect.
Oh belt up RW! A bit of humour is a great antidote. We hear from you and your questionable grammar constantly; this has started humourously – let it continue that way – for five bloody minutes!
Of course – but I’m sooooo triggered by your patriarchal failure to recognise the part played by women, inherent in that comment.
A result that could trend…
Since there is rarely any real choice between policies, agendas of globalists are taken up by both leftists and rightists, elections are riddled with corruption, polls are fixed (and elections a la US 2020, politicians use state funds to line their own and selected pockets of corporations that fund their election runs, they never accomplish anything, print and spend into inflation, mismanage borders, lecture everyone on globalist norms, climate lies, while jetting around to international conferences while ignoring their nation’s failing services, mandate poisonous injections, demand you get fingerprinted and face scanned when you cross borders…
Yeah it’s getting ripe for Dictators everywhere. But we have totalitarianism now so…
Yep——These young people who imagine they live in a democracy are already being dictated to. Their governments that they think are not making the right decisions are also being dictated to by the globalist treaties they all sign up to. We already live in a dictatorship. Voting just gives the illusion of choice.
“And then one day, for no reason at all, people voted Hitler into power.”
Hitler really only got about a third of the popular vote. It was through backroom dealmaking that he became chancellor.
Excellent article.
This isn’t news.
https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-findings/age-and-voting-behaviour-at-the-2019-general-election/
shows us that the turnout among young potential voters at the 2019 election was around 50%. The other half did not engage with the process of democratically electing their MP.
I think we’re past worrying. We know we’re screwed. It’s not just the young. Lots of people of all ages just snoozing through the destruction of our civilisation.
It’s seems worthwhile to repeat here that the great Brexvote ended 49:51 in favour of leaving, presumably mainly due to Londoners not voting because of bad weather (that’s a guess of mine — I have no real information of that). It follows that about half of the population was taken for a Brex ride very much against their declared will. Does it surprise you that such events, combined with Only Brex is democratic, SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP, YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO YOUR OPINIONS!!27 rants like the above, even claiming that Johnson’s Brex it harder! government was secretly working against it, has weakened trust in so-called democracy?
It’s perhaps time to pull your head out of your Brex and realize that the other half of the population matters, too.
I voted Remain, though not out of any serious conviction; on the plus side I selfishly liked the idea of being able to move somewhere warmer at some point in the future, on the down side, who wants another layer of parasitical bureaucracy telling you what you can and can’t do, and paying for the privilege, and those cookie warnings on every website… don’t get me started.
The whole Bus thing entirely passed me by.
But still, I picked up on the mood music in the MSM, and the predictions of doom, and I ticked the Remain box.
Perhaps it was because I didn’t really care, but on finding out that Leave had won, I just thought to myself, OK, that’s the decision, let’s get on with it. We had a vote, side A won, now we all get behind it.
But that’s not what happened. It suddenly seemed as if a good proportion of the population were behaving like toddlers having a tantrum. I didn’t like these people, or this attitude. These were not people I wished to be associated with.
I don’t regret voting Remain, but if another referendum were held tomorrow, I’d vote Leave. I feel no animus toward people who arrive at a different decision.
As (at that time) German living in the UK exercising so-called treaty rights, I belonged to the group of objects which were being voted upon. I agree with the toddlers/ trantrum observation except that I’m seeing it on the other side — the winners are still busy telling the undesirable half of the population who dared to disagree with them that they – at best – people who’ve been played for a fool by the evil establishment and at at worse, more likely than not, simply evil traitors and enemies of the ‘real’ people.
Incomprehensible. “the group of objects which were being voted upoon”??? What the hell are you on about? There was a vote. One side lost, the other side won. That’s how democracy is done here. I’ve voted and lost, and voted and won. In your words, Suck it up, buttercup.
There was a vote. It was held by all the right and good people, especially those from Pakistan and Jamaica, and it was about the fate of all the unright and ungood like people. Let’s call them “Poles” to simplify things.
Primitive enough for you?
You don’t need to move anywhere warm, you just need a fat bird to keep you warm.
Been there, done that. After we split up one of my so-called mates admitted that the gang had named the Silentnight hippo and chick after us.
Needless to say, I wasn’t the hippo.
“Against their will”??? When 90% of the media tried to keep them in the EU with endless scaremongering about the dangers of leaving and still failed what more evidence do you require that people wanted to LEAVE? Why should we assume that being part of a political union with 26 other countries is necessary for prosperity and well being and being an Independent country is not? 170 other countries are not in the EU. How are they ever going to manage without being members of the Protection Racket?
Against their declared will. When ignoring the issue of voter turnout, about half of the electorate voted against leaving, hence, this is not an issue of The Evil Establishment™ vs The People™. Despite my official status as income tax cow without any political rights, I sometimes even aspire believe that I belong to the group called people as well.,
EU citizens were able to take advantage of our lax electoral system and vote in the referendum, and I’m sure many of them did. I complained to the Electoral Commission before the referendum – telling them how it was done – and Lord Owen backed up my complaint taking it up directly with them. They weren’t interested.
If only paying tax – as you complain – were a prerequisite for voting. I think that would be fairer.
This was explicitly prohibited. The ‘electorate’ for this ‘vote’ was the people entiteld to vote in so-called general elections, ie, citizens of any Commonwealth country legally in the UK at the time the vote took place, including people with temporary leave to remain. I don’t know if someone bussed in Pakistanis etc for this specific purpose, but doing so had been perfectly legal.
‘aspire to believe…’ Your poor English is exhausting.
Leaving the issue of “not everyone’s a native speaker of English” aside, Schwachkopf, sometimes, a typo is just a typo.
People who harp on about this are like those who want the cup final of 1978 replayed because their team lost. ———I would probably be the same if I could have the 99 Champions league final replayed when my favourite Bayern lost in injury time to Man United. But I have to live in the real world, and accept Bayern lost. —-So did Remainers.
“that’s a guess of mine — I have no real information of that” – You’re expecting to be taken seriously after a comment like that? You’ve herewith forfeited any right to attention from adults. Go back to the Guardian and take you dreadful grammar with you!
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/12/no_author/democracy-the-illusion-of-liberty/
Most people have come to realise that our democracies are just fake democracies.
The PMC is in charge, and there is no real difference between it and the CCP anymore: 5000 like-minded people meeting in various locations to sign off on the pre-agreed upon agenda vs. 5000 such people meeting in 1 location to do the same.
https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/ns-lyons-china-convergence-interview-banger?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=617396&post_id=139726665&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=97oj4&utm_medium=email
Maybe they are just pseudo populists. They see politicians do their own thing and pander to the UN and WEF rather than to their own voters and think a dictator would not have to do that. But ofcourse they could only hope that their dictator would be a benevolent one. —How likely is that?————- If Democracy is broken then fix the democracy, do not clamour for totalitarians. If Capitalism is broken then fix the capitalism, do not clamour for socialists that want to run your life for you and decide what you need and can and cannot have, based on their collectivist world view.
It comes from an unspoken acknowledgment that the democratic method can no longer bring about any sort of redemptive change. This is what happens you get nihilism, a drawing towards extremes, an emotional life so toxic and devoid of hope that human minds become warped and atrophied and lacking in perspective. Terrible augmentations of everyday reality have occured in the last few years. There is no going back and no real faith in any alternative vision. It’s just grasping the nettle and experiencing the pain to the utmost.
If you spent your adolescent years in the late twentieth century you did well because nothing like that is coming back. When writing about the end of literacy Neil Postman talks about how childhood is essentially built upon a literary tradition and he makes a convincing case. There can be no childhood without literature The loss of interest in reading, perhaps its an attention span thing – this is a serious matter because when the nuance of the word breaks down you have to triumph of spectacle which makes totalitarianism much easier. Just the easygoing and endlessly forgiving tempo of literature reminds us of what it is to be human.
Well with Channel 4 now being one of the Establishment’s chief propaganda wings and a device for injecting raw sewage directly into the brains of the youth, this does not surprise me.
They know what’s been done to them and they know that they have been stunted and they know who they really are. They are having to be way more stoical than we ever were they just don’t voice it. If you really care about them then you can easily unlock their energy.
Not just the young. I’m 72 and it is clear that “democracy” as we used to perceive it has gone. The points noted above are absolutely correct.
My parents’ generation must be spinning in their graves at what has been done to us.
Do not comply. Say NO. And always speak the truth, whatever the cost
I think they are being defiant it is in such a way that they decided years ago to keep their mouths shut. Throughout school these days. I am on the side of the young because when I speak to them I do notice a diffidence and withdrawal but at the same time a depth of application to more important issues.
Don’t worry about anything. Either you provde them with leadership or they find it elsewhere. You might be a bit quiet if your leadership has been a tightly and quietly controlled power grab over the last thirty years. You know who you are and the young know who you are. A time comes when you need to take a grasp of things.
That said, at least the majority still don’t. Or do they? Actions speak louder than words. And as we saw in recent years, at least half the population (of all ages) is happy on their knees.
Terrific article.
Another brilliantly simple piece by McGrogan that says it how it is.
But yet they still seem to be the first to scream that democracy has been subverted or threatened whenever someone that they don’t like is voted into power via a democratic vote…