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British youth apathetic about election
April 25, 1997
Web posted at: 10:09 p.m. EDT (0209 GMT)LONDON (CNN) -- From Oxford's genteel debating societies to tattooed punk rockers, Britain's youth seems to speak with the same voice about the May 1 election. And that voice seems to be saying: "Who cares?"
A recent London concert, Rock The Vote, was put together to boost enthusiasm for the voting, and drew a huge crowd of cheering youths. But it's far from clear how many of those rock fans will actually make it to the voting booths.
Pollsters expect the turnout of voters under 25 to be dismally low, probably only about one-third of those eligible.
"I don't think whatever happens is going to make any difference," said a young woman in a jean jacket, a pair of fashionable sunglasses perched on top of her head.
But will she vote?
"Never have done, never will do," she chirped. Her friend added simultaneously, "No, sorry."
It's a sentiment that echoed far longer and louder than the concert.
"I would vote, if I knew more about it," said a dark-haired woman in carefully applied makeup. "I would. But I don't. So I'm not going (to vote)."
Even at tony Cambridge University, some of whose students are training for government or public service careers, the upcoming election raised more exasperation than enthusiasm.
"People are just sick and tired of all the bandying of words and sound bites," said one earnest Cambridge man with a five-o'clock shadow and a black jacket. "No real issues are being debated."
The apathy doesn't seem to spring from indifference: One survey suggests that one-third of young Britons have participated in some kind of demonstration.
Labour Party leader Tony Blair apparently wants to tap into their interest -- and votes -- in his quest to defeat Conservative Party candidate John Major. In one promotional video, Blair walks into a voting booth accompanied by enthusiastic young people.
But there's cynicism on the streets, and young people commonly refer to politicians as corrupt or irrelevant.
"They're going to tell you what you want to get your vote, and then after the elections it's a different story altogether, isn't it?" said a young man with freckles and a page boy haircut at London's free-spirited, open-air Camden Market.
British youth seem to see no connection "between the politicians in Parliament and what they care about," says Kate O'Rourke of Rock The Vote.
That disconnectedness may be providing fuel for the Labour Party, which is predicted to attract two out of three youth votes.
But how many of those voters will make it to the polls is an open-ended question.
And at one-sixth of Britain's total eligible voting population, that is a swing group with enough force to end the U.K.'s nearly two decades of Conservative Party dominance -- which is the only governance most young Britons have known.
Correspondent Richard Blystone contributed to this report.
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