Where will voters turn when apathy becomes anger?
With weary disdain, the voters of Britain are turning their backs on conventional politics. If this were France they would riot, but here we prefer peaceful indifference to rage on the streets. We can divert our passions to football, or our gardens. Many cannot see any point in encouraging a system that produces absurdities such as the Butler report, a throbbing red-hot indictment of the actions of the Government which then concludes that nobody was to blame. Thursday’s two by-election results were a triumph for the new anti-politics movement. Only 40 per cent voted. Of those who did, many thousands chose the Liberal Democrats, mainly because they are innocent of having governed the country within living memory. And surprising numbers supported Respect, a beyond-the-fringe formation which ten years ago would have been lucky to get into treble figures. Barely one-fifth of the electorate chose to support either Labour or the Tories, the two parties that have dominated British politics un
