Is anyone else just completely and utterly done with politics?

[PrincessC0nsuelaBananaHammock]

I've always been interested in politics from as far back as I can remember. I grew up in a very politically opinionated household. I've been a lifelong Labour voter, my first election being 1997.

But I just can't, now. I'm done. After 14 years of Tory shite, and then this joke of a Labour government. Angela Rayner's scandal was the last straw for me. I won't be voting in 2029 and I doubt I ever will again.

Unless some miraculous new decent party comes along, I just can't vote. And it's not just in the UK either, is it? It seems to be happening everywhere. I feel like we're living in the bloody Twilight Zone.

Yep! I feel.totally disillusioned with it all.

The only time I'll vote now is to keep Reform out.

I agree 100%, although the difference with me is that I have felt this way for longer. I expected Starmer to do a bad job as I had been reading about him for a while. However, I was very disappointed when my fears turned out to be better than the reality we have now. I can only see Jeremy Corbyn as a potential option, but that’s because the others are rubbish and have at least one major flaw.

Yes, I feel the same and I've always been interested in politics, too. Politicians become celebrities now, so it attracts narcissists who have an unbelievable faith in their opinions and sense of justification for self serving corruption. No empathy for how others live, and no care for the consequences of their decisions for others.

I hate the tribalism of politics. I am a tory voter but admire(d) Angela Rayner and Jess Philips. I hate confrontation but then remind myself a lot of MPs are lawyers anyway.

Yes, me. I don't read about it or follow it anymore. I've been interested in politics since I was a teenager and now I don't give a shit. It's all same shit different politicians.

Gosh when I saw in the Guardian that Labour are now thinking of ousting Keir Starmer I thought WTF seriously here we go again… I despair.

Yes, I've felt like this for a while now but it has definitely got shockingly worse in just the last year or so.
I won't give up on politics altogether, because I feel duty bound to keep well-enough informed to cast a vote for my least worst option (or make an informed decision not to vote).
But politics no longer feels like a sphere for casual intellectual interest, or for developing any virtues of engagement or discussion.
It is just a petri dish full of filth that I need to squirt some bleach on at every election.

Yes. Grew up in a highly political household and family. Leftwing. Was a member of the Labour Party for years. Left the party during the Corbyn era when awful Monentum men took over the CLP and started shouting down women… the mask dropped re: misogyny and anti-Semitism.

Utterly depressed with the Left’s gender ideology nonsense and throwing women under the bus.

No idea what Labour stand for anymore.

Dont believe a word most politicians say.

Even left my union (have never NOT been a member of a union) as they are more interested in virtual signalling over Palestine and defending gender dysphoric men than doing anything for worker’s rights.

Like a pp, I’ll only vote in future to keep Reform and their nutty populist far right ilk out. No interest in engaging in politics.

It's really depressing. I find it comes in waves - with periods when I'm really interested and others when I don't want to hear any of it.

I do tend to carefully manage my exposure to news - sticking with written stuff and avoiding radio and tv. The polarisation and dogmatic views are highlighted even more when you can actually hear people saying them and shouting at each other.

I am incredibly disappointed that labour have not used their supermajority as an opportunity to make some really radical changes to health, education and housing right out of the gate. I understand why they may be cautious with the rise of Reform, but the way to tackle that is to show that there is a better way, not pander to them. If they had put changes in place as soon as they got into power, the improvements would be in effect by the next election and Reform would be eating dust.

I know people hate them for Iraq but domestically, Blair and Brown did this very effectively - the changes they made in the first 100 days were revolutionary and ensured that within five years NHS waiting lists had been virtually cleared, unemployment reduced and equality improved.

I don't hate Starmer as much as some other people do (although I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with him) and domestically his government has been crap.

I do think his statesmanship on the world stage has been masterful and given the febrile nature of what is going on at the moment and the likelihood of war in the next couple of years, that is re-assuring.

I think Starmer would be a brilliant foreign secretary, but there is not an obvious replacement for him as PM unless Andy Burnham wants to return to Westminster. I love Jess Phillips but think she can be more effective as an agitator which she can't do as PM and I would not want to see Philipson, Reeves or Streeting in the role.

David Lammy could be an option I suppose

Well what benefits in society do people habe in their lives because of politics like schools, roads, transport, health people use the good bits of politics

It's depressing, isn't it? I was trying to recall when I last voted for a party I actively wanted to vote for (rather than just hoping they were the least bad option). Next time I will struggle to even find a least bad option. There's a worst option (Reform) and then bad options. I voted reluctantly for Labour last time, but I actually wish I'd spoiled my ballot paper.

I am interested in Politics but I would say I only really gained an interest in it within the last 10 years. I am 35 years old. I’ve been through September 11th, the rise and popularity of social media, the 2008 financial crash and dropped out of a uni degree at the time as a result. Also been through COVID19 and a ridiculous housing market, economic and job instability. I think I may be the generation that is the first to be worse off than parents. It’s super depressing. I’ve given up now. Lost all faith in politicians and parties who favour generations above me and rich people. Oh and those that lie or go back on their promises/manifestos.

It’s all a crock of shit.

Yep, completely done with it. It’s just the same old shit over and over again. But I’m pretty worried about Reform getting in (so will vote in the next GE) as that, for me, is too close to how the Nazis started.

It all feels so hopeless. I've stopped following politics as closely as I used to.

We desperately need to raise taxes to pay for everything but we can't do that because housing is so expensive that a lot of people wouldn't be able to afford it.

The social contract is broken. The message was always "if you work hard, you can have a reasonably good standard of living" but that's no longer the case. People in professional jobs (that they've studied and worked hard for years to get) are paying like 60% of their net income to private landlords each month and having to budget carefully for basics.

The message in society now seems to be "work hard and marry or partner up with someone who is also working hard and you might just be ok".

I know there's always been wealth inequality but the wealth gap seems so much bigger now, and like it's increasing all the time - the haves and the have nots.

I don’t think that politics is any worse now than it has been in the past. What has changed is this obsession with knowing every single bit of a politician’s personal life either currently or from 20 years ago. And any perceived transgression (applying
modern views) results in calls for resignation. All the big politicians of the 1910s,1920s, 1930s, 1940s etc were all avoiding tax, sleeping with their secretary etc but it wasn’t considered relevant to their ability to their job. Now we apply these draconian standards to politicians and the media hounds them for any possible transgression. It is simply unsustainable and creating these impossible standards and constant media coverage makes it so much likely that the bad guys will gain power due to people being brainwashed into thinking that modern politics are worse now than in the past. It is distasteful to have an affair but not illegal, it is distasteful to have believed and supported a friend when they swore to you that they were wrongly conveyed but not illegal.

*convicted - not conveyed!

It's depressing, but should spur people into politics, rather than away.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

I'm still not sure what I can do. Any ideas?

I understand the frustration and disillusionment but this I won't be voting in 2029 and I doubt I ever will again is an irrational and self-sabotaging response.

Agree - surely counterproductive.

I feel the same at times but the problem is that if all the reasonable human beings of any normal voting persuasion shut up shop out of desperation only the bonkers, rabid crowd will remain.

Back before the tories sunk into the mire of brexit and all that followed, before labour became obsessed with men in frocks, before farage normalised racism, and trump normalised stupidity and sociopathy it was safe enough to not be political.

Whoever got into power was going to be fairly reasonable if not necessarily your cup of tea.

These days electing a government is a matter of life or death.
Or at least the death of life as we know it if Farage has his way.

Yep I agree. I will be voting to keep Reform out though so whichever way is best.

Well for a start, they want decent people to disengage from politics, so the path is clear for them to do whatever the hell they want.
Don't disengage, fight for what's right. No to fascism.

What can we do? How can we take action? I feel so powerless.

I voted Labour. I think they came into power with an impossible job. I'd hate to see Reform elected.

Everyone's pissed off. The NHS is on it's arse with so many Trusts in financial difficulty with recruitment freezes in place in some Trusts which means there aren't as many jobs available for anyone, including the newly qualified professionals who were hoping to improve their circumstances. Even when jobs are available, it's depressing looking at the salary versus the cost of housing. It feels like we're being robbed everytime we go to the supermarket and that basket of shopping is £££ higher than it was last week for the same products. How are people managing? Some people were already on the breadline before the cost of living crisis, they were already buying cheap brands, cooking budget meals from scratch, using leftovers, doing price comparisons on everything, etc. How are those people coping now?!

I became an adult around the time of the 2008 financial crash, then we had Brexit, Covid, the cost of living crisis. It feels like it's all been so doom and gloom all of my adult life. When will we get a break? When will things get better?

I know what you mean, OP, but it's almost impossible to disengage from it because it impacts every aspect of our lives. Ignore it at your peril. Not voting means your voice is not heard and the voices of others are amplified. Voices that may advocate for the serious infringement (or outright removal) of your rights or the rights of those you care about.

As @TablePourTrois says, they want moderates and those in opposing positions to disengage, so you hand them a gift by doing so. They want you to feel hopeless and helpless in the face of the endless pushing of fear, division and disinformation on social media.

I've been politically homeless for several years now but we have to hold our nose and vote for the "least worst" option.

I understand why you are saying that. I am getting to that point where I am struggling to know who to vote for.

But I think I'll still vote and participate. My degree is in language and politics, so it's something I'll probably always be interested in