Number 3

A few months ago when I started this blog I wanted to write a bit about why certain things interest me, to establish the purpose of this place. It seems a good time, what with all this parliamentary palaver to post something I wrote last year about politics, that I wanted to get in the Uni magazine. They didn't respond, and then this year I went off the idea of publishing in it when it went out of print. It's wholly online now. I never thought it was very good anyway, to be honest. There were loads of typos. If I come up with something good I probably should try get it on there though, it'll look good on a CV. Oh god, that's a dreadful reason for doing things...

Is politics not for you?

Chances are you're not into politics. Statistically, it's unlikely that you've ever written to your MP or been to a demo. I hope someday you will, and there's a lot of reasons why.

The clear injustice of the wealth divide, the betrayal of democratic participation that is corporate power, the wasteful and dangerous behemoth that is the global economy; these are the issues that anger too few of us.

It is not a matter of charity or compassion. We ourselves, even in the rich world, are caught in the crunch imposed upon us by the systems of power.

This isn't the fault of the individual; not the fault of the starving farmer and not the fault of the naive and overfed consumer. Perhaps you disagree, but I don't think we need to blame you, your mum or your lazy mates. I didn't will it, you didn't will it, Gordon Brown and even George Bush didn't actually mean it to be this way.

But it is our problem, all of ours. Our problem that food and energy are growing more expensive, our problem that the earth is being unbalanced and defaced by pollution, and our problem that billions abroad are growing up in miserable poverty.

You might think that we're only young, that we can't have an impact on these huge problems. But we are many, we have a voice and we will soon be in power.

Could we save the world?

It is not a duty that the government, the law or an apathetic society force upon us.

But it is a responsibility, to ourselves and to our neighbours, at least to try.

You can do something. Politics is for you. Make it yours.